Addiction treatment and rehab is more than detoxification after months or years of heroin abuse. After you go through detox, you need addiction counseling to learn about your substance use and overcome it. This therapy also helps you improve your mental health. Heroin rehab is where this counseling takes place, ideally involving you in individual counseling, group therapy, and family sessions.
Why do I need addiction counseling?
You need counseling because addiction is not just physical dependence on heroin. Even after you get through detox and your body cleans itself of the drug toxins, you face a very high risk of relapse. You likely know multiple people who left heroin detox clean, only to relapse. Some do not survive these events, suffering overdose that leads to death.
Relapse happens for a variety of reasons. These include:
- Stress, such as unexpected life events or daily stress
- Environmental cues, such as seeing places you once used
- Unresolved trauma
- Social connections, such as others who abuse substances
- Mental health issues left untreated
Each of these entices you to use heroin again. To avoid falling back into your substance abuse and addiction, you must learn to cope with the effects of heroin abuse in a healthy way. These effects include life problems, cravings, and behavioral triggers. Counseling teaches you how to deal with and prevent relapse.
Addiction counseling takes place in a variety of treatment settings. Typical programs include:
- Detox
- Residential or inpatient rehab
- Intensive outpatient program
- Partial hospitalization
- Outpatient program
- Aftercare
Individual Counseling and Group Therapy
Two types of counseling used for addiction include individual sessions, sometimes called psychotherapy, and group therapy. Group therapy takes place among your peers in recovery under a therapist’s guidance. As part of the group, you all learn together how to avoid relapse, support each other, and cope with life problems. Group members also challenge you in new ways, helping you grow.
In an individual therapy program, you work one-on-one with a licensed therapist. You can focus on your unique needs not addressed in the group or dive more deeply into subjects discussed among your peers. If you suffer a mental health condition as part of a dual diagnosis, you also receive treatment for that condition.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most common types of behavioral therapy used in addiction treatment programs. CBT teaches you how to change your negative thoughts, feelings, and moods to prevent negative behaviors. You learn how to avoid your triggers and replace negativity with a healthy thought process.
CBT works very well for addiction and a wide range of behavioral problems. You learn lifelong skills that help you improve every aspect of your day-to-day experience. But CBT requires a specially trained therapist, so not all rehabs offer this counseling method.
Contingency Management and Motivational Interviewing
Contingency management helps you stay clean through the use of positive incentives. As you reach personal goals in your treatment and avoid relapse, you receive vouchers for privileges, goods, or services.
In motivational interviewing, your counselors work to motivate you to remain clean of heroin. They do this by tapping into your personal motivations. They use those things that naturally drive you toward goals as a point of focus in your treatment.
Family Therapy
Family therapy, sometimes used as couples therapy, addresses the effects of addiction on the people who love you. This counseling also works on family problems that lead to or contribute to your substance abuse. Such family problems include domestic violence, family history of addiction, enabling behaviors, and codependency. By coming together as a family in counseling, the whole family can heal and shape a healthier lifestyle.
Therapy Benefits Virtually Everyone
Almost everyone benefits from treatment, particularly those recovering from addiction and mental health disorders. Without this focused treatment, you face likely relapse. But when you attend counseling, learn new skills and use those skills each day in recovery, you can stay clean.
Heroin addiction is not something you can end on your own. You need help getting away from the deadly cycle that consumes you today. Call a quality rehab center now and learn more about their addiction counseling methods before you lose your chance.
