Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Upminster 

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Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Upminster 

The word ‘addiction’ dates back to Roman law, where addiction meant the dedication of a person to a master. [1]

This notion of relinquishment of control has continued into the modern day, where addicted persons lack the control to cut down on a substance.

Addicts tend to lack the ability to admit they have a problem and will shift the blame onto someone or something else. The negative consequences of addiction do not stop people from using or drinking, and this will usually ruin people’s social, economic, and family lives.

The study of addiction and addictive behaviour can cross multiple disciplines, such as neuroscience, genetics, psychology, sociology, and the environment.

The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) tends to avoid the term ‘addiction’, and instead uses the terms substance abuse and substance dependency, both referred to as ‘substance use disorders’.

This applies to all substances that are misused by individuals, and individuals are characterised into three categories:

1. No substance use disorder (SUD)
2. Substance abuse
3. Substance dependence

Abuse is diagnosed only if the individual does not apply to the criteria for dependence. Substance use disorder is diagnosed according to:

• Impaired control
• A cluster of cognitive, behavioural, and psychological symptoms
• Continued use despite substance-related problems

Abuse is milder than dependence, as dependence relates to a mental addiction in addition to physiological dependence.

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster, contact us today at 0800 088 66 86.

Does Upminster Have an Addiction Problem?

Upminster is in East London, in the Borough of Havering. In Havering, around 5.7 in every 1000 people use heroin and crack cocaine, compared to London (9.62) and the rest of England (8.67).

According to Havering’s Community Safety Annual Strategic Assessment in 2015, Havering has a high rate of alcohol-related crime than the whole of London. Around 65% of young people (15 years of age) in Havering have had or currently consume alcoholic drinks, and over 16% of 15-year-olds state that they have been drunk before the survey.

Am I Addicted?

If you are on this page contemplating addiction, it is quite possible that you may have a problem cutting down on drugs or alcohol. Addiction is a mental disease, further characterised by possible relapse and withdrawal once the patient has cut down or stopped using. [2]

Withdrawal symptoms vary according to:

• Genetics
• How long they have used for
• What they are using
• Age, weight, height
• How many times they have been through withdrawal
• Medical history
• Safety of withdrawal
• Tolerance levels

If someone is addicted/dependent on a substance, the addiction will result in a range of withdrawal symptoms, including: [3]

• Distress
• Despair
• Seizures
• Shaking
• Sweating
• High heart rate
• High blood pressure
• Nausea
• Vomiting

To understand what form and type of treatment someone may require in a drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster, they must understand their addiction in its true form, and how severe it really is.

The best way to understand your addiction from the comfort of your own home is to take self-help questionnaires. The most common questionnaire for alcohol addiction is the CAGE questionnaire: [4]

CAGE Questions for Alcohol Use:

1. Have you ever felt you should CUT down your drinking? YES/NO
2. Have people ever ANNOYED you by critiquing your drinking? YES/NO
3. Have you ever felt bad or GUILTY about your drinking? YES/NO
4. Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady nerves or in order to get rid of a hangover? YES/NO

If you answer 2 or more questions with a YES then it will be deemed ‘clinically significant’, indicating that you are displaying abusive behaviours related to alcohol.

There are many questionnaires about drug abuse. One questionnaire was created in the Addiction Research Foundation by Harvey Skinner, concerning information about someone’s involvement with drugs: [5]

• 1. Have you used drugs other than those required for medical reasons?
  2. Have you abused prescription drugs?
  3. Do you abuse more than one drug at a time?
  4. Can you get through the week without using drugs?
  5. Are you always able to stop using drugs when you want to?
  6. Have you had “blackouts” or “flashbacks” as a result of drug use?
  7. Do you ever feel bad or guilty about your drug use?
  8. Does your spouse (or parents) ever complain about your involvement with drugs?
  9. Has drug abuse created problems between you and your spouse or your parents?
  10. Have you lost friends because of your use of drugs?
  11. Have you neglected your family because of your use of drugs?
  12. Have you been in trouble at work because of drug abuse?
  13. Have you lost a job because of drug abuse?
  14. Have you gotten into fights when under the influence of drugs?
  15. Have you engaged in illegal activities in order to obtain drugs?
  16. Have you been arrested for possession of illegal drugs?
  17. Have you ever experienced withdrawal symptoms (felt sick) when you stopped taking drugs?
  18. Have you had medical problems as a result of your drug use (e.g., memory loss, hepatitis, convulsions, bleeding, etc.)
  19. Have you gone to anyone for help for a drug problem?
  20. Have you been involved in a treatment program specifically related to drug use?

Again, answering YES to any more than a couple of questions on this list indicates harmful drug-related behaviour and its consequences.

Once you have a clearer idea about the nature of your addiction, you are well-equipped with the knowledge of the severity of your addiction. It is now time to do something about it in Havering.

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster, contact us today at 0800 088 66 86.

Addiction Intervention: Before Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Upminster

Addiction Intervention involves family, friends, or anyone concerned, taking proactive steps to help their loved one enter treatment for their addiction. Intervention is used when the patient either remains unmotivated to start treatment or cannot see that they have an issue (denial).

Intervention is a collaborative effort by all those involved to prevent the patient’s addiction from worsening. Watching someone be controlled by a substance and leave their loves and passions behind can be uncomfortable and upsetting.

Interventions are the most effective when conducted as early as possible. Interventions prove useful for patients who fail to see the negative effects of their behaviour and their addiction in general.

The intervention will not be like an old-style confrontation. Intervention now consists of meetings, either one-to-one or group meetings, arranged by loved ones. Over the past few decades, the intervention has played a large part in pre-rehabilitation work, largely successful at getting patients into rehab and therapy. [6] [7]

A good example of effective intervention is CRAFT. CRAFT stands for Community Reinforcement and Family Training.

During CRAFT, families are critical. The point of CRAFT is to rebalance and regulate the reward pathways in the brain that have been damaged as a result of substance abuse and addiction.

This rebalance can be done by:

• Positively rewarding pro-social and anti-using behaviour
• Letting negative consequences of anti-social and pro-using behaviour play out
• Concerned others are asked to learn multiple styles of communication to make this process easier
• Educate concerned others about the origins of addiction and what may exacerbate it
• Discuss the impact of addiction on everyone involved
• Using support and compassion together and removing any enabling behaviours

Staging an intervention requires time, patience, and preparation. If you are considering a group intervention, keep in mind that smaller groups work better and be sure to only include specific individuals.

These individuals should either be very close to the patient or someone who will play a vital role in addiction treatment and recovery.

All attendees are asked to reflect on their feelings, contributions, and other parts of addiction. Reflections, future aspirations, and certain goals are discussed during an intervention, with tones of sincerity, compassion, and security.

All attendees are reminded that the purpose of intervention is to get the patient into treatment. This includes offering support and removing criticism at this time to prevent the patient from being pushed away.

If you are conducting the intervention, be aware that this is an emotional time. Even if people agree to attend the intervention, patients may become angry and resist any help.

Make sure you have warm-up conversations and don’t dive straight in – a hard and fast approach is not likely to work if there is any type of resistance.

If the intervention is successful, medical professionals will help you with the admissions process.

Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Upminster Admissions

The admissions process for drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster is centred around the needs of each patient. This can be calculated using the criteria created by ASAM, focusing on 6 different dimensions. [8]

• Dimension 1 – Acute intoxication and/or withdrawal: this dimension asks questions relating to whether the patient suffers from withdrawals and how vulnerable they are to them.
• Dimension 2 – Biomedical conditions and complications: this dimension focuses on whether the patient suffers from any medical conditions that may interrupt treatment.
• Dimension 3 – Emotional, behavioural, or cognitive conditions and complications: this dimension asks about the mental state of the patient, and how stable they are.
• Dimension 4 – Readiness to change: this dimension focuses on motivation – is the patient motivated to change their life and behaviour?
• Dimension 5 – Relapse, continued use, or continued problem potential: this dimension asks if the patient is vulnerable to a relapse.
• Dimension 6 – Recovery/living environment: Does the patient have a stable environment to recover in? Or are there people and places that might hinder recovery?

The patients’ answers will be ranked from low risk to high risk, demanding how much focus is required on each section of recovery. For example, if patient A states that they suffer from severe withdrawals such as delirium tremens, then they will be placed on a treatment plan with close supervision during detox.

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster, contact us today at 0800 088 66 86.

Inpatient & Outpatient Treatment in Havering

Once the focus and aims of treatment are highlighted, it is time to choose the type of treatment that would be best for the patient. This comes in the type of either inpatient treatment or outpatient treatment.

The only real differences are founded on residential therapy and the severity of the addiction.

If the addiction in question is severe, attending residential drug and alcohol rehabin Upminster is the best option. This is inpatient treatment, suitable for the most severe addictions as it offers 24/7 medical help and therapy.

Outpatient treatment is for milder addictions, where patients attend therapy but go home after the session. Outpatient treatment is offered through the NHS, but inpatient treatment is more intense so is not offered via a referral.

Patients will have to pay for inpatient treatment themselves, so it will be considered private treatment.

However, both inpatient and outpatient treatment offer similar services, such as behavioural therapy and 12-step facilitation therapy. Before any treatment can start, patients must go through a period of detoxification to be clean to start treatment.

The body and mind must be free from voluntary toxins to start drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster. This process should not be done at home if the addiction is more severe, as medical professionals should watch over patients going through withdrawals.

After detoxification, the process of psychological therapy will begin. This will tackle the root causes of addiction and the behavioural patterns that maintain addiction. This will be broken down into manageable chunks, where every patient will have a different time scale for therapy.

Patients will then be taught coping mechanisms and other forms of helpful strategies to implement straight away.

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster, contact us today at 0800 088 66 86.

What Therapy does Havering Offer?

Both inpatient and outpatient therapy in Havering offer the same form of therapy sessions, such as:

• Individual therapy
• Group therapy
• Family therapy
• Behavioural therapy

Behavioural therapy is very popular when it comes to addiction and mental health issues. Cognitive behavioural therapy, known as CBT, is consistently used for substance use disorders, alcohol use disorders, and mental health conditions such as anxiety.

Studies have shown that around 60% of patients who follow CBT for substance use disorders have reported a clean toxicology scan at post-therapy appointments. [9] [10]

CBT focuses on the negative deep-rooted thoughts that cause destructive behaviour. Thoughts and feelings are directly linked to behaviour, and therefore behavioural conditions.

Through CBT, patients learn to change their thought patterns that provoke substance use, and use healthy coping mechanisms when negative thoughts occur.

There are three fundamental beliefs when it comes to CBT:

1. Psychological disorders are directly linked to thought patterns
2. Psychological disorders are founded on patterns of behaviour
3. Psychological disorders can then be relieved by changing these specific thoughts and the subsequent behaviours

One form of CBT is DBT, dialectical behavioural therapy. DBT is designed for those who feel completely overwhelmed by their emotions, such as those suffering from severe mood disorders and possibly suicidal thoughts.

Therapists and patients work towards a life of self-acceptance, balance, and emotional regulation. Patients are taught coping mechanisms that are targeted towards reactive situations and emotional states, helping people cope with unavoidable thoughts, situations, and reactions.

There are 4 parts to DBT:

1. Mindfulness
2. Acceptance and change
3. Distress tolerance
4. Emotion regulation

Rational emotive behavioural therapy is another form of behavioural therapy that targets drugs and alcohol. Also known as REBT, this form of therapy helps patients replace their negative thoughts, aiming to develop healthier emotions and habits in the future.

Contingency management, known as CM, is another form of therapy offered in Upminster, Havering. Contingency management focuses entirely on motivation for therapy, and the strengths and weaknesses of patients.

CM uses operating conditional principles, meaning that something specific to the patient is used as an incentive and motivation. For most patients, rewards of monetary value or different vouchers are used to help patients stay motivated and move towards their goals.

Rewards such as supermarket vouchers are removed as soon as patients act in an undesired manner, such as failing to turn up to therapy. [11]

If patients work better in group therapy, they ought to consider 12-step facilitation therapy. Groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are popular support groups.

Strangers will group together and share stories, experiences, trauma, triggers, and coping mechanisms that all participants can learn from, try or relate to.

These groups follow similar 12-step programmes. The following steps are founded by the creators of the AA:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and practice these principles in all our affairs.

If a more holistic approach is best suited for a patient, they will be offered holistic therapy in Upminster. Holistic therapy is aimed at the whole body rather than just one part of addiction.

Holistic therapy treats addiction as a dualistic issue, targeting the mind and the body in its treatment.

This is not a ‘one treatment will fix you’ approach. There are many different forms of therapy for this very reason:

• Equine therapy
• Animal therapy
• Nutritional education
• Art therapy
• Adventure therapy
• Meditation
• Tai chi
• Acupuncture

These different types of therapy will suit different patients, much like inpatient and outpatient treatment. The nature of your addiction will most likely dictate your treatment plan, so reach out for help as soon as you can.

Get Help Today

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab in Upminster, contact us today at 0800 088 66 86.

References

[1] Kranzler, H. R., & Li, T. K. (2008). What is addiction?. Alcohol research & health : the journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 31(2), 93–95.

[2] Theoretical Frameworks and Mechanistic Aspects of Alcohol Addiction: Alcohol Addiction as a Reward Deficit Disorder. George F Koob, 2011. Part of the Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences book series (CTBN,volume 13) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-28720-6_129

[3] Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Managing Chronic Pain in Adults With or in Recovery From Substance Use Disorders. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2012. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 54.) Exhibit 2-6, DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Substance Abuse and Substance Dependence. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92053/table/ch2.t5/

[4] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_healthcare/downloads/all_plans/CAGE%20Substance%20Screening%20Tool.pdf

[5] https://adai.uw.edu/instruments/pdf/drug_abuse_screening_test_105.pdf

[6] Jhanjee S. Evidence based psychosocial interventions in substance use. Indian J Psychol Med. 2014 Apr;36(2):112-8. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.130960. PMID: 24860208; PMCID: PMC4031575.

[7] Meyers, Miller, Scott Tonigan. Community reinforcement and family training (CRAFT): engaging unmotivated drug users in treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse. 1998: Vol 10 Issue 3 pg 291.

[8] American Society of Addiction Medicine (2021) ASAM: Quality and Science. available @ASAM Home Page.

[9] McHugh, R. K., Hearon, B. A., & Otto, M. W. (2010). Cognitive behavioral therapy for substance use disorders. The Psychiatric clinics of North America, 33(3), 511–525. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2010.04.012

[10] Rawson RA, Huber A, McCann M, Shoptaw S, Farabee D, Reiber C, Ling W. A comparison of contingency management and cognitive-behavioral approaches during methadone maintenance treatment for cocaine dependence. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002;59:817–824.

[11] https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20200305.965186/full/#:~:text=Contingency%20management%20is%20a%20behavioral,them%20to%20not%20use%20drugs.