If you or someone close to you is struggling with prescription drug addiction but can’t stay long-term at an inpatient or residential rehab facility, there are other outpatient prescription treatment options. If you are looking for outpatient prescription treatment, the best course of action is typically outpatient prescription drug programs that start with detox.
What are the Signs of Prescription Drug Abuse?
The signs of prescription drug abuse are very similar to any type of drug abuse. They can take the form of physical, behavioral, or psychological signs. There are different types of prescription drugs that people typically abuse, the most common of which are opioids, sedatives, and stimulants.
- Someone abusing prescription drugs might have a medicine cabinet full of multiple prescriptions for themselves written by different doctors. Conversely, they might have a cabinet full of prescriptions written for other people. This is usually a sign that they have swindled multiple doctors simultaneously.
- Someone abusing prescription drugs might suddenly have financial problems or trouble with the law.
- Someone abusing prescription drugs might exhibit behavioral changes where they no longer participate in activities they once loved, pull away from friends and family, and be very secretive about their behavior. When you talk to them, they might not seem like they’re completely paying attention, depending on what drugs they are using.
What Treatment is Best for Prescription Drug Addiction?
Prescription drugs, whether they are opioids, stimulants, benzodiazepines, or other drugs, have a very rapid effect on the body and brain. They change the way the brain and body communicate with one another and function. This can lead to severe withdrawal symptoms when you suddenly stop taking prescription drugs. The best treatment for prescription drug addiction starts with detox.
Detox, especially medically supervised detox, is a way to get rid of any residual compounds and overcome the initial withdrawal symptoms. This, in effect, helps your body and brain go back to normal, what you had before your addiction.
Medication-Assisted Detox
However, you might need medically assisted detox programs with certain prescription drugs. Medically assisted detox programs are programs where you are under medical supervision for the duration, and during that time, you are given different medications to help ease the symptoms.
For severe cases of things like opioid addiction, there are FDA-approved medications and prescriptions you might take as a stepping stone to help you transition to less potent drugs, then less potent, and then not potent at all. It might seem counterintuitive to use drugs to help you cut addiction to drugs, but certain prescriptions have such a strong impact on the body and such severe withdrawal symptoms, but slightly less harmful medications offer a more comfortable step-down approach.
Similarly, certain FDA approved detox programs also require long-term medication, and these medications do things like changing the way your body responds to the drugs so that if you have a relapse and you try to take prescription drugs again, it won’t give you the same high or it will make you very ill.
Many of these treatment plans have a requirement for therapy attendance, usually in the form of outpatient group and individual meetings.
Is There Outpatient Prescription Drug Programs?
So, are there outpatient prescription drug programs? Yes. However, with an outpatient prescription treatment program, you usually have to start with detox.
For people who can’t afford, literally or figuratively, to leave their jobs, their responsibilities, their families, or their everyday lives, outpatient prescription treatment will usually start with a fast detox in a local hospital or rehab facility. So the detox is still medically supervised. But you only have to take between a few days and one week off from your responsibilities rather than taking a few months off for an inpatient program.
After you have completed your initial detox then, you return home and continue attending any required meetings and taking any required medication. All the while, you get to sleep at home and work those meetings in and around your schedule.
How to Find Outpatient Addiction Programs
At Total RMH, we can help you find outpatient addiction programs in Beverly Hills, no matter your situation. Our team works with you during an initial assessment to figure out your physical health, mental health, tolerance, the substances you use, and personal preferences.
With that information in mind, we design a customized program for you.
Some people have tried outpatient rehab before. They attended group meetings at a local NA chapter. Then they had a relapse and went back to using. Now they are fearful that outpatient programs won’t work.
With these types of situations, our team can use that information to develop a more comprehensive outpatient program with different levels of care, not just local NA meetings but lifestyle skills, individual psychotherapy to give better-coping skills, and more.
Everyone deserves an outpatient prescription treatment that is individualized for them. And that’s where we come in. We treat the mind and body as one, providing outpatient holistic treatment and evidence-based therapies so that you can target your physical dependence and the mental aspect of your addiction at the same time.
Let Total RMH help you find outpatient addiction programs in your area. Contact us today to learn about our Beverly Hills treatment programs.