While Texas is commonly cited as a state plagued with the opiate epidemic, rarely do reporters, journalists, and researchers point their lenses at the individual counties that are being destroyed by addiction. San Antonio County is one of the worst when it comes to the current state of the opiate crisis. Help for Drug addiction San Antonio is more necessary now than ever before, as prescription pills and illicit drugs like heroin continue to increase in abuse. While this situation is one of the worst in the country, drug addiction detox centers have started to improve upon their own treatment methods to combat heroin addiction, adding a small silver lining to San Antonio County's situation.
In this article, we're going to take a closer look at the effect the opioid epidemic has had on San Antonio county, and how Help for Drug Addiction San Antonio can make a difference.
While in some rare cases drug addicts will skip straight to heroin, most heroin abuse starts through the abuse of prescription pills. It's a story that's played out a million time over, a patient has a legitimate injury and a doctor prescribes them a drug like oxycontin to help alleviate the pain. After using the prescription as intended, the patient slowly begins to abuse the drug regularly until their tolerance builds to a point in which prescription pills no longer offer the same high as before, only for them to turn to heroin, a cheaper, more potent opioid. For many, a seemingly routine visit to the doctor after an injury can be the start of their own personal opioid crisis, and the increase in prescriptions for opioids, coupled with the sudden increase of regulations for prescriptions has led people to heroin by the millions.
This situation only becomes worse when patients are cut off from the drug completely, as opioids have intense withdrawal symptoms that drive many addicts to use simply to avoid feeling "sick". Opioid withdrawals can range from the seemingly harmless side effects like nausea and chills, to the potentially life threatening risks of seizures, respiratory arrest, and cardiac arrest. Because of this, we cannot stress enough the importance of detoxing at one of the many addiction help San Antonio in the county. Medically supervised detoxes in drug addiction detox centers can be the difference between a detox of relative ease, and a potentially fatal attempt at sobriety.
As we mentioned before, one of the main benefits of enrolling in a drug addiction detox center is the advanced medically supervised detoxes offer by a number of the addiction help San Antonio resources, but there is so much more to treatment than just detox.
During inpatient treatment, patients participate in a number of group and individual activities that help teach patients how to cope with withdrawal symptoms, cravings, triggers, and potentially dangerous situations for someone in recovery. These activities generally include things like: Coping Skill Management Classes, Relapse Prevention Classes, Family Therapy Sessions, Outdoor Activities and Exercises, Nutritional Classes, Individual Therapy Sessions, Group Therapy Sessions, Alumni Visits and Meetings, Twelve Step Speaker Meetings, Outside Twelve Step Meetings, and Creative Outlets like Art and Writing Classes. These type of treatment methods help patients build healthier lifestyles by teaching them to take care of not only their bodies, but their minds.
Are you or someone you know struggling with drug addiction in the San Antonio area? Help for Drug Addiction San Antonio might be the solution you need to get back on track. Give us a call at (877) 804-1531 to hear your options.