LGBT Drug Treatment Blog

Cities such as Miami, Ft.Lauderdale, Key West,  New York, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco all have a large gay and lesbian population. As such, there are many many services specific to the gay population. Services such as travel agency, physicians, therapists and nightclubs are available to the LGBT and easy to find. The same can not be said about addiction treatment, alcohol rehab or drug rehab programs. These are few and far between even though there is a high percentage of the LGBT that suffer fromdrug addiction, alcoholism and dual diagnosis.

The cities mentioned are located in Florida, New York, Illinois, Georgia and California and these states should do more to support the health of the LGBT. While each of these states have a drug rehab in each city, the rehab is not necessarily equipped to effectively treat a gay man or woman.

While Florida does have a  gay drug rehab and gay friendly drug rehab, New York, Illinois and Georgia need to support the development of the same rehab services. Don’t misunderstand, if yo are gay, you do not have to be in a “gay only” rehab, but it will help support your recovery to be in addiction treatment that can help you deal with issues relating to the LGBT community.

To locate gay friendly addiction treatment call 1-800-511-9225 and we will be happy to assist you.

Drug Rehab Treatment

Choosing a drug rehab center is a decision that calls lots of quality informaiton. Nobody wants drug addiction to overtake their life to the point that rehab is the necessary step. However, the decision to go to rehab is something to look forward to, as it is the decision to rebuild a healthy life.

It is the conscious realization of a problem, and it is the first conscious step towards healing. Understanding what drug addiction entails and how it affects the user is important for healing substance abuse. As well as understanding addiction, knowing what drug rehab is will help the patient understand what he is going through and the purpose of the treatment. Lastly, the type of drug rehabilitation program is of vital importance for the patient. Understanding that a rehabilitation program is as personal as the patient’s problem will certainly help to ascertain the treatment needed for the specific patient. Drug rehabilitation must be a positive program motivating the patient by his successes and discouraging him from relapses. To reach the stage of being in a drug rehab center that positively works to heal addiction, the patient and all concerned must understand three things: what addiction is, what rehabilitation is, and what treatment can and should be like.

Drug addiction is much more complex than merely ‘too much drug use’. Drug and substance dependence is beyond the control of the user – he is no longer in control and does not have much choice in the matter of continuing use. In the short term, drug use affects the brain’s reward system, flooding the brain with dopamine, otherwise termed ‘a high’. While the high is a short term effect, long term effects are to follow, which cause the addiction. When our brain’s reward system is working, proteins activate which teach us to pursue the behavior which causes us to feel so good. Naturally, this reaction is in response to food, exercise, and sex. Due to the larger amount of dopamine released due to drugs, the protein reaction is stronger than normal. As a result, drug use is quite addictive, and once the moment is reached that a person cannot control his use of drugs, this is termed addiction, or substance dependence. While willpower is important to controlling anything in one’s life, in drug addiction a lack of willpower is not to blame. Willpower is at play at the first stages of drug experimentation, but at a certain point in addiction, it loses its function. Drug addiction is an illness, and rehabilitative treatment is the only means of curing this behavior.

Drug rehabilitation, then, is the path that leads to an effective treatment of drug use. Research has shown that addiction is treatable. Research has not shown, and will not show, that drug treatment is easy. Rehab is the recovery of diminished capacities due to injury or illness. The word itself comes from the latin prefix re meaning ‘again’, and root habilitar meaning ‘to inhabit’. Thus ‘rehabilitate’ literally means to inhabit yourself again – and that is the aim of rehabilitation: to return former capacities to the inflicted person. This is especially true in drug addiction. Freeing oneself from addiction is a type of homecoming to a life of control.

Rehabilitation aims at more than ending drug use. As previously mentioned, rehabilitation cannot be a punishment for drug use. It must be the gradual process of ending dependence while also rehabilitating the patient into society. This is often the most difficult aspect of rehabilitation. It is important that the patient realistically understand that the future will consist of effort to reintegrate and rejoin society. The patient is assisted by counselors throughout the treatment, but the patient himself is the main catalyst in rehabilitation. The family and friends of the patient must also go through aspects of rehabilitation, for life after rehab will not be a continual sunny day. The forecast predicts many rain clouds at first, with occasional storms down the road. The family must know how to be supportive and helpful throughout the stormy weather.

The rehab treatment center can be considered the umbrella in the stormy weathers. It cannot control the weather, but does shield and help the patient and family on their way through the tempest. While there is no one correct drug rehab treatment, as each treatment must be tailored to the particular needs of the patient, there are means of ensuring that the drug rehab center chosen is one that will provide a positive environment to optimize the long term results of rehabilitation. The personal treatment for the patient must be continually checked and improved, as different steps throughout the treatment call for different measures, and each patient needs a different length of time for treatment

The personal treatment must also take into account the various problems beyond drugs which the patient faces. Drug addiction is often the result, and not the core of the problem – this core must be dug up through various therapies, counselors, and activities, which all should be readily available through the treatment center. A forced treatment is not necessarily a bad thing – again, depending on the drug treatment center. With a good treatment center, a person who initially will not admit to his problem or the need for a solution can be fully rehabilitated. Extremely beneficial are experiential therapies, which, through their communion with nature help the patient gradually reintegrate into life, which will eventually ease reintegration into society. A rehab treatment center must be rigid in its aims to help the patient, but cannot be rigid in its process.

Understanding what addiction is and why it happens is vital for the patient and the chosen treatment center. Once this is established, there can be a mutual respect, in lieu of distrust and judgment. The next step is to understand what rehabilitation is. It is a dedication, again, on the part of both the patient and treatment center, to heal a drug problem and, more importantly, rebuild a life – to bring the patient home in the spiritual sense. With these two concepts well understood and looked after, the patient has great chances of succeeding to overcome the addiction. The drug treatment center that fully understands addiction and rehabilitation will be the center that offers a full and varied program that will be created and recreated for the particular needs of its patient, and that will guide the patient not only through his addiction, but through his reintegration into life and society.
For more information on drug rehab treatment, call the national addiction helpline at 1-800-511-9225.

Many people view drug abuse and drug addiction as strictly a social problem. Parents, teens, older adults, and other members of the community tend to characterize people who take drugs as morally weak or as having criminal tendencies. They believe that drug abusers and addicts should be able to stop taking drugs if they are willing to change their behavior.

These myths have not only stereotyped those with drug-related problems, but also their families, their communities, and the health care professionals who work with them. Drug abuse and addiction comprise a public health problem that affects many people and has wide-ranging social consequences. It is NIDA’s goal to help the public replace its myths and long-held mistaken beliefs about drug abuse and addiction with scientific evidence that addiction is a chronic, relapsing, and treatable disease.

Drug addiction does begin with drug abuse when an individual makes a conscious choice to use drugs, but addiction is not just “a lot of drug use.” Recent scientific research provides overwhelming evidence that not only do drugs interfere with normal brain functioning creating powerful feelings of pleasure, but they also have long-term effects on brain metabolism and activity. At some point, changes occur in the brain that can turn drug abuse into addiction, a chronic, relapsing illness. Those addicted to drugs suffer from a compulsive drug craving and usage and cannot quit by themselves.

Addiction treatment is necessary to end this compulsive behavior. A variety of approaches are used in addiction treatment programs to help patients deal with these cravings and possibly avoid drug relapse. NIDA research shows that addiction is clearly treatable. Through a addiction treatment program that is tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to control their condition and live relatively normal lives.
A quality addiction treatment program can have a profound effect not only on drug abusers, but on society as a whole by significantly improving social and psychological functioning, decreasing related criminality and violence, and reducing the spread of AIDS. It can also dramatically reduce the costs to society of drug abuse.

Understanding drug abuse also helps in understanding how to prevent use in the first place. Results from NIDA-funded prevention research have shown that comprehensive prevention programs that involve the family, schools, communities, and the media are effective in reducing drug abuse. It is necessary to keep sending the message that it is better to not start at all than to enter rehab if drug addiction occurs.

No single drug addiction treatment is appropriate for all individuals. Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to each individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.
Drug addiction treatment needs to be readily available. Because individuals who are addicted to drugs may be uncertain about entering rehab, taking advantage of opportunities when they are ready for treatment is crucial. Potential treatment applicants can be lost if treatment is not immediately available or is not readily accessible.
Effective rehab attends to multiple needs of the individual, not just his or her drug use. To be effective, treatment must address the individual’s drug use and any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems.
An individual’s addiction treatment and services plan must be assessed continually and modified as necessary to ensure that the plan meets the person’s changing needs. A patient may require varying combinations of services and treatment components during the course of treatment and recovery. In addition to counseling or psychotherapy, a patient at times may require medication, other medical services, family therapy, parenting instruction, vocational rehabilitation, and social and legal services. It is critical that the treatment approach be appropriate to the individual’s age, gender, ethnicity, and culture.
Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical for treatment effectiveness. The appropriate duration for an individual depends on his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that for most patients, the threshold of significant improvement is reached at about 3 months in treatment. After this threshold is reached, additional treatment can produce further progress toward recovery. Because people often leave rehab prematurely, programs should include strategies to engage and keep patients in treatment.
Counseling (individual and/or group) and other behavioral therapies are critical components of effective treatment for addiction. In therapy, patients address issues of motivation, build skills to resist drug use, replace drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding nondrug-using activities, and improve problem-solving abilities. Behavioral therapy also facilitates interpersonal relationships and the individual’s ability to function in the family and community.
Medications are an important element of treatment for many patients, especially when combined with counseling and other behavioral therapies. Methadone and levo-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM) are very effective in helping individuals addicted to heroin or other opiates stabilize their lives and reduce their illicit drug use. Naltrexone is also an effective medication for some opiate addicts and some patients with co-occurring alcohol dependence. For persons addicted to nicotine, a nicotine replacement product (such as patches or gum) or an oral medication (such as bupropion) can be an effective component of treatment. For patients with mental disorders, both behavioral treatments and medications can be critically important.
Addicted or drug-abusing individuals with coexisting mental disorders should have both disorders treated in an integrated way. Because addictive disorders and mental disorders often occur in the same individual, patients presenting for either condition should be assessed and treated for the co-occurrence of the other type of disorder.
Medical detoxification is only the first stage of addiction treatment and by itself does little to change long-term drug use. Medical detoxification safely manages the acute physical symptoms of withdrawal associated with stopping drug use. While detoxification alone is rarely sufficient to help addicts achieve long-term abstinence, for some individuals it is a strongly indicated precursor to effective drug addiction treatment.
Alcohol rehab does not need to be voluntary to be effective. Strong motivation can facilitate the treatment process. Sanctions or enticements in the family, employment setting, or criminal justice system can increase significantly both treatment entry and retention rates and the success of drug treatment interventions.
Possible drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously. Lapses to drug use can occur during alcohol rehab. The objective monitoring of a patient’s drug and alcohol use during treatment, such as through urinalysis or other tests, can help the patient withstand urges to use drugs. Such monitoring also can provide early evidence of drug use so that the individual’s addiction treatment plan can be adjusted. Feedback to patients who test positive for illicit drug use is an important element of monitoring.
An alcohol rehab should provide assessment for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, and counseling to help patients modify or change behaviors that place themselves or others at risk of infection. Counseling can help patients avoid high-risk behavior. Counseling also can help people who are already infected manage their illness.
Recovery from drug addiction can be a long-term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment. As with other chronic illnesses, relapses to drug use can occur during or after successful treatment episodes. Addicted individuals may require prolonged treatment and multiple episodes of drug addiction treatment to achieve long-term abstinence and fully restored functioning. Participation in self-help support programs during and following treatment often is helpful in maintaining abstinence.

Addiction Treatment  for Males

Mens addiction treatment traditionally has relied on a confrontational approach. In searching for a way to help more men achieve and maintain recovery while staying focused on the time honored 12 Step philosophy, we have found that a carefrontational program is more effective in male-specific residential treatment. Examining our societal values, and learning how to create a safe environment in which men can explore and address their issues has led to thinking about sustained recovery for men in a new way.

Traditionally, in drug rehab for males, the issues specific to gender were not addressed, yet these were the issues that often led to recidivism: inability to communicate, isolation, anger.

Men suffering from drug addiction have been affected by many societal causes. Gender-stereotyping behavior from adults sets the stage for the Boy Code, in which emotions need to be kept in check, violence is an acceptable response to emotional upset, self-esteem relies on power, and that all feminine qualities must be rejected (Pollack, 1999). Boys may put down as sissies if they cling and clamor for the closeness they need (Goldberg, 1976). Boys are traditionally taught to stuff emotions and are conditioned to not feel or express pain, grief, or hurt.

The feelings of love, joy, and excitement can also get numbed. Anger, though, often is permitted and encouraged, especially cultivated through team sports where the goal is to beat the opponent as severely as possible. Boys learn that men are expendable, a commodity readily traded for God and country (Keen, 1991). Few boys survive childhood without some form of physical or emotional trauma, often through the aggression of their peers. Boys may learn to trust no one, and that they should know how to take care o and fix everything.

With addiction treatment for men also emerges “gay friendly” drug rehabs which more effectively focus on the needs for the LGBT community within a men’s rehab. To locate a drug rehab or gay friendly treatment center, you can call 1-800-99-DETOX.

Addiction intervention

Addiction intervention is a pre-planned attempt by one or many people (family, friends, co-workers, neighbors) to get the addict to seek professional addiction treatment, enter a drug rehab, alcohol rehabilitation, eating disorder, mental health, or dual-diagnosis treatment center.  Generally, there are two types of intervention - informal and formal. An informal intervention is simply a conversation you might have with the person you are concerned about and sharing some of your observations, asking questions, and suggesting that (s)he seek qualified addiction treatment.
A formal intervention involves a trained professional interventionist, acting as a facilitator and mediator, who assists with a structured, pre-planned conversation between the support group and the addicted person during the intervention.  This involves bringing together a group of people with the addict to explore how his or her addiction has affected all of their lives. The formal intervention is normally used when the person has repeatedly refused to get help.  The intervention is designed to get the person to take concrete steps, address their addiction issues, and to get his or her agreement to enter an addiction treatment program immediately (i.e. go for an evaluation, attend counseling, enter out-patient, in-patient, or a residential addiction treatment center).

Addiction interventionist

An interventionist is usually a licensed or certified professional who assists in planning, mediating, and facilitating an intervention in a neutral, calm, constructive, and structured conversational process.  The interventionist assists the group in learning how to express their concern in a caring and constructive way. The professional educates the group about what to expect during the intervention and afterwards, and how they can present their comments to avoid blaming, and to increase the chance that their message will be heard and the proposed treatment accepted.  Then, the group of concerned individuals and the interventionist meet with the addict for the conversation. They express caring and concern, presenting facts about the impact that the addiction has had on them. The group’s message is that they are unwilling to continue to overlook the damage that the addiction is having on the person, and the impact the addiction is having on each individual in the group. The group’s presentation prompts the person to admit that an addiction does, in fact, exist and that it is causing a multitude of other issues and problems that must be faced.
Interventions have been used to address serious personal problems, including, but not limited to, drug abuse, alcoholism, compulsive eating and other eating disorders, sex addiction, self-mutilation, “workaholism”, tobacco smoking, depression, and many other types of mental health issues. Interventions have also been conducted due to personal habits not generally considered harmful, such as video game addiction, excessive television viewing, and excessive internet use.
Formal interventions are either direct, typically involving a confrontative (carefrontative) meeting with the alcohol or other drug dependent person (the most typical type of intervention) or indirect, involving work with a co-dependent family to educate them to be more effective in helping the addicted individual.  In the same sense, direct interventions tend to be a form of short-term therapy aimed at getting the addicted person into a drug rehab, alcohol rehabilitation, or addiction treatment center program, whereas indirect interventions are more of a long-term therapy, directed at changing the co-dependent family system.
The goal of a formal, direct intervention is to get the person to agree to get help (attend a treatment center program) immediately. Just promising to stop is not an acceptable outcome. Participants must clearly spell out the consequences each will impose if the person refuses addiction treatment. These types of ultimatums can, and often do, have life-shattering implications, which is why including a professional interventionist is so important.

The primary objective for any alcohol detox program is to prevent life threatening withdrawal symptoms such as seizures, delerium and arrhythmias. Since detox also relieves other disturbing symptoms of anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, it may increase the patient’s chances of remaining in addiction treatment.  Medications are often used to treat patients with moderate  to severe withdrawal symptoms while in alcohol detox. Although most acute withdrawal symptoms generally cease within the first week of abstinence, symptoms such as anxiety or sleep disturbance can take weeks or months.

Alcohol detox in itself does not represent a complete course of addiction treatment. Its goal is to remove alcohol from the system and clear the mind for continued treatment. Alcohol rehab follows alcohol detox and focuses on strategies aimed at remaining abstinent of alcohol.

for additional information on alcohol detox call 1-800-99-DETOX.

Alcohol Rehab
Because of the viciousness of alcoholism and it’s potentially fatal withdrawal symptoms, professional and medical assistance is necessary to begin and complete the recovery process.  These factors have increased the demand for alcohol rehab centers worldwide.  There are a plethora of alcohol rehab centers available for alcoholics to receive the help they need to recover from alcoholism.  Inpatient alcohol rehab generally takes place in more of a hospital setting for those alcoholics suffering from severe alcoholism and withdrawal.  Outpatient alcohol rehab is considered lower intensity rehab, generally serving alcoholics who do not have such a severe problem and can endure a mild withdrawal process, returning home at day’s end.  There are also residential alcohol rehab centers that are in more of a home setting where the alcoholic lives with other alcoholics and addicts in a sober home.  All three of these alcohol rehabs employ counselors and addiction therapists to aid in the recovery process for the alcoholic.

Depending on the severity of the addiction, an alcoholic may need to stay in rehab for a minimum of 30 days, which is the average length of time for most programs.  Many addicts need to remain in rehab for a periods of several months.  Each addict and alcoholic has different needs to suit their individual addiction and any other co-occurring mental disorders.  Many times addicts and alcoholics suffer from more than just the addiction as it is rarely the addiction that is the cause, but rather the result of an underlying mental health disorder.  The majority of rehab programs these days treat these conditions with the addiction.  This method is known as dual diagnosis. Dual diagnosis treatment requires intense psychological evaluations, managed medical support and administration, along with intense therapy sessions to delve deeper into the mental health issue and any hidden catalysts or sources.  Nowadays, alcohol rehab and drug rehab is not limited to the 12-step program.  There is treatment available for virtually everyone.  Holistic treatment centers that focus more on the union on the mind, body, and soul are widely available for addicts and alcoholics who gravitate more towards acupuncture and other alternative forms of rehabilitation.  There are rehab programs designed specifically for gay, lesbian, and transgender addicts and alcoholics, focusing on the special needs and stressors encountered in that specific community.  Addicts and alcoholics will find religious treatment centers, depending on their individual beliefs.  There are even treatment centers that focus on spa treatments and saunas to cleanse the addict or alcoholic’s body of the toxins from addiction.  No matter the individual or his specific needs, there is more than likely a rehab program somewhere that can meet those needs.  With all the different kinds of alcohol rehab programs available and all the distinct differences between them, they all have one thing in common and that is their goal – to rid the alcoholic of the mental and physical grip of their addiction and lay groundwork to prevent relapse after treatment has been completed.  It is commonly advised for alcoholics to remain in treatment for a longer term so that they can get as much time as possible with sobriety and begin to realize the rewards of being a healthy sober individual.   With alcoholism contributing to so many deaths, from fatal traffic accidents to death from withdrawal or alcohol poisoning, alcohol rehab centers are often considered the only hope for an alcoholic to survive.
Alcohol Detox
Detox is an important and essential element in the recovery process from drug addiction and alcoholism.  Depending on the severity of the addiction, the process can be extremely painful and sometimes fatal.  Detox requires medical supervision and is defined as the process in which drugs or alcohol is withdrawn from the body.  Detoxification is a prerequisite to most all alcohol rehab programs as the spiritual and mental healing cannot begin until the physical body is cleansed of the toxins from alcoholism and drug addiction.  The length of time alcohol detox takes varies from individual to individual, based on their personal consumption of alcohol and use of drugs.  This process can be life threatening with substances like alcohol and benzodiazepines, as these two substances create a devastating physical addiction when withdrawal often results in seizures, convulsions, tremors, and has proven to sometimes be fatal. Mostly for these reasons, it is imperative for addicts and alcoholics to have some kind of professional medical setting in which to undergo detox.

For additional information you can call 1-800-99-DETOX.