What You Need to Know About Residential Drug Treatment Programs
The lure of continuing to return to friends and situations involving drugs makes it difficult for teens to stop repeating this destructive pattern. Residential programs offer the same services as outpatient programs in a more structured and supportive setting.
The primary goals of drug treatment are to help teens:
• Stop using drugs
• Understand the negative impact of their drug use
• Deal with the reasons behind choosing drugs
• Learn how to deal with painful feelings
• Develop new coping methods
• Make needed lifestyle changes
Living in a treatment program makes it much easier for teens to avoid drugs while they focus on understanding how they’ve come to depend on drugs and practice better ways of coping. In this setting teens learn how to live without drugs and how to stay drug free when they leave the program.
What to Look for in a Residential Drug Treatment Program for Your Teen
Teens who are abusing drugs often have underlying emotional or psychological issues that need to be dealt with as part of their treatment. Often there is a pattern of self-medicating that needs to be addressed.
The most effective drug programs are:
• Designed to work specifically with teen drug abuse
• Screen for and deal with emotional and psychological problems that may show up once drug use stops
• Educate about the effects of drugs on the mind and body
• Provide strong support during the process of recovery
• Encourage active family involvement
• Teach relapse prevention
Dealing with drug abuse and addiction requires teens to face they have a problem they have to learn how to manage for a lifetime. Doing so requires significant lifestyle changes to include developing new interests, making new friends and learning to deal effectively with difficult emotions without turning to drugs. Most teens need a considerable amount of help to learn new ways of coping and remain drug free.
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