I’m Ready To Find Drug Counseling Near Me: Where To Start Navigating Your Addiction
If you’re considering treatment for a substance use disorder, you’re already on the right track. Just the fact that you are searching “addiction counseling near me” is a great start, because the toughest part of recovery is the beginning: admitting you have a problem. This article will explain how to find a therapist who specializes in helping people with substance use disorders so you can start receiving treatment that works for you.
If you are looking for an addiction therapist or professional that specializes in addiction and overcoming drug use or alcohol use, we will outline some resources for you in this article. Taking the time to research and ask for help is a huge step, and the most important one you can make to help get back to the life you deserve. “Addiction” is a word that seems simple but can cover a complex range of human experiences. Addiction involves a compulsive need for a substance, behavior, or activity, usually something that brings negative consequences.
What Is Substance Use Counseling?
Substance use counseling, sometimes called addiction therapy, combines mental health treatment with drug and alcohol addiction treatment. It can also be helpful for behavioral addictions. Programs with an addiction therapist can be inpatient or outpatient. Regardless of where you seek treatment, you’ll talk to a licensed and trained substance use counselor or addiction therapist in a clinical environment. In counseling, you’ll speak to a mental health professional to identify factors contributing to your substance use behaviors. In talk therapy, you may discuss addiction causes, develop coping skills, practice those skills, and attend group therapy. Some people also find twelve-step programs for substance use helpful.
Just by preparing to ask for help, you’re deciding to better your life. Acknowledging dependency is hard, but addiction can be debilitating and potentially deadly. When you realize you have an addiction, whether to drugs, alcohol, or something else, one of the bravest and most difficult things to do is seek help. Substance use disorder can exist alongside or even be caused by depression, anxiety, past trauma, or another mental health disorder. All of these issues are treatable. You’re not alone, and there is hope.
How To Find An Addiction Counselor or Addiction Therapist In Your State
Searching for an addiction therapist or addiction counselor online will yield many results, but you might feel uneasy if you don’t know how experienced a counselor is in their field. Having a referral from someone you know, a mental health professional who has a master’s degree or doctoral degree, or from another trusted medical or mental health professional is a great way to find a counselor to see for substance use treatment, but it can be difficult if you’re nervous about revealing you have a substance use issue. One solution is to call a national helpline such as SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
You can also look into treatment facilities to find a substance use counselor or addition therapist. These facilities have experts who understand addiction, and their counselors are trained to help people through substance use recovery.
Substance Use Treatment Facilities
Substance use treatment facilities are places where individuals can seek treatment for substance use issues. These facilities have teams of clinicians, addiction therapists and other experts that understand substance use disorder and how to treat it. The first component of addiction treatment is the evaluation process. An evaluation establishes your background and needs so that you can receive personalized treatment. Addiction treatment settings include social workers, psychologists, addiction counselors, psychiatrists, and an entire clinical team.
Individual counseling with a licensed therapist who specializes in substance use can help you gain a deeper understanding of addiction, learn coping skills, and prevent relapse. Group therapy is another option, and it can be a powerful resource for recovery and staying clean; sometimes knowing you are not alone can make a big difference. Most facilities offer both individual and group counseling.
What’s An Addiction Psychiatrist?
An addiction psychiatrist is someone who specializes in mental health and comorbid issues (other mental health issues that occur at the same time as the substance use disorder). They provide short medication management sessions, checking to see how medications are working and making adjustments as needed. An addiction psychiatrist can determine whether you’re adequately medicated for substance use to prevent relapse. Medication can help with the cravings that can result from a substance use disorder. An addiction psychiatrist will know how to handle your unique situation. Be honest about your symptoms. If you’re experiencing cravings for a particular substance, tell your psychiatrist, and they can help you through it and provide a more personalized treatment process.
Find The Right Addiction Therapist Or Drug Counselor
Some individuals find an addiction or drug counselor through the recommendation of a family member or friend, while others receive a referral from a general physician (such referrals are confidential). When you find a licensed addiction counselor, you should check their credentials: appropriate education and certification to work with substance use issues. Searching online reviews can also confirm that a counselor is ethical and has worked well with others.
If you think you’ve found a good fit with a counselor or addiction therapist, call them for a phone consultation before scheduling your first session. You do not need to make an in-person appointment until you feel comfortable doing so. After an in-person meeting with a substance use counselor or addiction therapist, consider whether the session felt productive and safe. If so, keep going. If not, you have the right to explore other counselor options to find your best fit; no qualified counselor will take your decision personally. Keep in mind, though, that it might take more than one session to know whether your counselor suits your individual needs, and that is OK.
Addiction Treatment is Crucial
No matter how severely you are struggling with substance use, there is hope for people struggling with the many different types. Getting help with addiction is a unique challenge because you are treating more than just substance use—you are also addressing potential underlying mental health issues. Many people experience addiction as a way of covering up or denying something else, such as mental health issues or trauma, and that deeper process of healing takes time. A mental health professional can help you make a plan to take control of your life, one day at a time.
BetterHelp Can Help
In addition to pursuing help through treatment facilities, you might find that subsequent therapy with a mental health professional and different therapy options can support your recovery, help you set achievable goals, and prevent relapse. Alternatively, if your substance use disorder stems from underlying issues like trauma, anxiety, or depression, you may want to focus on the issue at its source by keeping up a regular schedule of mental health counseling. For these and other services, online therapy from BetterHelp might be a great fit to help you find a good addiction therapist or another mental health professional.
BetterHelp will match you with a licensed mental health professional who can help you continue on your recovery journey. Online therapy with BetterHelp is convenient, flexible, and affordable; you will not need to arrange in-person appointments or deal with traffic and waiting rooms. You will be able to access mental healthcare when you need it, from the comfort of your own home, in whichever format—video chats, phone calls, emails, or text messages—is the best fit for you. This flexibility also allows you to communicate with a counselor as privately as you wish, without having to get your medical provider involved. The reviews below show how BetterHelp has been able to support others on their substance use recovery journeys.
Conclusion
Once you establish a plan that includes therapy costs, coping skills, relapse prevention, and where to go for support, you will start to feel more in control and peaceful in your life. Whether you work with somebody in your local area or you find a therapist at BetterHelp for addiction therapy sessions, you deserve to have good mental health, and it’s important to make that a priority in your recovery from addiction. With the right tools, you can do it. Take the first step.
Commonly Asked Questions On This Topic Found Below:
What are the 4 levels of the addiction process?
While everyone has a difference experience with drugs and alcohol addiction, mental health experts and professional counselors have found that people who go through these four phases have a higher risk of developing an addiction:
- Drug and alcohol experimentation: particularly among young people, experimenting with drugs, alcohol, and other addictive substances can lead to the person becoming addicted in the long run. The person’s environment, mental health, and biology also play a role during this stage.
- Regular or social use: when the person starts using drugs or alcohol regularly during social situations. Not everyone who uses drugs or alcohol socially will develop a dependency. But for some people, this becomes a sort of fork in the road in the development of an addiction.
- Abuse or risky use: when someone starts abusing drugs on a regular basis, lying or hiding their use from their family and friends, or using during risky situations, it could be a sign that they are becoming addicted.
- Addiction: the final stage of drug addiction is chemical or psychological dependence, which happens when the person needs to use the drug despite of its negative consequences.
What is the recovery rate for addiction?
Addiction can be treated successfully with the right treatment. Recovery rates vary depending on several factors, but in general, research suggests that about 60% of people who develop an addiction will recover completely. If you are struggling with substance use, things that you can do right now to help overcome addiction include:
- Acknowledge that there is a problem
- Consider the benefits of sobriety versus addiction
- Seek professional help. Cognitive behavioral therapy with an addiction therapist, substance use counselors, and other mental health professionals are great resources to find the right addiction treatment
- Identify your triggers (the people, things, or places that make you more likely to use) and work towards removing them from your life
- Find yourself a support system that wants to help you stay clean
- Exercise and eat well
- Get enough sleep
- Find activities that help you relax, such as meditating
How does addiction affect the brain?
Using drugs or other harmful substances for a long period can alter your brain chemistry and architecture. Specifically, they overstimulate the brain’s reward system, making you crave that ‘high,’ pleasurable sensation more often, but making it so you actually achieve it less and less frequently, which leads you to consume greater amounts of the substance.
What are the 4 types of drugs?
The four types of drugs include:
- Depressants
- Hallucinogens
- Stimulants
- Opioids
If you are struggling with substance abuse, don’t hesitate to reach out to a doctor or mental health professional for help.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does it mean to be addicted?
“Addiction” is a word that seems simple but can cover a complex range of human experiences. Addiction involves a compulsive need for a substance, behavior, or activity, usually something that brings negative consequences. Today, the term “drug abuse” has is now referred to as drug use disorder, or substance use disorder.
The concept of addiction is commonly associated with drug and alcohol substance use, but in truth, you can become addicted to anything. For example, an emerging form of addiction is internet addiction: overuse of the internet for non-productive activities, usually social media or similar recreational sites, in ways that impede day-to-day functioning and health and can lead to other severe problems.
Other examples of behavior addictions include gambling addictions and sex addiction. Some individuals experience addictions to having sex with other people, usually strangers, which can lead to STIs or other sexual consequences.
The line between a habit and addictions can be blurred. A habit tends to form over a long period of time, and it can be good or bad. With a less intensive approach like cognitive behavioral therapy, you can change a negative habit. However, intense brain chemistry makes treating addictions and recovering from an addiction more difficult than changing a habit.
What is the role of an addiction counselor?
Addiction counseling involves helping clients or patients who have an addiction, drug abuse, or substance use disorder. In general, addiction counseling involves building trust between the clients and the counselor, so the client can express their emotions and experiences without feeling judged, which can offer them great insight.
With a client’s permission, a drug counselor may speak with a family member or their entire family during therapy sessions to create an emergency plan, but counseling is confidential. One counselor or addiction therapist may employ several techniques, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which can reduce the link between addictive thoughts and habits. Other therapists or counselors may evaluate a client’s thoughts, behavior, environments, people, or other concepts that trigger addictive cravings and promote a higher risk of addiction, especially during vulnerable states.
What does a drug therapist do?
A drug therapist works with a client to detox them of the drugs they are addicted to, then works with them to fight the addiction. This can be for a short or long period. Drug therapists and other mental health professionals helping clients overcome addiction may use different therapy techniques to change how one thinks and behaves in order to reduce cravings. Drug therapists also focus on relapse prevention.
What is the best therapy for substance use?
Substance use is treated through various forms of therapy, which also ranges in therapy costs. Therapists know that each person is unique and may need different therapies to aid in their recovery. Here are some therapies used:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive behavioral therapy is a versatile, evidence-based form of mental health therapy that explores the relationship between thoughts and habits. In the context of addiction therapy, CBT tends to involve the thoughts that may feed into addiction; changing thoughts can sometimes change habits, and vice versa.
- Dialectal behavioral therapy (DBT) involves working with a mental health professional to reduce the cravings one experiences, as well as their severity, through increasing emotional and cognitive regulation—balancing thoughts and feelings to avoid undesired behaviors.
- Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) involves a patient working with a mental health professional to learn to think more rationally and positively to help change their emotions and thereby their behaviors.
- 12-step programs are quite popular and consist of meetings where individuals can meet anonymously to discuss their recovery journeys. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are two such examples.