What is substance abuse?
Substance abuse is a brain disorder that causes intense and uncontrollable urges to use drugs or alcohol.
While medical researchers don’t know exactly what causes substance abuse disorders, they do know that it’s related to irregularities in the parts of your brain that control your judgment, decision-making, and impulse control. Continued substance abuse intensifies these abnormalities.
Substance abuse disorders also co-occur with other conditions like chronic pain disorders, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Substance abuse can interfere with your ability to lead a healthy and productive life. It also increases your risk of a wide range of health problems, including overdose and premature death.
What are the signs of substance abuse?
Substance abuse causes a variety of symptoms, including:
- Intense, uncontrollable cravings to use drugs or alcohol
- Needing more of the substance to achieve the same effects
- Spending money that you can’t afford on the drug
- Doing things you wouldn’t usually do to get the substance
- Engaging in increasingly reckless or self-destructive behaviors
- Thoughts of securing or using the substance block out other thoughts
- Failing to meet other responsibilities at work or home
- Withdrawing from friends and family
- Trying to stop using drugs but failing
If any of these symptoms sound familiar, call Oasis Recovery for help. They offer customized recovery programs to help you regain your health and get your life back on track.
How is substance abuse treated?
The team at Oasis Recovery offers medication-assisted treatment (MAT) recovery and relapse prevention programs. They prescribe medications such as Suboxone® and other opioid agonists to curb your urges to use drugs as well as your withdrawal symptoms.
The team customizes your treatment plan to meet your specific needs. They carefully monitor your response to MAT and adjust your prescription to help you stabilize. They also offer alternative pain management options to address one of the common causes of opioid abuse.
While the team at Oasis Recovery doesn’t require you to attend therapy, they encourage you to participate in counseling, peer support groups, and other treatments to supplement your MAT.
If you’re living with addiction and want to get better, call Oasis Recovery or schedule an appointment online today.
