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You’d like to quit using prescription drugs. They don’t make you feel as good as they once did. Using them is affecting you personally and professionally. It is interrupting your relationships with friends, partners, and family. Drugs are making your life worse. However you don’t know the best way to stop. You may have tried to quit before.
Withdrawal symptoms may have lead you quickly back to the drug. You may have relapsed days, weeks, or months after. You may hesitate to try again or to try a first time. You are worried about your safety or comfort. You are worried about making the wrong choice between weaning yourself off the drug or going cold turkey. You don’t have to worry.
Make the right decision for your recovery. Work with a treatment team to determine the most effective and safest way to end your prescription drug use. Keep working with this team to get the continued therapy and treatment you need to develop a rich, rewarding, and sober life after detox.
Lara’s Story
Lara F. of Heroes in Recovery knows firsthand the crippling power of prescription drug addiction. For her, it was Adderall. “My addiction broke me down. It brought me to my knees. It devastated me and my entire family. It led me into so many rock bottoms. I can never think of one rock bottom, because I’ve had too many rock bottoms to count. However, it also led me into recovery, into sobriety – I found a spiritual path. I found myself. I found connection and love and joy and awareness. I awoke. My addiction woke me to the poignant beauty of this earth.”
Prescription Drug Detox Options
When addiction is in full swing, it is difficult to think about going even a day without your drug of choice. You may be worried about withdrawal symptoms, rebound symptoms, or simply facing life without the drug’s effects. Luckily detox gives you options. Medically supervised detox services helps you manage withdrawal symptoms as they arise. This is a great approach if you are using drugs where withdrawal causes discomfort but does not pose an immediate medical risk.
A supportive staff offers over-the-counter medications and integrates holistic practices such as meditation, massage, and yoga to help you cope with the discomfort of going “cold turkey.” Professionals and peers provide accountability and make immediate relapse more difficult.
Medically supervised detox services can also include a tapering schedule. Depending on your current health, addiction and treatment past, and substances of use, weaning yourself off the drug may be the best choice. If you are in poor physical health, the stress of abrupt withdrawal can create problems. If you are taking certain medications such as benzodiazepines, withdrawal symptoms can be dangerous.
The journal Medicine1 explains, “The keystones of management of benzodiazepine withdrawal are slow tapering of the dose and psychological support for the patient, when necessary. Benzodiazepines should not be withdrawn abruptly because there is a risk of epileptic fits or of the patient becoming confused or experiencing paranoid psychosis. Nevertheless, abrupt cessation can be justified if a very serious adverse effect supervenes during treatment.”
Your individual approach to ending prescription drug use hinges on many factors. Recovery professionals understand these factors and work with you to create the safest and most effective plan for recovery.
The Best Way to End Prescription Drug Use
The best way to end prescription drug use is the way that will work for you. Call Black Bear Lodge to learn more about various options for detox. Call to learn more about following up detox with treatment. Detox is just the first step in a long, healthy, and drug free life.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services2 explains, “Going through detox means you have taken a big first step in getting free of drugs or alcohol. However, detox is only the beginning. The drugs or alcohol may be gone from your body, but the people, places, and problems that led you to drug and alcohol abuse are still there.” Detox is not a cure. It is a beginning.
“Now, the things that matter are connection, love, service, and joy,” Lara says. “My addiction led me to myself. I am so proud of the woman I have become. I am so proud of the life I lead. I would never have arrived at this moment, so awake to this life, without my addiction.”
Black Bear Lodge will walk you through the very first steps. We will stay with you long after immediate care ends. Detox is only one part of the healing process. Find complete physical, mental, and emotional health. Call us at 855-808-6212, and begin your recovery journey today.
Sources
1 Kacirova I, Grundmann M, Silhan P, Brozmanova H. “A Case Report of Clonazepam Dependence: Utilization of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring During Withdrawal Period.” Medicine. 7 Sep. 2016. Accessed 6 Jul. 2017.
2 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Next Step…Toward a Better Life. 2011. Accessed 6 Jul. 2017.