Do Meth Addiction Treatment Centers Ever Offer a Cure for Meth Addiction?
There are a lot of options when it comes to meth addiction treatment. There is inpatient and outpatient. You can choose between staying local and going out-of-state. There are even centers specifically for people of each gender, followers of different religions, and LGBT individuals. When you are considering your options, one of the things you are probably looking for is a center that offers you a cure for meth addiction. Certainly, that option would preferable compared to the alternative.
However, you would have a hard time finding a center that can provide you with a cure because addiction cannot be cured.
Why Can’t Meth Addiction Treatment Cure Me?
Addiction is, in the words of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a “chronic, relapsing” disease. Chronic diseases cannot be cured with medication, but they can successfully be treated. Other examples of chronic diseases include asthma, hypertension, Crohn’s disease, and diabetes. These diseases all last for a considerable amount of time, generally an entire lifetime. And, they cannot be vaccinated against. These characteristics are also true for addiction.
What Does It Mean That It Can Be Treated?
Meth addiction treatment programs provide numerous interventions that work together to help rehab clients manage their addiction. This means that they learn the skills they need to respond responsibly to cravings, among other things. Clients also need to make lifestyle changes.
For example, patients with Crohn’s disease take medication and change their diets to limit the stomach upset they experience. But, keep in mind that there is no medication approved to treat meth addiction or withdrawal.
What Sort of Treatment Does Rehab Offer?
Rather than a cure for meth addiction, rehab engages clients in behavioral therapy, educational sessions, support group meetings, and recreational activities. They learn strategies for coping with stress. They learn how to deal with relapse. They learn about the way that addiction functions and the changes they need to make to manage it. This leads to successful outcomes.
Don’t Trust a Meth Addiction Treatment Center That Claims It Can Sure Meth Addiction
When you are ready to enter meth addiction treatment, you will do a fair amount of research, learning about the approaches that seem appealing to you and finding programs that use these methods. Many programs will be strictly medical in nature. Others will be more holistic, using alternative medicine. And, some will advertise a cure for meth addiction.
It is imperative that you not fall for these claims because there is no cure for addiction and any meth addiction treatment center that says it can give you one is neither reputable nor trustworthy.
Chronic Diseases Cannot Be Cured
Although the notion is certainly appealing, meth addiction can’t be cured because no addiction can be. Addiction is a chronic disease, meaning it cannot be vaccinated or cured via medication and that it will likely last for the remainder of your life. Asthma, hypertension, diabetes, and Crohn’s disease are all examples of other chronic diseases.
Relapse Is to Be Expected
Chronic diseases relapse regularly. If there were a cure, you could expect to never relapse, and that isn’t the case. In fact, people with a drug addiction relapse 40-60 percent of the time, which is less than the relapse rate for asthma and hypertension. Among patients who have surgery for Crohn’s disease, for example, 30 percent relapse in within 3 years and 60 percent do within 10 years.
Programs That Claim to Cure Meth Addiction Endanger Your Recovery
If you go into recovery with the expectation that you have experienced a cure for meth addiction, you will anticipate unrealistic results. You won’t properly invest in your recovery and remain vigilant about signs of relapse, which means relapse is more likely. If you expect a cure and relapse, then you will think that treatment is a waste and you likely won’t get the care that you need and deserve. It’s unfortunate that any meth addiction treatment program would set you up to fail, but some people are so interested in profit that they behave unethically.
Expecting a Cure to Meth Addiction from a Meth Addiction Treatment Center Sets You Up to Fail
The outcomes of treating meth addiction depend largely upon your engagement in the process. One of the real issues with recovery is program retention, or keeping you in rehab for the entire duration of your treatment. This is one important reason for doing a little research and finding a drug addiction treatment facility that uses and approach and methods that are appealing to you and seem like a good match for your unique situation.
When you are looking for a good match, you may decide that you need a program that offers a cure to meth addiction. Whether this is because the center claims they have a cure of you have simply determined that you need one, counting on a cure almost guarantees you will not be able to maintain recovery.
Why Is Expecting a Cure for Meth Addiction a Bad Thing?
In truth, this attitude is dangerous because there is no cure for meth addiction. It is a chronic disease that will remain with you for the entirety of your life and it cannot be vaccinated against or cured with medication. This probably makes sense if you think of meth addiction as you would other chronic diseases, like Crohn’s disease, asthma, diabetes, and hypertension. All of these conditions are incredibly receptive to treatment, but that doesn’t guarantee that symptoms will not recur in the future. It is likely you will relapse at some point because the addiction remains present.
What Effect Can This Expectation Have on My Treatment Options?
If you have decided you need a cure, then you will only attend treatment that offers one. As there is no actual cure, any program advertising one is obviously misrepresenting themselves, which points to some obvious issues with the reliability of the care they provide. This expectation will lead you to choose a substandard meth addiction treatment facility, which will lead to lesser outcomes.
Additionally, if you have this expectation, your entire recovery will be undone if you relapse. Truly believing in a cure means you won’t anticipate relapse and when it happens, it will be a signal that you are not truly cured and this generally leads people to believe treatment is a scam, a useless endeavor. Many people just give in to the relapse because they think there is no way to truly fight meth addiction.
What Should I Be Expecting?
You should be looking for treatment, not a cure for meth addiction. Using a variety of evidence based methods, professional treatment helps its clients manage their addiction. You can stop using drugs and you can return to full functioning in every area of your life.