Opiates Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Colorado Medication Assisted Recovery

Families aren’t just groups of people who live together, they are ecosystems. Our personal development is completely effected by, and often hinges on, the support, love, laughter, neglect, loss & abuse we experience at home. It is where we learn to love, laugh, and cry, where attachments are formed, and detachment is taught healthily or otherwise. Yet when addiction happens to a member of a family, treatment is usually totally focused on them.

Family therapy, couples counseling, self-help support groups for the loved ones of addicts, these are all fantastic forms of help to heal the wounds addiction has caused. So too is attachment & family constellation work for the addicted individual. But without addressing all three sides, the needs of the identified patient (the addict), the needs of the family, and the reintegration of all parties into an evolved state of being, things will never be truly as good as they could be. Not to mention, not doing the “family work” could lead to relapse of the patient, or feelings of resentment on behalf of the family, the patient, or both. This is as true for couples as it is for larger nuclear families.

At CMAR, we support the healing of entire family systems, because it is in healing the system as a whole, that the individual recovers and the system can become and stay whole. It rarely looks the same way twice, but unless the family system is tended to, systemic healing is often impossible. We provide updates to patients’ families weekly (when the proper releases are signed), family therapy weekly (just the family or the family and the patient), provide referrals for more intensive family work, and referrals to high-quality self-help support groups as well. We do all of this because we recognize the crucial role families play in the recovery of a loved one.

If a loved one needs help for an opioid addiction, CMAR is Colorado’s most comprehensive opioid-specific addiction treatment program statewide. We will provide more care for less than any other private organization. This includes support and works with the families and other loved ones in a patient’s life. We do this because we care…

Learn More at www.Colorado-Recovery.com or call (720) 778-2627

Opiate addiction is a unique disorder, that requires specialized care. Among other things, this means that opioid-dependent individuals need an outpatient treatment program just for them, tailored to their needs alone. This may sound ridiculous because chemical-addiction is chemical-addiction, but there’s more to it than that.

Just because nearly every treatment program treats all addictions, doesn’t make that approach the best course of action. Certainly, opioid-addicts achieve recovery in general “addiction treatment”, but statistically their rate of success is far below that of their alcoholic, benzodiazepine, and stimulant-addicted counterparts. This is for a variety of reasons…

Research tells us that abstinence-only treatment, in which addicted persons are made to stop absolutely all potentially mood-altering substances is not effective for those with acute opioid dependence.

The majority of opioid-addicts relapse and frequently die following an attempt at total abstinence, though some do “make it”. This isn’t to say that the solution is to continue recreational drug use or to be on MAT forever. Rather, research has proven that a combination of opioid replacement medications like Suboxone or Naltrexone (for a period of time) plus structured and comprehensive therapy, and peer-support, leads to unmatched success rates. This is the beauty of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT).

The problem with integrating MAT into traditional treatment is more than just the difference in treatment approaches… The problem is stigma. Traditional treatment, which often uses 12-step as the primary intervention, preaches total abstinence. Unfortunately, even if treatment is segregated between those practicing abstinence and those on MAT, the patients on MAT will exist in an unsupportive environment. The patients practicing abstinence routinely stigmatize those on MAT, leading to heightened stress, a feeling of being “different”, and even the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

At Colorado Medication Assisted Recovery, we are completely dedicated to treating individuals suffering from opioid dependence and co-occurring addictions and mental health conditions. This enables us to cultivate a community of supportive individuals, all with a similar story. Whether a patient does a rapid-taper and gets totally off of MAT medications, or they remain on it for a longer period of time, every CMAR patients has “been there” and can relate to one another.

Learn More at www.Colorado-Recovery.com or call (720) 778-2627

Category: Opiates

Why Supporting Families Leads to Better Outcomes for Opiate-Addiction Recovery

Stigma in Outpatient Rehab: Why Opioid-Dependent People Need Their Own Program