Methamphetamine Addiction: Effects, Statistics & Facts

Signs of a Meth Addiction

Meth addiction signs come in many forms. You might notice that you get really angry and uncomfortable if you have not used meth. You might notice that you’re spending time only with people who use crystal meth.

It is important to understand what you need to do to stop abuse and addiction to crystal meth. Recovery starts with finding a good place to do it. Here are some features of a meth rehab facility that we think are essential to a smart recovery.

Your Not Alone In This

These friends are people who are part of your day to day mental health journey. It is important to stay in touch with them. You can also live with them and wean off of your addiction treatment. There are partial hospitalization programs that require patients to come into the treatment center, but they are not residential treatment.

There is also outpatient rehab, which requires less time in the rehab facility than partial hospitalization programs. For both of these less intensive options, you can choose to live with your loved ones or friends. A halfway house would be a good option for someone who wants to stay in sober living with friends who are also recovering.

Individual Treatment Plans

After a patient wakes up and has some exercise and meal time, the day moves into addiction treatment. Therapy, medication management and education will help patients to learn more about meth or any other drug addiction.

It is important to note that a treatment plan will be made for each individual person. You may in group therapy with some people and art therapy with others. Whatever will help your mental health is what you will do.

Professional referrals are made to find the right combination of treatment options for you. That way, you’re doing something that works for you. Because so much of being in a treatment center is about behavioral health, being comfortable with your treatment plan is so important. It will encourage productive behavior and discourage substance abuse.

Dual Diagnosis for Meth Addiction

As mentioned, most drug addiction comes from a co-occurring disorder. These are usually mental health diagnoses that make substance abuse more likely.

When it comes to crystal meth addiction, people who have mood disorders are at risk because methamphetamine is used to self-medicate. Crystal meth produces a euphoria that a patient may feel like they can’t find anywhere else.

Being in a residential treatment program gives a huge advantage to patients that struggle with a dual diagnosis. Not only do they get 24-hour supervision during medical detox, they can also get help for mental health illness as they rid themselves of crystal meth addiction.

Multiple Disorders To Be Aware Of

These disorders can cause major impulsive behavior, such as substance abuse. Substance abuse leads to drug addiction. With a drug like crystal meth, drug addiction leads to more mood swings than usual.

The withdrawal symptoms of crystal meth can also lead to severe suicidal behavior being that most people already are predisposed to suicidality. For these reasons, it is absolutely necessary that meth abusers go to inpatient addiction treatment. This is residential treatment and it has the highest success rates.

Let’s explore what a patient can expect from meth treatment in an inpatient facility.

Therapy, Therapy, Therapy

A large amount of your time in an inpatient meth rehab facility will be spent in therapy. Aside from physical needs like eating, medication, and exercise, therapy is what addiction treatment is all about.

The most common kind of therapy used to treat meth addiction is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT. The CBT method was created to treat eating disorders by giving some mental health power back to those with eating problems. It then started to be used for drug addiction and alcoholism.

CBT focuses on changing thought and behavioral patterns that lead to substance abuse. Other therapies include Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which is very similar in focus on behavioral health and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) which focuses on trauma in the past.

Multiple Techniques To Recovery

In addition to individual therapy, there are group sessions with the people you live with. The group will discuss relapse prevention, drug addiction and generally just share how you’re feeling daily.

Loved ones will be able to visit you for family therapy. This gives patients the ability to mend any broken ties and let their family know that they’re going to be clean and sober. Family therapy allows meth abusers to figure out where things went wrong with the people who are closest to them.

Therapy is the true key to the success of addiction treatment. Crystal meth is a dangerous drug. By the end of inpatient treatment, you will have other coping skills so that you won’t want to turn to substance abuse. This is, in large part, due to therapy and the helpful addiction specialists that are constantly there for support.

A Clean and Sober Perspective

Have you ever heard the phrase “learn it, live it, love it.” It can sound cheesy, but when it comes to sobriety from meth addiction, it’s true. Inpatient treatment gives you the tools to learn sobriety, go through a smart recovery and love your life.

The risk of relapse is very high when a patient chooses to detox alone. There is little mental health support through a cold turkey, solo detox. Unlike alcoholism treatment or other drug addiction, the meth withdrawal timeline directly impacts mental health issues.

What Are the Success Rates?

Any substance abuse treatment program will have varying success rates. The same is true for meth. Success in recovery will depend on a few key factors, including:

• Length and severity of the addiction
• Age of the client
• The existence of other co-occurring health conditions

Studies show that those with meth addiction who go through meth detox alone are just as likely to use again as those who never went to addiction treatment. What does this mean? Basically, crystal meth is highly addictive and requires more than just a medical detox— namely, behavioral therapies and interventions that effectively address the roots of the addiction.

Patients who receive these treatments following detox improve their recovery outcomes. For example, a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that 48% of patients who went to meth rehab were still sober after a few months compared to 15% of users who went to detox only.

How to Find an Effective Meth Facility for Yourself or Family

Methamphetamine, otherwise known as Crystal Meth, is a very potent addictive drug. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, meth addiction was ranked first in drug related treatment admissions in 2012.

While this is only the case in the west and midwest, this raises the question of how so many people became addicted to this harmful and illicit drug. There are trends that suggest that crystal meth addiction has declined since 2012. If meth addiction has been on the decline, there must be a solution that has begun to work for those who struggle.

This solution is meth treatment. Important to any meth treatment or addiction treatment in general is a quality rehab facility.