The Importance of Counseling in Cocaine Rehab
It’s not uncommon for a person who successfully completes detox to think he or she has overcome an addiction problem. While the body may no longer crave the effects of the drug, the mind still has a ways to go.
Unfortunately, addicts don’t realize this until they find themselves using drugs again. Herein lies the importance of counseling in cocaine rehab. The psychological aspect of addiction is the driving force behind compulsive drug-using behaviors.
In effect, cocaine rehab treatment doesn’t really begin until a person enters counseling. Depending on a person’s treatment needs, cocaine rehab programs may administer different types of counseling approaches. Ultimately, the aftereffects of addiction on the mind can persist for years after a person stops using. For this reason, ongoing cocaine rehab counseling treatment offers addicts the best chance of a successful recovery process.
The Addiction Factor
Counseling helps people recover from the effects of cocaine addiction.
At the outset, cocaine’s effects increase the brain’s dopamine neurotransmitter chemical output. Along with its role in regulating a person’s sense of well-being, dopamine acts as a primary chemical within the brain’s reward system.
According to Columbia Health, this reward system processes positive experiences within a person’s day-to-day life and determines his or her overall motivations. Since cocaine easily triggers dopamine secretions, the brain naturally interprets cocaine as a positive experience or reinforcement. These processes underlie cocaine’s addiction potential.
Once addiction sets in, cocaine has become the primary motivation in a person’s everyday life. This development accounts for why addicts are willing to sacrifice anything and everything to support their drug use. Cocaine rehab counseling deals specifically with this aspect of the addiction cycle.
Counseling Approaches
While heavy cocaine use will affect most everyone in the same way, different people come to rely on cocaine’s effects for different reasons. Some people may use it as a means of self-medicating difficult emotional issues or self-medicating symptoms that stem from a psychological problem. Others may use cocaine in order to be more productive and/or outgoing.
Cocaine rehab programs employ various counseling approaches, some of which work better than others, depending on a person’s individual treatment needs. Behavior modification therapies and cognitive-behavioral therapies are the two most commonly used counseling approaches.
Behavior modification therapies focus on helping a person replace old drug-using behaviors with healthy coping skills. Cognitive-behavioral therapies help recovering addicts identify destructive thinking patterns and emotional responses and replace them with a healthy attitude and mindset. Oftentimes, a cocaine rehab program will use both therapy approaches at different stages of the treatment process.
Social Supports
The addiction lifestyle quickly takes on the characteristics of a closed-in world where a person only spends time with others who share the same drug-obsessed interests. By the time a person enters cocaine rehab, he or she has lost the ability to make meaningful, fulfilling connections with others.
Cocaine rehab counseling treatment enables recovering addicts to develop a meaningful connection with self and others. Group counseling sessions provide the type of safe and structured environment where a person can develop these much needed social skills.
Counseling treatment also exists within the 12-Step support group setting. These groups offer recovering addicts a long-term counseling solution, which can go a long way towards helping a person stay engaged in the recovery process.