Drug Detox in Amarillo, Texas (877) 804-1531

Drug detoxification is the process of allowing all traces of a psychoactive substance to leave the body in order to break its dependence on the substance. Drug detox in Amarillo doesn't have to be a painful, traumatic experience. The drug detox process involves medical and mental health personnel who are on-hand to offer support and provide medications as needed to reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms.

How Detox Works: The Science of Dependence

When you chronically abuse drugs or alcohol, your brain changes the way it functions in order to compensate for the presence of the drug. It may reduce or increase the amount of certain brain chemicals in an attempt to balance out their activity in the presence of the substance. But at some point, brain function may reach a state where the brain begins to function more comfortably when the substance is present. Then, when it's withheld from the body for a certain period of time, brain function rebounds, and this causes withdrawal symptoms. These typically peak after a few days, but it can take a couple of weeks for symptoms to subside.

Common Withdrawal Symptoms

Medical drug detox for addiction involves administering various medications as needed to treat withdrawal symptoms and prevent complications during detox.

Intense cravings are the most common and universal withdrawal symptom for all drugs of abuse. Certain medications can help alleviate cravings for some substances, like heroin and alcohol, but no medications have been approved by the FDA for others, including cocaine and marijuana cravings. Other withdrawal symptoms depend on the substance of abuse. Not everyone will experience all of the symptoms of withdrawal associated with a particular drug, and symptoms can range from mild to severe, depending on a number of factors.

Mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal symptoms include nausea and vomiting, anxiety, sweating, shaky hands, headache, and insomnia. In some cases, severe symptoms may occur, including seizures, hallucinations, racing and irregular heartbeat, and severe tremors. These may be life-threatening and are considered a medical emergency. A drug detox treatment facility will be equipped to help prevent the onset of these symptoms as well as treat them should they occur.

Opioid withdrawal, which includes detox from heroin and opioid painkillers like OxyContin, isn't dangerous, but it can be severe. The most common symptoms of withdrawal are flulike and include body aches, abdominal cramps and diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, and cold sweats. A number of medications used during drug detox in Amarillo can help reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms and speed up the detox process.

Symptoms of stimulant withdrawal, including withdrawal from cocaine and prescription stimulants like Adderall, include deep depression, agitation, irritability, paranoia, and insomnia. Medications used in medical drug detox in Amarillo include antidepressants to treat depression, insomnia, and agitation.

Withdrawal from benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium, which are used to treat anxiety, can be dangerous. Since no medications are approved to treat symptoms of withdrawal, which include: sweating, difficulty concentrating, nausea, anxiety, and sleep disturbances, drug detox in Amarillo for this class of drugs involves tapering off the doses over time to avoid the onset of withdrawal symptoms altogether.

Why Medical Detox is Best

Amarillo drug detox centers specialize in helping you safely and comfortably detoxify from drugs or alcohol. People who try to detox on their own are more likely to return to drugs or alcohol very quickly to end the discomfort, while medical drug detox programs increase the chances that you'll get through withdrawal without relapsing.

Medical detox is essential for safe withdrawal from alcohol and benzodiazepines, which can produce life-threatening symptoms that onset quickly.

Drug Detox is Not the Same as Treatment

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) stresses that while medical detox can help you safely and successfully withdraw from drugs or alcohol, the drug detox process on its own is not a treatment for addiction. Addiction is a complex disease that affects your behaviors and the structures and functions of the brain. It's characterized by the inability to stop using a substance even though it's causing problems in your life, and even though you may want to or have tried to quit. It generally takes more than good intentions and willpower to end an addiction, according to NIDA.

After the drug detox process is complete, our high quality addiction treatment program in Amarillo will use a variety of traditional and alternative therapies to address the complex issues that underlie the addiction, which may include chronic stress, mental illnesses like anxiety or depression, or a history of trauma. Delving into these issues through therapy and learning to replace unhealthy thoughts and behaviors with healthier ways of thinking and behaving is the best way to end an addiction for the long-term, and it will improve your quality of life and sense of well-being in the process.

You don't have to go through this alone. Amarillo Drug Rehab Centers is here to help. If you or a loved one is suffering from addiction and wants to learn more about drug detox in Amarillo, call us now at (877) 804-1531.