Alcohol Abuse Advice

Alcohol Treatment: What’s Available?

A wide range of alcohol treatment is available to both prevent and manage alcohol addiction.

Alcohol dependency prevention

Treatment is available to help prevent regular drinking spilling over into becoming alcoholism. This type of alcohol treatment is aimed at people who are concerned about their drinking and worried that it may escalate into more problematic drinking.

An alcohol dependency prevention programme will assess how close you are to becoming dependent on alcohol. Through these programmes, personalised plans can be developed and individuals will be encouraged to assess why they drink and how dangerous drinking habits can develop.

Detox

If you have already developed a dependence on alcohol and want to stop drinking, you will probably need to detox first. You should always consult a medical professional as there are serious risks and in some cases the side-effects can make people very ill. The detox process works by substituting a alcohol with another substance. Once the alcohol detox is complete, the substitute medication is gradually withdrawn.

In many cases, alcohol detox is fully completely within a week to ten days. However, this does not mean that the journey to quitting alcohol is complete. Rehabilitation, therapy and afercare are all important parts of rehab treatment.

Rehabilitation

Quitting drinking alcohol is not just about breaking the physical addiction; it’s also learning to live life without alcohol. Rehabilitation helps individuals manage situations in life without turning to alcohol and also to deal with the inevitable cravings and temptations which are likely to occur.

Rehabilitation programmes cover issues such as staying sober and living an alcohol-free life. It will also look at how recovering alcoholics can rediscover their purpose and passion in life and how to avoid giving into alcohol cravings and prevent going into relapse by drinking again. Rehabilitation also aims to give recovering alcoholics the skills they need to be able to make alcohol-free choices in their life.

Aftercare

Research shows that the period following rehabilitation can be the most difficult as a recovering alcoholic attempts to adjust to normal life again. Day-to-day life can present many challenges and difficulties. Support during and after this phase, known as ‘aftercare’, can really help individuals quit drinking for good and not relapse into their old ways.

All good rehab clinics should offer an aftercare programme and the options will vary depending on individuals’ needs. Aftercare techniques include one-to-one and group sessions, practical tips on avoiding relapse, discussion about why people relapse, specialist training sessions and more.