Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Glastonbury

• Home
• Locations
• Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Glastonbury

Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Glastonbury

Glastonbury, famous for its festival and its apple orchards, is a town located in Somerset, England. Situated south of Bristol, Glastonbury is a popular town rich in history.

The number of drug deaths has risen since 2013, when 2018 saw the highest number of drug-related deaths since the records began. [1]

Glastonbury is renowned for its festival and party lifestyle, a status heavily linked to drugs and alcohol. For some people, these engagements are temporary and a ‘one-off’ experience. For others, however, these social engagements have led them to an addictive lifestyle.

Glastonbury itself is not the primary cause of this behaviour, but unfortunately, it has become closely associated with addiction. 

In 2021, the BBC found traces of drugs in the river running through the Glastonbury festival itself. Scientists found that drug levels had quadrupled in the river the week after the festival.

The levels of MDMA and cocaine in the Whitelake river were marked as “dangerous”, as urination into the river potentially caused an increase in drug levels. [2]

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

Definitions & Symptoms: Addiction

A person suffering from addiction, a brain disease, either engages in a behaviour or abuses a substance despite the negative consequences that follow. The rewarding and pleasurable effects of addiction tend to fuel the habits, rewiring the brain’s pathways of reward.

For example, the following are common themes in addiction:

• Drugs and/or alcohol
• Nicotine
• Gambling
• Sex
• Internet
• Porn

The brains of addicts share a similar neurological feature involving dopamine; they will do almost anything to protect and serve the cravings for pleasure. However, this brain shift can be reversed following the cessation or treatment of addiction.

The symptoms of addiction may look different for everyone, as no addiction is the same. Studies have shown that the recurrent and dangerous use of substances or engagement with behaviours has led scientists to believe there are core characteristics of addiction:

• Impaired control
• Failed attempts to cut down or quit
• Disruption of daily life
• Cravings and withdrawals
• Lack of responsibility
• Becoming socially inept and isolated
• Risk-taking
• Ignoring physical and psychological harm
• Increased tolerance
• Denial of addiction

Many people suffering from addiction tend to be stuck in the stage of denial. This is because the pursuit of their addiction has blinded them to what is going on around them, leaving pleasure to dominate their lives.

Individuals tend to ignore help. This may be the result of hopelessness, shame, failure, or guilt. Some people see addiction as a failure of morality or weakness of will, leading to public and social generalisations and assumptions. Recovery is not linear, nor is it easy, but it is worth it.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published research stating that addiction involves the following criteria: [3]

1. Using more of a substance than intended or using it for longer than you’re meant to.
2. Trying to cut down or stop using the substance but being unable to.
3. Experiencing intense cravings or urges to use the substance.
4. Needing more of the substance to get the desired effect — also called tolerance.
5. Developing withdrawal symptoms when not using the substance.
6. Spending more time getting and using drugs and recovering from substance use.
7. Neglecting responsibilities at home, work, or school because of substance use.
8. Continuing to use even when it causes relationship problems.
9. Giving up important or desirable social and recreational activities due to substance use.
10. Using substances in risky settings that put you in danger.
11. Continuing to use despite the substance causing problems to your physical and mental health.

Over time, addiction is likely to worsen as people feed their cravings. There are three main levels regarding the severity of addiction, gradually worsening.

The levels are based on the number of symptoms the patient presents with:

• 1 symptom = risk of addiction
• 2-4 symptoms = mild addiction
• 4-5 symptoms = moderate addiction
• 6+ symptoms = severe addiction

Combined with physical dependence, mental dependence, and other issues, the personal signs of addiction may look like the following:

• Blood-shot eyes
• Secrets
• Lies
• Injury and bruising
• Covering up the body (even if it is hot)
• Weight changes
• Change in mood
• Memory loss
• Risks
• Anxiety and depression
• Bad hygiene

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if you personally are addicted to something. Questionnaires taken at home or with a professional may help you identify addictive behaviour or thought.

The CAGE questionnaire developed by Professor Ewing screens for alcohol abuse, and has since been developed to screen for drug abuse: [4]

1. Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
2. Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
3. Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking?
4. Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?
5. Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking and drug use?
6. Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking or drug use?
7. Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking or taking drugs?
8. Have you ever felt you needed a drink or used drugs first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?

For each set of 4 questions, if a patient answers with 2 or more YES responses, then they are displaying signs of addiction. Whatever level of addiction someone is presently at, these questionnaires can help people start their recovery today.

This moment you decide to help yourself, is the very beginning of your recovery, you have started your journey.

The first step towards recovery and sober life is breaking out of denial. This includes acknowledging that you have a problem, and you are currently in active addiction.

There is help available to you in Glastonbury, but you should understand that drug and alcohol rehab in Glastonbury, and therapy are not short-term solutions. Despite rehab being long-term and requiring patience and effort, it will be worth it.

To know more about recovery, educate yourself and do research on addiction and rehab in the area. Understanding different programmes can help you in the long run, giving you the best chance of successful rehabilitation.

Start to think about your personal goals and how you want to change your life, this might speed up the process of therapy and help you work on specific coping mechanisms.

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

What is Intervention?

Most people struggling with addiction do not have the ability to quit or cut down on their own, so addiction intervention is required. Intervention in general changes the course of something and therefore the end result.

Addiction intervention aims to change someone’s life by getting them into rehab in Glastonbury.

Interventions are organised efforts to help someone get addiction treatment. This process relies on an emotional and logical appeal to the addicts, helping them review and understand their behaviour and habits. This process creates self-awareness, touching on subjects of love, value, motivation, habits, and causal effects.

There are many different types of intervention to fit different people:

The Systematic Family Model of Intervention

The behaviour that accompanies addiction can seriously affect those around the addict, especially family, friends, and lovers. The following are some side effects of addiction on members around the addict:

• Depression and anxiety
• Weight change
• Suicidal tendencies
• Impulsivity
• Hopelessness
• Anger and aggression

The Family Model of Intervention aims at helping the entire family heal from addiction and what it has caused. At the end of the intervention, the whole family should feel motivated to seek help and treatment for themselves as individuals or as a group.

This is done using healthy communication, support, and regular encouragement. This family model is slightly different to regular intervention that follows the following 5 points:

1. All meetings before the intervention are limited to family only and the addict is not to know
2. There will only be one singular intervention to maintain the effect
3. The intervention will take place in a controlled environment and will include a trained professional
4. Daily life is to carry on before and after the intervention
5. Whether the addict agrees to enter treatment or not, the family must follow through with the consequences of remaining in active addiction

The family model is different:

1. No planned meetings are hidden from the patient, as the addict attends the first intervention with a professional
2. All members present at the meeting openly discuss addiction and its impact on them
3. There is not one singular meeting, as many meetings may be required
4. The addict and the concerned family agree to enter counselling and therapy. Most of the time, the addict will enter inpatient rehab and join the others at family therapy once they have finished residential rehab.

This type of intervention uses emotion as an incentive to seek treatment.

The ‘Love First’ Intervention

This type of intervention uses the family and friends of an addict but is less confrontational in its persuasion. This intervention is organised and rehearsed, often including a professional such as an intervention specialist.

Developed in 2000, this intervention is fairly new:

• The intervention will begin with a concerned person recruiting up to 7 people to discuss the addiction in question
• This selected group will meet multiple times to come up with a plan of encouragement
• Intimacy and a personalised approach are required, so no fewer than 3 people are to meet with the addict
• The person in charge takes the minutes of the meetings, confirming aims, functions, and goals.
• The team members must then write a letter to the addiction, describing their relationship with them and how addiction has impacted them. Be careful not to sound angry or confrontational.
• On a separate sheet of paper concealed in the letter is what we call the ‘bottom line’. Participants of the group are to write three consequences that will take place if addiction is to continue without rehab.
• Members read and rewrite letters to match the aims and core values of the group. The letters will be read out during the intervention.

The ‘Tough Love’ Intervention

This type of intervention has proved challenging and controversial, but it has worked for many people suffering from addiction. This is a surprise intervention but will be planned by the intervention team. In a neutral environment, make sure it won’t pop up at a bad time (e.g. on a comedown or a hangover).

During the intervention, team members will directly state how the addiction is impacting them using “I” statements. There will be a ‘bottom line’ approach with this method, clearly laid out. Consequences often include:

• Not being able to live at home anymore
• Refusal of financial offerings
• Removal of children or pets
• The threat of the end of a relationship
• The threat of termination of contracts and/or employment

This tough love approach is often used when people want to protect themselves from further damage caused by addiction. This type of intervention is best suited for those experiencing severe problems caused by addiction, including suicidal thoughts and self-destructive behaviour.

ARISE Intervention

The ARISE intervention focuses on the promotion of health and empowerment. This includes both the family and the addict in order to build a stable recovery and reduce the chances of relapse.

The team members and professionals make the person aware of how their addiction is creating issues with their health and well-being. Family members are also offered advice on how they can help the addict and heal the family dynamic.

CRAFT intervention

CRAFT, or ‘community reinforcement and family training’, is also founded on family members. These ‘concerned others’ however are the main anchor for steering the patient away from addiction.

The CRAFT method is based on scientific research that states the brain’s reward pathways can be refigured using consequences and rewards for desirable and undesirable behaviour. Families are asked to encourage and reward desired behaviour but let the consequences of addiction occur if they are to lapse or relapse.

Despite having different ways of getting the end goal, all intervention aims to get patients into rehab in Glastonbury. It is then important to present information including the admissions process, types of treatment and therapy, and rehab aftercare, at the intervention.

Intervention has proven effective, and it is not likely that someone with a severe addiction will enter treatment willingly on their own.

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

Types of Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Glastonbury

Once you have sought out professional help, your doctor or clinician will recommend addiction treatment in the form of drug and alcohol rehab in Glastonbury. The type of treatment that is right for you will be determined by the severity and type of addiction:

• How long you have drunk or used drugs
• How much is consumed
• How regularly it is consumed
• Age and health status
• Withdrawals
• Co-occurring disorders

Treatment typically comes in two main forms, inpatient and outpatient. Both of these treatment programmes will start with the process of detoxification, the process of getting ‘clean’. This is usually done under medical supervision with the possibility of medication.

This is due to the withdrawal symptoms that will accompany detox, it is possible that you may need medical care to avoid severe complications. This is a critical step towards recovery, detox, therapy, and support.

The doctor will determine whether you need inpatient drug and alcohol rehab in Glastonbury or outpatient treatment. Inpatient rehab is residential, providing 24/7 care that includes:

• Medical detox
• Individual and group therapy
• Social support sessions
• Skill and technique building
• Medication management
• Aftercare planning

Inpatient treatment can last from 2 weeks to almost a year. How much time is needed in therapy is determined by the person’s addiction. The initial phase of detox will last up to 10 days, followed by specific therapy based on:

• History of abuse, frequency of use, and quantity
• Past attempts of cessation and cutting down
• The level of physical and mental health of the patient

Usually, after inpatient treatment, patients will return home and continue therapy in outpatient care. In every case, continuing with aftercare and therapy shapes long-term success and abstinence.

Patients are taught management techniques and the resources they need to recover from severe addiction. This is taught in a safe and constructive environment where patients can start intense therapy.

Patients will then move to outpatient therapy, or they may start here if their addiction is less severe. Outpatient treatment is not residential, and the programmes vary in length, intensity, and flexibility.

Sessions of individual therapy, group therapy, and different forms of counselling focus on inputting the techniques learnt into your personal life. They will also focus on addiction education, relapse and lapse prevention, stress management, and setting personal goals.

Outpatient treatment in Glastonbury typically lasts from 3 months to a year. During that period of time, patients can receive treatment at the intensive programme and move to a less intense and more flexible programme as time goes on. This may involve reducing attendance and supervision as the patient progresses towards recovery.

For example, a patient may be in treatment at the start for 3 hours, 5 days a week. Towards the end of their treatment, they may only be in for 1 hour, 1 or 2 days a week.

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

Therapy at Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Glastonbury

Both inpatient and outpatient treatment in Glastonbury offer similar forms of therapy but vary in levels of intensity and attendance. All treatments on offer focus on the following:

• The skills and mechanisms to stay sober and fight relapse
• Help educate the patient on addiction and relapse prevention (e.g., risky situations)
• Change how patients respond to thoughts, behaviours, and situations

One of the most common types of therapy for addiction is behavioural therapy. Utilised for both mental health and addiction, behavioural therapy helps many patients suffering from co-occurring disorders.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) are types of behavioural therapy that help patients change their thought patterns and therefore their self-destructive behaviour. [5]

CBT examines the thoughts that reoccur in the brain that lead to addictive habits, gradually phasing them out and replacing them with healthier thoughts. DBT is a type of CBT specifically designed for those who are struggling with their emotions.

In particular, DBT focuses on distress tolerance, mindfulness, the regulation of emotions, and interpersonal effectiveness. [6]

By focusing on the emotions and deep-rooted causes of behaviour, CBT and DBT help patients use coping mechanisms and techniques, reduce substance cravings, identify high-risk situations, and reduce the risk of relapse.

Motivational interviewing focuses on the reservations and anxieties that patients feel about the whole recovery process. By embracing this new lifestyle, change, and the possibility of relapse, motivational interviewing helps patients view recovery in a more positive light.

Contingency management also focuses on motivation, but in the form of incentives. This type of therapy is used to strengthen and develop the motivation for a new and improved life, in line with the goals laid out by professionals and the patient themselves.

The incentives are usually rewards for desirable behaviour, such as clean drug tests and therapy attendance. This typically works best for those who are at a high risk of relapse or dropping out of treatment.

If the patient is struggling with PTSD and other trauma, eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EDMR) challenges negative thoughts and replaces them with happier and healthier thoughts. This is done by engaging the parts of the brain linked to trauma, using dual stimulation.

Group therapy such as Alcoholics Anonymous has treated addiction for decades. This type of group therapy is called 12-step facilitation, as the groups follow the foundational 12 points to help them stay sober and support one another:

The AA follows the next 12 steps:

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 to do 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 to practice these principles in all our affairs.

New participants don’t have to repeat these principles themselves, but they are asked to respect all members of the group and the stories shared. These may include therapy, relapse, and trauma.

Many people continue outpatient treatment for much of their life. This is to work on relapse prevention and develop personal techniques to reduce any risks. [8] [9]

Substance abuse and alcohol addiction involve long-term recovery. This recovery may also touch upon mental health issues as well as related physical health issues connected to addiction. Dedicated teams of professionals will help you select the right treatment centre and rehab facilities in Glastonbury to give your recovery journey the best chance of success.

These will be welcoming environments, offering counselling sessions, alcohol detox, drug detox, and a wide range of services such as:

• one-to-one sessions
• psychological treatment
• holistic treatment
• behavioural therapy
• aftercare and coping mechanisms 

Get Help Today

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

References

[1] Office for National Statistics

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-58710377

[3] https://www.gatewayfoundation.org/addiction-blog/dsm-5-substance-use-disorder/

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

[5] NIH Publication. (2012). Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment; A Research-Based guide (3rd ed.).

[6] Dimeff, L.A., & Linehan, M.M. (2008). Dialectical behavior therapy for substance abusers. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 4(2), 39–47.

[7] https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/

[8] Menon J, Kandasamy A. Relapse prevention. Indian J Psychiatry. 2018 Feb;60(Suppl 4): S473-S478. DOI: 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_36_18. PMID: 29540916; PMCID: PMC5844157.

[9] Marlatt GA, Witkiewitz K. Relapse prevention in Alcohol and drug problems Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in Treatment of Addictive Behaviours. In: Marlatt GA, Donovan DM, editors. 2nd Edition. Guilford Press; 2005