Do you want to get sober from alcohol or drugs? People assume that addictions are entirely the fault of the individual — that someone can solve their addiction problem if they just stopped drinking or stopped taking drugs. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. The steps to get sober can start out as difficult tasks.
However, just because getting sober can seem challenging doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The good news is that there are different ways to get sober from drugs and various methods of getting free from alcohol addiction. Some ideas work better for different people — it depends on how severe your addiction is and how long you’ve been suffering.
Keeping all this in mind, here are some of the best things you can do to get sober:
Support Groups & Self-Help Meetings
Perhaps the best place to start is with self-help meetings. There are plenty of different alcohol and drug addiction charities that you can go to for help, and these meetings are designed to get you talking about your problem. Doctors can also offer them, or you can find specialists that will help you out.
A support group could essentially be your first step down the road to recovery. You’re never going to get sober if you can’t admit to yourself that you have a problem. With these meetings, you can get your feelings out in the open and really get an emotional release. For some people with minor addictions, this is a simple way to get sober from alcohol or drugs. For others, it’s the first step that will point you towards some of the other treatment options in this guide.
Group Counseling to get sober
If you go to a self-help meeting, then you may be pointed in the direction of group counseling. There are organizations like Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) that are excellent at providing you with the support you need to get sober from alcohol. The point of this type of support group is that you get together with other people in the same boat as you and talk about your struggles, victories, and setbacks. It can benefit you to hear other people’s stories and learn from them – and they can learn from you as well.
Attending group counseling also gives you a sense of responsibility. You feel like you have to keep attending or you may miss out on some important insights. Also, you can see people who might be on the road to recovery and talk about how they managed to get sober from drugs despite their addiction getting really bad. It can inspire you to clean up your act and make an effort to stop taking drugs or drinking alcohol.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
In cases where your addiction is out of control and you’re struggling to stop, then medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is available. This involves being given specific, monitored medication that helps combat any unbearable withdrawal symptoms. The main reason people with alcohol or drug addiction can’t “just quit” whenever they want is that they suffer from awful withdrawal symptoms. When your body gets used to having a substance in it all the time, it reacts badly when this substance is removed.
As a consequence, quitting drugs or alcohol can cause a range of immediate health problems and be damaging to your mental health. It’s very distressing that many people who try and get sober from drugs or alcohol end up making themselves seriously ill because they abstain from cold turkey and suffer from dangerous withdrawal symptoms. Medication-assisted treatment helps fight this by utilizing prescription medicine that tackles the worst symptoms. So, instead of doing yourself harm, you find it easier to wean yourself off drugs and get clean under the care of a medical addiction specialist.
It’s vital that you seek this type of treatment out from trained professionals with medical experience. Never attempt to administer your own medical-assisted treatment as this will do more harm than good!
Trustworthy Addiction Treatment Centers
Now, going through an addiction treatment program is a brilliant option for anyone that’s seriously suffering and finds it very hard to get sober. They’re essentially residential rehab centers where you check yourself in and stay there for the duration of your treatment. The length of time you stay depends on how quickly it takes you to respond to the treatment and get sober. For some, it’s as little as a week, for others it can take months.
An addiction treatment center will put you in the ideal setting to get over an addiction. One of the main services they offer is detox. The easiest way to describe this is that it’s a more controlled way of going cold turkey. You have no access to drugs or alcohol, and your body is forced to adapt to this change and get rid of all the dangerous toxins that your addiction has planted in your body. When we talk about medication-assisted treatment, this is usually administered by the staff at addiction treatment centers during a detox.
However, addiction treatment centers go beyond this in that you’re also given a range of different treatments as well. This includes therapy sessions, cognitive behavioral therapy, and plenty of other services to help tackle your addiction head-on. The key benefit of these centers is that you’re in a residential setting away from your normal life, so it almost forces you to get sober from alcohol or drugs without being distracted by other things in your life.
Outpatient Treatment Centers
Lastly, you have the option of outpatient treatment centers. These centers are somewhat similar to addiction treatment centers in that you have access to different services and treatments. You can get medication-assisted treatment here as well, but the critical difference is that you don’t stay at the center. You can carry on with your life, then head to the outpatient treatment center whenever you need help.
Generally speaking, this option is best for individuals who have a minor addiction or have already gone through an addiction treatment center and wish to continue personal obligations like work and family priorities.
All things considered, there are different ways to get sober from drugs and alcohol. It will be a tough task, but all the pain and effort will be worth it in the end. If you want to beat addiction and kickstart your life, then consider the options listed in this guide.
If you or a loved one needs help, call us at 949-625-4019.
