Teen Drug Abuse Help: 5 Indispensable Benefits of Teen Drug Rehab
Teen drug abuse rates continue to rise in the face of the number of new drugs entering the market and the new practices for using both old and new drugs. According to the U. S. National Library of Medicine, in 2011, as many as 1.5 million teenagers met the diagnosis for substance abuse disorder.
Addiction’s ability to destroy adult lives takes on a compounding effect in the lives of teens. As teens have entered a crucial developmental life stage, the damage caused by drugs can easily change the course of their lives. Not surprisingly, many adults struggling with addiction problems started out as addicted teens.
Teen drug rehab helps teens learn to deal with the types of issues and challenges they face without the need for drugs. Through ongoing treatment help, teens develop the supports and coping skills needed to live positive, productive lives.
Parents concerned about their teen’s drug use behaviors may want to consider these five indispensable benefits of teen drug rehab:
1. Individualized Treatment Care
Rehab can help teens transition into a drug-free lifestyle.
As each teen brings his or her own set of circumstances, medical needs and addiction problems to the rehab process, individualized treatment care becomes essential to meeting each teen’s specific needs. In order to do this, drug rehab programs employ a comprehensive evaluation process to determine what types of services will best address a teen’s treatment needs.
While the types of care may vary in frequency and intensity, treatment approaches commonly used include:
- Individual psychotherapy sessions
- Group therapy work
- Family therapy sessions
2. Range of Treatment Options
The range of treatment options available in drug rehab are designed to provide different levels of care based on the severity of a teen’s addiction. In general, the more severe the addiction the more structured the treatment level should be.
Levels of treatment typically take the form of residential and outpatient care. Residential care provides the most structured treatment environment where teens actually live at the facility. For teens at the early stages of addiction, outpatient care offers more flexibility allowing teens to live at home.
3. Improved Interpersonal/Family Relationships
It’s not uncommon for teens to turn to drugs as a way to cope with the pressures they face at school, at home and from peers on a daily basis. Teen drug rehab provides teens with coping strategies designed to eliminate the need for drugs while building up a teen’s sense of self and purpose.
4. Aftercare Supports
As addiction behaviors can always resurface under the right sets of circumstances, it’s important for teens to have aftercare drug rehab supports in place once they complete a rehab program. Twelve-Step support groups can offer teens the type of long-term guidance and support needed to maintain abstinence after rehab.
5. Lifestyle Effects
As teens become more enmeshed in drugs, parents no doubt notice certain changes in their routines and activities. Over time, teens develop a lifestyle that’s designed to support their addiction.
Teen drug rehab first breaks the hold of addiction over a teen’s life, and then provides him or her with the tools needed to build a healthy drug-free lifestyle.
