Barnstable Town, Massachusetts Drug Rehab Information

Generally speaking a clinic is a medical facility (usually out-patient) which specializes in a particular condition or area of medicine. A drug rehab clinic would be a medical facility that more often than not offers services directed at the cessation of drug or alcohol use. This is an important part of addiction recovery but is far from the entire story. Many drug rehab clinics use other drugs and medications in an attempt to handle the drug the individual is having problems with i.e. methadone clinics, etc. While it is sometimes medically necessary to wean a person off of their drugs of addiction or alcohol with the use of medication it is the minority of cases. This of course would need to be decided by competent medical professionals and professional medical advice should be heeded. Long term use of replacement drugs or medications is not the answer to creating drug free productive lives.

If you are considering a community rehab option it is important that you evaluate your own or your loved ones level of abuse or addiction. Abuse can sometimes be successfully handled in a community rehab center where the individual is considered at an out-patient and returns home each day. This has limited workability when it comes to full blown addiction. Addiction generally involves a drug or alcohol abuse pattern that is out of control and despite one’s best intentions he or she finds themselves unable to control or stop the drug abuse. At this stage the addict usually lacks the self control to return home each day and stay clean between community rehab visits. In such a case a long term residential treatment facility can markedly increase the odds of success and addiction recovery for lifetime.

How does one go about determining when drug use crosses the line into drug abuse and addiction? Drugs are used as a solution to pain, be it mental, emotional, or physical. Fore instance one takes a painkiller and physical pain subsides or one take a street drug and the emotional pain of feeling like an outsider goes away. There are many motivations but they all come under the heading of handling pain in one way or another. Drug abuse sets in when the drug is being used more and more to mask and cover up the pain rather than addressing the actual causes of the pain itself. From abuse one quickly moves on to addiction where tolerance to the drugs builds up to the point where the individual can’t conceive of life without them for fear of unbearable pain of one type or another. Ones life then becomes centered on acquiring and using more and more drugs at any cost or sacrifice. Along with this comes all the cravings, guilt and depression that results from harm done to self, family, loved ones, careers, etc.

Drugs, including prescription drugs, are essentially poisons. The amount taken determines the effect. A small amount acts as a stimulant, a greater amount acts as a sedative, and an even larger amount acts as a poison and can kill. This is true of any drug, including prescription drugs. Only the amount needed to achieve the desired result differs. Prescription drugs along with illegal drugs block off all sensations, the desirable ones with the unwanted. They may of short term value in handling pain, but they also work to wipe out ability, alertness, and muddy one’s thinking.