Drug Treatment Bay Area : Behavioral Therapies For Drug Addiction Treatment

Drug addiction is a persistent disease characterized by obsessive, or irrepressible, drug seeking and use despite the destructive consequences and changes in the brain, which can be long lasting. Behavioral therapies can be used for drug treatment in Bay Area. These help patients:

• To modify their attitudes and behaviors related to drug use.
• To increase healthy life skills.
• To persist with other forms of treatment, such as medication.

Patients can receive treatment for drug addiction with the following approaches.

Outpatient Behavioral Treatment

It includes a wide variety of programs for patients who visit a behavioral health counselor on a regular schedule. Most of the treatment programs entail individual or group drug counseling, or both. They typically offer forms of behavioral therapy such as:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy– It helps patients recognize, avoid, and cope with the situations in which they are most likely to use drugs
• Multidimensional family therapy– Developed for adolescents with drug abuse problems as well as their families, which addresses a range of influences on their drug abuse patterns and is designed to improve overall family functioning
• Motivational interviewing– It makes the most of people's readiness to change their behavior and enter treatment
• Motivational incentives (contingency management)– It uses positive reinforcement to encourage abstinence from drugs

Inpatient or residential treatment 

It can also be very effective, especially for those with more severe problems. Licensed residential treatment facilities offer 24-hour structured and intensive care, including safe housing and medical attention. The facilities for residential drug treatment in Bay Area may use an array of therapeutic approaches, and are often focused at helping the patient live a drug-free, crime-free lifestyle after treatment.

• Therapeutic communities– These are highly structured programs in which patients remain at a residence, typically for 6 to 12 months. The entire community, including treatment staff and those in recovery, act as key agents of change, influencing the patient’s attitudes, understanding, and behaviors associated with drug use.
• Shorter-term residential treatment– It typically focuses on detoxification as well as providing initial intensive counseling and preparation for treatment in a community-based setting.
• Recovery housing– It offers supervised, short-term housing for patients, often following other types of inpatient or residential treatment. Recovery housing can help people make the transition to an independent life.