If you were once an addict of opiates, there’s a good chance that you are in recovery with the use of managed medication. Perhaps you were addicted to pain prescription drugs, or perhaps you suffered from an addiction to heroin. Either way, if you’re in recovery now, you may be taking medication as a means to ease your way into sobriety. There’s no question that certain medications can make sobriety and the withdrawal process easier. This article will address the pros and cons of medicated recovery.
Treatment Method That Works
For millions of people who experienced the debilitating effects of addiction, having a controlled way to end the addiction and slowly reach sobriety is a great opportunity. Going from addiction to abstinence overnight might seem too challenging for someone, especially if the addiction they experienced was severe. For instance, someone who had an addiction to opiates might be visiting a methadone clinic once per week in order to get their prescribed dose of opiates. Over time, a physician might decide to lower the prescribed amount until a person no longer needs to take the medication. Alongside working with a physician, a person also works closely with a therapist in order to work through any psychological issues that might have contributed to an addiction in the first place. As already mentioned, for many people this treatment method is a wonderful and life saving option.
And there are other similar drugs that are meant to ease the pain of withdrawal and the transition into sobriety. For instance, the anti-alcohol drug Antabuse, developed in 1951, is also known as under its generic name Disulfiram. The medication drug makes a person sick to the stomach if he or she drinks any alcohol. When people know that they are going to get sick when they drink, they are less likely to do so and they are less likely to think about drinking. This is how Antabuse helps prevent someone from drinking and facilitates recovery.
Residential Treatment Center Might Be an Option
Yet, Antabuse and other such drugs may not be the answer. If an addiction is severe enough, it may require that a person spend time in a residential treatment center, where the environment, trained staff, and detox experience can all add to the momentum of quitting. An addiction that has created significant changes to the brain is going to require more than a drug that deters one from drinking or drug use. Furthermore, many people in the recovery field feel that medicated recovery violates the principle of abstinence. They believe that there is something to be said about the path of sobriety, making the continued choice to remain sober, and making a lifestyle change.
At the same time, as mentioned above, there are many men and women who simply cannot make this leap. And for this reason, they must rely upon the help of medication to assist them in the first few years of recovery.