Medical Detox Centers in Chicopee, MA

When you are addicted, an attempt to stop using first puts you through an initial withdrawal process. The process can last several days. Since this process can put the body and brain through stress, pain and life-threatening symptoms, it is best performed under medical supervision. You need to find reliable, evidence-based medical detox centers in Chicopee to make sure that you are able to complete the program with as little pain or risk to your life.

What Is the Aim of the Medical Detox Process?

People often use the terms detox and rehab interchangeably. These terms indicate two separate processes, however. Colloquially, the term rehab is often a general reference to all addiction treatment in Chicopee. Technically, however, the term refers to a specific part of the treatment process that comes after detox.

Treatment begins with detox, a process in which the brain begins to readjust its internal balance of neurotransmitters, hormones and other chemicals once drugs are out of the system. It's a difficult process that involves fluctuations in the brain's internal chemical balance.

It is the aim of medical detox centers in Chicopee to help smooth out the effects of these imbalances through the careful administration of medications by experts. It usually takes the brain up to a month to adequately settle down, and regain chemical equilibrium. Drug and alcohol medical detox, then, needs to last at least 30 days.

Rehabilitation is the treatment that follows detox. While detox helps bring the brain back to a state of chemical equilibrium where it can function from one day to the next, it doesn't actually help with addiction.

Addiction is a mental disorder in which the brain sustains certain changes through exposure to drugs. The disorder tends to create a form of compulsive behavior in the area of drug consumption. This compulsiveness remains past addiction treatment for medical detox. Rehabilitation needs separate treatment in the form of specialized psychological therapy. Without it, addiction usually reappears, in a phenomenon known as relapse.

What Happens in the Medical Detox Process?

When you first arrive at rehab, addiction specialists put you through a number of tests to determine how best to treat you. In these tests, specialists attempt to determine how long you've been addicted, and how many different types of drugs you've been using. They try to determine your physical and mental state, and your level of motivation, as well. Based on the results of these tests, they come up with a treatment program specifically matched to your addiction.

In general, those with simple, short and mild addictions are signed up to outpatient rehab. If you accept outpatient rehab, you only come in for a few hours of treatment each day. The rest of the time, you go about your life as you choose.

Inpatient rehab is better suited to difficult addictions. People who have been addicted for years, those who suffer from delicate, fragile health, or those who struggle with mental health disorders, on top of their addictions, tend to be best suited to inpatient medical detox centers in Chicopee. You check into the facility and accept treatment as you stay there. In this form of treatment, professionals at the detox center have far more time to observe you, and offer treatment both for withdrawal symptoms both obvious and unpredictable ones.

How Are Withdrawal Symptoms Treated?

The symptoms of withdrawal and the intensity with which they appear, all depend on the drug and the depth of the addiction. Withdrawal from drugs such as alcohol and heroin tends to produce a great deal of physical trauma. With other drugs, the effects tend to be more mental than physical.

Physical symptoms can include muscle aches, headaches, nausea, tremors, seizures, heart-related instabilities and cardiac disturbances. The psychological symptoms of withdrawal can include insomnia, anxiety, panic, violent tendencies and cravings.

These symptoms can begin within hours of quitting, and rise to peak intensity within two or three days, before gradually fading. With some addictions, a protracted withdrawal syndrome can appear and drag out the process over weeks.

It's important to understand that these symptoms are far more than a mild annoyance. Rather, they tend to be severely disruptive and stressful. The physical symptoms are treated symptomatically. When a patient experiences sleeplessness, sedatives are applied. Those who experience heart disturbances receive stabilizer drugs.

Psychological symptoms such as cravings can be much harder to deal with. Various medications are used. Drugs such as methadone help with cravings through creating a gentle high. Others such as naltrexone and Suboxone come with the ability to block all such euphoric feelings, and to take the edge off cravings, as well.

Making Sure That You Receive Qualified Care

Not all medical detox centers offer care that can really help. Many offer unscientific or obsolete care programs, for example. Learning about the treatment addiction process and asking questions to make sure that a rehab offers evidence-based treatment can help you find the best medical detox centers in Chicopee. Call Chicopee Alcohol Treatment Centers now. (877) 804-1531.