If you are looking through brochures of addiction recovery or planning to enroll yourself or someone close to a recovery program
You must have come across this term called medical detox.
Now, there is a very common question that is often asked by people regarding the concept of medical detox.
If someone enrolls in a rehab program for drug abuse, would medical detox be the right choice for them?
Your curiosity is not wrong!
Medical detox is something where people have prescribed drugs to either cleanse the body or help the patient with the pain of withdrawal.
Then how safe is it?
Well, no, the patient wouldn’t get addicted to drugs!
The reason is constant supervision from the doctors and help from other medical professionals.
Confusions like these are very common, and that is why you need to educate yourself regarding this subject.
In this excerpt below, we will be talking about-
– What is medical detox
– How medical detox actually works.
– Why you should never go for DIY medical detox.
– What are some of the common myths regarding medical detox.
– Frequently asked questions regarding medical detox.
So, sit back as we tell you all about the subject.
What Is Medical Detox?
In simple terms, medical detox is the method of cleaning the body from all the toxins that were built up from the constant abuse of certain substances.
Some of the common substance addiction which absolutely needs medical detox is
- Alcohol.
- Opioids.
- Prescription Drugs.
- Stimulants.
- Synthetic Drugs, etc.
Now, residual toxins from these drugs can cause a lot of ailments in the body. Thus, whenever someone is enrolled in a recovery center before going through any other treatment, they go through medical detox.
Because medical detox will first clean the body and then give way to all the other treatments which help the patient.
Remember, addiction can be treated. You just need help from the right professionals. No matter what type of addiction you are suffering from, it can be treated – learn more about VSM Detox.
How Does A Medical Detox Works
If you plan to enroll someone for medical detox, then here are a few things that one has to be aware of.
This is how a medical detox for any addiction works.
1. Full Body Check-Up
The first stage is to analyze the body thoroughly!
Without this, no one will be able to understand the kind of medical detox that the patient will require.
These are a few elements that the group of doctors usually check.
- The type of addiction.
- The intensity of addiction.
- Other physical ailments in the body.
- Allergies and aversions.
2. Prescribing Medicine
Once the group of doctors checks the body, they proceed to prescribe limited doses of medicine for the patient.
These medicines are to detoxify the body from all the toxins.
3. Constant Supervision
A patient will need constant supervision to ensure that they are getting the prescribed medicine in the right dosage and at the right time.
This is also important to prevent any kind of relapse urges while the body is recovering from the dependency.
4. Withdrawal Assistance
Once the body is fully recovered, you can see that the body’s dependency urges are increasing.
This is when the painful withdrawal urges will begin.
The medical detox team is of great assistance during this time, as they help you get through this time.
5. Dietary Restrictions
When the body is under medical detox, it is quite vulnerable. Therefore, whether the patient is in an inpatient or an outpatient facility, they will have dietary restrictions.
This is to make the body strong enough to handle the medicines.
Myths Regarding Medical Detox
Here are some of the myths regarding medical detox which you should be aware of.
1. You Can Detoxify On Your Own
One of the major myths stems from the attachments towards the denial of being addicted to something. As a result, people who are suffering from addiction think that the addiction is under their control, and they can easily self detoxify their bodies.
Trust us – you cannot be farther than the truth.
If medical detox had been that simple, it would have been easy for the patients to come out of their addiction without any worries.
However!
Is that the case? NO!
Medical detox requires professional supervision. Not for the keeping, you isolated from the addictive elements, but to offer support while going through the withdrawal phase.
2. Medical Detox Eliminates Withdrawal Symptoms
We have never laughed this much after reading anything online – Medical detox helps you to eliminate withdrawal symptoms.
It is true that medical detox is the first step towards addiction recovery, but it has never been an instrument to eliminate withdrawal symptoms.
In truth, medical detox comes with the right medication to mitigate the risks of withdrawal or suppression from surfacing.
3. You Can’t Treat Addicts With Medication
As we have already said in the earlier point, medical detox offers medication to suppress the withdrawal symptoms. Now, for some people, it is a worthless method. They think that addiction cannot be treated with some medication.
Well, for people like that –
What do you take when you have headaches?
You take medicine to cure the pain.
The same can be said for medication used in detoxification.
However, while you are on medication, we ensure to follow what your doctor says. This is because some of the medications used in detoxification have addictive properties of their own.
Prolonged exposure to such medicine can result in you becoming addicted to those medicines.
Final Thoughts
You must understand that addiction recovery is not a linear process. In fact, his treatment has no end. People have to keep trying again and again to sustain their sober lifestyle.
There is no cure for addiction; relapses are a common part of the recovery, it shouldn’t discourage your effort.
Once relapses occur, you must give yourself a second chance to stand back again!
