An intensive outpatient program in CT is one of the most effective and flexible ways to find help for overcoming a substance use disorder. Breaking free from addiction is never easy, but with the targeted support of a holistic treatment center, it is possible. Reach out to Connecticut Center for Recovery to get started with treatment today.
Understanding Addiction
Addiction is not a choice. Countless different factors can all contribute to whether a person develops a substance use disorder, including:
- Genetics
- Family history of substance use
- Peer pressure
- Co-occurring mental health disorders
- Experiencing trauma
- Adverse childhood experiences
These are just a few of the things that make it more likely that a person turns toward substance use and ultimately finds themselves addicted.
When people begin to use addictive drugs or alcohol repeatedly, they experience lasting brain changes that make it incredibly difficult for them to stop or cut down on their own.1 People living with substance use disorders can experience invasive cravings, loss of interest in other activities, and severe physical and mental withdrawals if they suddenly stop.
These brain changes and the symptoms of addiction can improve — but most people will need the help of addiction and mental health professionals in order to achieve recovery.
How to Achieve Recovery
As severe as substance use disorders can be, most people will achieve sobriety, provided they seek out help from an evidence-based treatment center.2 But the road to recovery isn’t easy and typically requires a combination of medical, mental, and holistic treatment.
Despite what many people may believe, recovery from a substance use disorder is about much more than abstinence. People use drugs for a purpose: to enhance their everyday experiences, to cope with life’s stressors, to socialize with others, or to self-medicate medical or mental health disorders.
Achieving recovery, then, is only partly about teaching people how to stop using substances. Just as important is teaching people how to enjoy their lives in recovery, build positive social support networks, and learn to manage their stress or mental health symptoms in a healthier, more sustainable way.
At Connecticut Center for Recovery, we embrace this holistic model of addiction treatment. We don’t just want to help you put down the drugs and alcohol. We want to encourage you to learn how to thrive in your new life in recovery.
How Our Intensive Outpatient Program in CT Can Help
Intensive outpatient programs are an ideal way of helping people achieve these goals. Unlike residential programs, an intensive outpatient program is meant to fit into your everyday life rather than replace it. This allows our clients to put the skills they learn in treatment into real application every day and find the support and accountability they need to truly learn the principles of recovery.
The core of our intensive outpatient program in CT is evidence-based therapies and treatments. A treatment is considered to be evidence-based once researchers have proven that it helps people overcome substance use and when clinicians have shown that these interventions are practical in the real world.
Treatments and Therapies
Some of the treatments and therapies you can expect to receive at our intensive outpatient program include:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is one of the most effective and well-studied styles of therapy for treating substance use disorders. CBT focuses on a core tenet: your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors all influence one another. If you can change the way you think, then you can change the way you feel and the way you behave.
This can be incredibly powerful in substance use treatment, where people have all sorts of erroneous beliefs about their addictions. CBT helps you challenge those beliefs, learn new ways of thinking, and ultimately achieve better mental health and the power to overcome addiction.
Dual-Diagnosis Treatment
In substance use treatment, co-occurring mental health disorders are the norm. Dual-diagnosis treatment is an approach that treats these mental health problems concurrently with substance use disorders, allowing you to recover from both conditions simultaneously.
Family Therapy
Addiction can wreak havoc on families. Substance use nearly never affects one person in isolation and can cause serious damage to marriages, relationships, and friendships. Family therapy provides a place for people to heal from these harms and build a close, supportive family network to help galvanize their recovery for years to come.
Group Therapy
Group therapy has long been one of the most common and effective methods for treating addiction. Sometimes, the person best equipped to help you overcome addiction is someone else who has a similar experience and was able to make it through to the next day without drinking or using drugs.
Group therapy not only provides the opportunity for people to help one another in recovery, but it also provides tangible evidence that recovery is possible. You just might find yourself saying, “If they can make it through the day sober, maybe I can, too.”
Start an Intensive Outpatient Program in CT Today
If you or a loved one is struggling with a substance use disorder, our intensive outpatient program in CT can help. Reach out to Connecticut Center for Recovery today by calling our team or filling out our confidential online contact form — and start your path to recovery without delay.
Sources:
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2009110
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871620303343
