Veering Towards Disaster in Indiana
One of Indiana’s cherished past times is the Indianapolis 500. The Indianapolis 500 is one of the most celebrated races in motor sports, and it features cars going up to 200 miles per hour. The drivers race 200 laps around a 2.5-mile oval, which equals to about 500 miles of racing altogether. It’s rare in a race that you won’t have a car crash or even multiple car crashes. That’s just part of the sport.
In a similar vein, alcohol abuse is a zero sum race with death where it’s just a matter of time before the abuser crashes and loses their life or seriously hurts someone. Alcohol related deaths are one the most common forms of preventable deaths in the United States. Abusing alcohol is a complicated issue that is intricately connected to a person’s genetics, background and psychology. Those who abuse alcohol can easily slip into alcohol dependence, which rewires the brain chemistry.
A lot of people who become dependent on alcohol did not magically arrive there. Some of them are the children of addicts, and it is hard in their genes to abuse substances. When someone has developed a dependence they are in need of help, no matter how much they protest.
Alcohol Abuse: The Grand Deluder
Alcohol is a depressant that serves to distort and distract people from reality. Alcohol use in itself may seem innocent enough. It often serves as a social lubricant and it can help bring people together across cultures and ages. However, there are a lot of people who approach alcohol with severe, deep scars looking for it to bring them a sort of numbness or delusion. Some people would rather live in the lie and fog of alcohol abuse than face the reality of life.
The bad part is that alcohol is a terrible coping method. When people seek alcohol to numb themselves or alter their mood, they are putting themselves at serious jeopardy because of how addictive it is. Alcohol is a sneaky substance that may begin innocently, but mixed with a troubled past and a genetic predisposition towards abuse, could be lethal.
When someone first starts drinking it may not have a real impact on their body. However, as the person drinks more and more, the brain will begin to change in order to adjust to its presence. This adjustment in brain chemistry is responsible for building up tolerance in the drinker so that it will take even greater amounts of alcohol to get the person a buzz. If the individual wishes to keep drinking excessively, they could develop a dependence. Alcohol dependence is a scary place for anyone to be in as it can lead to several life threatening behaviors. At the point of dependence, it’s imperative that family and friends attempt to intervene in order to save the person from themselves and the delusion they are living in.
The Power of an Intervention
When someone careens into alcohol dependence they have lost a lot of their will power and self-determination. When it has reached that stage they may not fully grasp the scope and measure of their behavior on other people. This is where an intervention becomes important. People who abuse substances generally do not want to harm other people, let alone have them know, so when confronted with that reality through an intervention, it becomes crystal clear: they are hurting others.
If your loved one has reached the stage of alcohol dependence where they are invariably hurting other people and themselves, then you may need to schedule an intervention. The most successful interventions are those that employ an intervention specialist. At ABT, we can provide you with the tools to find a specialist who will work to help your family.
After you find an interventionist, there will be an interview process where the specialist gathers information about your loved one. This phase could take several hours as the specialist has to be fully prepared to serve as the monitor for the intervention. When the interventionist finishes interviewing the family, they will establish a team for the intervention. The team should consist of people who are going to cultivate a loving and supportive environment for the person who needs help. If the environment is not loving and supportive, the loved one could easily fall deeper into the pits of abuse and isolation.
When the team has been established, the interventionist will help the team come up with a script. The script will include statements prepared by the family members. Figuring out the order for the script is important as you want to try and bookend the most impactful statements at the beginning and the end. The interventionist will be able to help figure out the order. Another important component of the intervention is the location. If the intervention is held in a location that can potentially trigger the loved one, then it will not be effective. It is suggested to try and hold the intervention at a professional space that the person has no ties to. If the intervention goes well, the individual will go get treatment.
Traveling for Treatment
If your loved one decides to get treatment, they will have the option of traveling. Traveling is advised by most people since it will remove the person from the bedrock of their addictive past. Starting over in a new place with a new context can go a long way in helping a person in their path towards sobriety. ABT offers state of the art facilities and 24-hour monitoring by a staff that’s dedicated to the patient’s health. Starting over in an ABT facility gives the individual a chance to write a new chapter that doesn’t look anything like their past.
A lot of people worry that they won’t be able to afford treatment; however, ABT makes sure that they provide plenty of treatment options. Additionally, ABT works with a lot of different insurance companies, which often help pay for most if not all of the treatment costs.
Going Through Detox at A Better Today
Let’s face it, detox gets a bad reputation. It is often portrayed as a painful and impossible barrier to recovery for many people. A lot of people who are wanting to get help don’t because they fear the detox process. The idea of detox isn’t bad in itself, since it’s simply a cleanse. The withdrawal effects can be pretty severe especially when someone has a long history of alcohol abuse. Some of the symptoms of abuse can range from shaky hands to more severe symptoms such as seizures. The scary part is that the seizures can result in death.
Since the withdrawal symptoms can be pretty severe, it’s advised that the client goes through a medically managed withdrawal. At ABT, we try our best to make sure that the withdrawal symptoms are diminished through use of sedative medications. Some of the medications used include benzodiazepines, which serve to calm the body down. The detox process will remove the alcohol from the person’s system, and after that they will be ready for the rehab part of treatment.
How Does Treatment Work at A Better Today
When the detox process is completed, the client will receive both group and individualized therapy. Both approaches are grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy, which is an approach that targets negative thought patterns and works to develop new methods of thinking. In individual therapy, the client will have a professional therapist help them learn coping methods and uncover the various guiding their abuse.
In group therapy, the client will engage other people who are going through addiction and re-learn how to live in community. When someone abuses alcohol they can isolate themselves in many ways from others. By regaining an ability to communicate with others and share feelings, the person in recovery can take steps towards reclaiming a very human element of existence: sharing.
Everybody takes a different amount of time to complete rehab, and recovery isn’t over once someone leaves rehab. Rather, rehab simply gives people the tools to combat the various trappings in their minds that lead them to drink too much. As someone finishes rehab, they have the option of either going to a sober living facility or home. Sometimes people prefer the gradual transition back into the real world that the facility offers. It’s suggested that the person who leaves the ABT facility attend 12-step meetings, get a sponsor and maybe even find a therapist. The sobriety battle is tough, but it is very worth it. You get to control your life, and that is a precious gift.