Admitting a drug addict who voluntarily undergoes treatment in a health facility is an effective alternative to achieve rehabilitation, said Edgar Miraval Rojas, general director of the Víctor Larco Herrera National Hospital, who warned that drug addiction is an irreversible disease.

He said that in this type of case, the treatment given to the patient is rehabilitation since there is no cure option. He explained that when the person reaches the stage of neuroadaptation (disposition of hypersensitivity at the brain level due to the consumption of addictive substances), it can be said that the person already has a mental disorder problem.

In this regard, he explained that medical treatment has four stages. The first is Crisis Care when the person presents intoxication, withdrawal syndrome or other emergency complications.

The second stage is Detoxification, where the patient’s hospitalization is necessary, which must always be voluntary and can last from three days to 30 days. This treatment is part of a specialized program that contemplates the person’s medication to reduce or neutralize the withdrawal syndrome.

Then, the patient goes to a Short Stabilization program for one to six months, in which medication is necessarily required. At this stage, the most important thing is individual, group and family intervention, whose purpose is to prepare the patient to go out again to meet the family and social environments. She indicated that if he is alone, it will be very difficult for him to rehabilitate.

Miraval Rojas said that the third stage is Prolonged Stabilization, which lasts six months and two years. During this time, the person can study or work. At this stage, you must have strong social support, such as a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

When the patient is from two to five years in total drug abstinence, it can be affirmed that the person is already in the Rehabilitation Stage, emphasized the general director of the Larco Herrera Hospital.…

Taking the step to get treatment is the most difficult. It takes a long time for an addict to recognize his addiction. You have to wait until they are emotionally bad or when they recognize that they need help. It is the best moment to be able to help a drug addict.

The fact that it is not accepted is common in this disease. This occurs because the mind of this type of patient is modified to work with the drug. Their brain has learned that by taking drugs, they can survive, and therefore, they can’t see each other without it. Telling them that you can live without drugs is a phrase they hear in another language, coded, and they don’t believe it. And they can’t.

Depending on the patient’s behaviour, it can be distinguished in his drug addiction phase.

There are many cases of families who want to help an addict, and in their firm will to do so, they do not consider that it is a mental disorder due to consumption; therefore, specialized help is needed.

1. The Environment And The Family Should Go To An Intervention Specialist In Addictions Because There:
   

• They advise the best way to act. They provide the tools so you do not fall for their blackmail and unsuccessful promises to leave you.
• There comes a time when even importance is taken away.
• They provide more information on how to make him see the consequences of continuing to use.
• Talking with people who have been through the same thing is good for the family too.
• Sometimes it is unavoidable to send someone if there is no way for them to show up at a specialized centre. We should not try to convince them as parents or partners, friends or relatives. Use disorder is a disease. We cannot explain what is happening to them in the same way that we are not qualified to explain Parkinson’s or Schizophrenia. Therefore, it has to be done by a specialist.

2 Choose A Good Time To Sit Him Down To Talk, And Never When He Has Consumed.

• Holding meetings with all the members to convince him is not a good idea.
• The patient interprets them as trapping and will become defensive and react badly. Also, more often than not, family communication is already broken. It is inevitable to make negative value judgments, and the quarrels can end up exploding beyond the basic problem.

3 It Is Better Not To Threaten Them With A Request

• It is not good to coerce them with actions we will not carry out. This only creates pressure because they see themselves in the worst possible scenario, and they will consume more.
• Be patient. Don’t play the police because you can’t control yourself. His time will come because the addition is progressive, and there is a point at which he will no longer be able to. Until that day comes, the day I ask for help, all you have to do is wait.
  And if the situation is very serious? It depends on your phase; YES, you have to act, not threaten with words. And if you have to go all the way, you must go because it can be irreversible or cause greater evil. From denouncing him if he gets violent to cutting off the tap to where you have power. The fewer ways we make it easier for you to consume, the better.

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