Part of drug treatment should include psycho-education, meaning education on how addiction develops, what contributes to its cycling, and how to safely bring an addiction to an end. In fact, the psycho-education that happens in drug treatment can be on a wide variety of addiction-related topics in an effort to empower recovering addicts with the information they need to stay sober.
Part of learning about addiction is also learning about various drugs and the effects that they can have on the body and the brain. Although typically an individual will have a drug of choice, it’s common to replace one addiction with another if the drug of choice is no longer available. This is frequently the case with those who are addicted to painkillers. When painkillers are no longer available (because they can be expensive and because they require a prescription), addicts sometimes switch to another opiate – heroin.