Defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a chronic disease characterized by a compulsive need to repeatedly use certain drugs, addiction causes several imbalances within the brain and throughout the body. It’s these changes that can make recovery a challenge for addicts wishing to end their dependency. A safer alternative for patients looking to avoid this stressful and potentially dangerous stage of recovery is rapid detox.
What Is Rapid Detox?
Allowing patients to become drug free in one day, rapid detox is an accelerated process of removing drugs from the body. It’s performed under general anesthesia by a trained medical staff. The patient remains in a comfortable, unaware state in a safe, supervised setting during a process that takes anywhere from half an hour to nearly two hours to complete. The patient is given naloxone to ease side effects associated with the removal of drugs from the body. It also blocks the effects of opioids like heroin and codeine.
What About Withdrawal Symptoms?
Drenching sweats, nausea, nervousness, involuntary tremors, and vomiting are among the withdrawal symptoms most recovering addicts dread. With rapid detox, the withdrawal process is often completed before the effects of the anesthesia wear off and before potentially serious withdrawal symptoms can develop.
What Happens After Rapid Detox?
Aftercare is the stage of recovery after a safe, supervised rapid detox has been completed. This is when patients are further physically and mentally assessed. A treatment plan will be developed to address specific needs as new coping mechanisms are learned and new, healthy habits are formed.
What Makes It Safer Than Traditional Detox?
Traditional detox and withdrawal may take several months to complete and much longer when you factor in additional steps in the recovery process. Withdrawal symptoms along normally develop slowly over several hours and days and may linger for more than a week and present several health risks. Rapid detox allows patients to safely go through the process of removing substances from their system under medical supervision.
What rapid detox can do is minimize the hesitation many addicts have to even start recovery while minimizing potential health risks. Knowing that detoxification and withdrawal can be safely and effectively completed in the same day provides an added incentive to commit to a personalized treatment plan. While addiction isn’t “curable,” it is entirely treatable. Rapid detox is just the first step in a process that can lead to positive, meaningful results.
