Every night you tumble into bed and vow that tomorrow will be the day that you finally take back control of your life. While you may successfully stay drug- or alcohol-free for a few hours, or a few days, the uncontrollable cravings and withdrawal symptoms drive you back, time and again.
Whether it’s your first attempt or you’ve tried dozens of times before, breaking free from a substance use disorder is difficult, especially clearing the detox hurdle. At Northshore Family Practice, our team of addiction specialists is here to give you the best chance for success through our outpatient detox program.
To answer the question posed in the title of this blog, we recommend outpatient detox for anyone who’s struggling to take back control of their life — and here’s why.
To understand why substance use disorders are so hard to overcome, it’s important to remember that there are two elements to the problem:
The dependency piece of the substance use disorder equation describes the physical dependence your body has developed toward alcohol or your drug of choice. It’s this aspect that fuels the withdrawal symptoms, which can range from flu-like problems to death, in extreme cases.
When you use substances for prolonged periods, your brain rewires itself to receive more of the substance, which is what leads to the uncontrollable cravings and your inability to simply quit. And your brain is a formidable force, as it exerts control over your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
So, when you try to quit, you need to manage the reactions in both your body and your brain, which is where our outpatient detox can make all the difference.
One of the primary benefits of our outpatient detox program is that we can ease your withdrawal symptoms through medical support. As we mentioned, there are a wide range of withdrawal symptoms, which depend on the substance you’re having trouble controlling.
For example, withdrawal from opioids typically comes with flu-like symptoms as well as a host of other problems from anxiety to gastrointestinal upset. When you withdraw from alcohol, you may experience anything from shaking to more serious seizures.
Through our outpatient detox program, we supply you with the resources you need to ease these symptoms, including clonidine, Suboxone, gabapenitn, and other detox relief medications.
As we get your withdrawal symptoms under control, we also counsel you on the best nutritional supplements to help you regain your health.
While our medical support is critical, we’re also with you every step of the way, and we offer full recovery support, including referrals for counseling, psychiatry, and any other services that will help you stay on the road to recovery.
As for your detox timeline, this depends on several factors, including what you’re detoxing from, how long you’ve been using, and your medical history. If you want to detox in the shortest amount of time possible, we partner with The Coleman Institute to offer accelerated detox programs to qualifying patients.
The bottom line is that if you want to take back control of your life, once and for all, your best first step is a medically supervised detox program. You may qualify to do this detox as an outpatient. To get started, please contact our office in Bothell, Washington, for a confidential consultation.
