5 Tips for Staying Sober
You’ve done the work to become clean and sober, and you want to do what you can to stay that way. Here are five great tips that will help you safeguard your freedom from a substance use disorder.
Everything You Should Know About Detox
You wake each day, resolved not to pour a drink or pick up your drug of choice, but within hours you start to feel the effects of withdrawal. Instead of facing the discomfort, you reach for that drink or drug for relief. One of the greatest hurdles to sobriety is overcoming your dependence, which is where detox comes in.
Our team here at Northview Wellness Practice can give you the tools and support you need to detox safely and successfully, allowing you to begin regaining control of your life.
Here’s a look at how our detox program can help you take the first life-saving step toward freedom.
Understanding the difference between addiction and dependence
Any substance use disorder has two sides, which are:
Addiction
The addiction aspect of a substance use disorder is the one that affects your behaviors. When you drink or use drugs to excess, your brain forms new neural pathways that demand more and more of your substance of choice. These pathways affect your behaviors and create those uncontrollable cravings that are hard to ignore.
Dependence
This aspect of a substance use disorder is a more physical one and creates withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit, because your body physically depends on the substance.
Withdrawal symptoms are varied, and they depend upon your substance, but often include:
- Shakes and tremors
- Flu-like symptoms
- Nausea and vomiting
- Sweating
- Rapid heart rate
In extreme cases, you may hallucinate or have a seizure, which can occur when you withdraw from alcohol.
How detox helps
As you can see by the list of potential symptoms, withdrawal can be tough, which is why so many people struggle to quit. Through our detox program, our goal is to ease this transition, which we accomplish through:
- Extended appointments at our clinic
- At-home instructions with 24 hour support
- Medication Assisted Treatment (medications that ease and stop withdrawal symptoms and prevent the craving that results in relapse.
If you want to rapidly detox, we partner with The Coleman Institute, which offers accelerated out-patient detox. With a Coleman Institute detox, you can get Vivitrol (long acting Naltrexone injection) or a naltrexone pellet on the last day of the detox. With The Coleman Institute, you can be detoxed off of prescription oxycodone or pure heroin in as little as 72 hours. Suboxone and methadone require 8 days of detox.
One of the key benefits of seeking help with your detox is that we understand what you’re going through, and we’re here to help. We can offer support for your emotional stress and suggest medications that help with your physical symptoms. We know the first few days of recovery are among the toughest, but we can help see you through to the other side.
From there, we get to work on the addiction side of your disease through our recovery support so that you can avoid relapse down the road.
To learn more about our detox program, contact our office in Bothell, Washington, to set up a confidential consultation.
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