Addiction treatment normally refers to the variety of addiction treatment programs that are available and used in a rehab or a treatment center to help individuals who are alcoholics or maybe addicted to drugs or other substances.
Over time the term addiction treatment has also been used and has come to be viewed as a way of helping people with different types of addiction that are deemed to be unhealthy.
This can include addictions to things such as gambling, food and other people, often referred to as co-dependency.
A rehab or treatment center will have as its primary focus people who are alcoholics and or drug addicts. The broad range of other addictions that a rehab offers addiction treatment programs for can easily be brought under this umbrella, largely because the rehab group all addictions together.
The approach that a majority of the rehabs tend to take is that the problem is the individual themselves, and that the substance or behaviour that they are addicted to is referred to as a drug of choice. The individual will normally be referred to as having an addictive personality, with the drug of choice being the solution to that addictive personality.
It is important to note that this approach of grouping all addictions together and classifying the individual as an addictive personality is a hotly disputed one, but it is important to realise that this is the approach that the majority of rehabs take.
One such reason for this is it it allows the rehab to treat virtually any addictive type of behaviour by focusing on the individual as being the problem rather than their behaviour.
Addiction Treatment – Alcoholics Anonymous
Most rehabs and treatment centres grew out of hospitals that had become increasingly focused on dealing with alcoholics and encouraging them to attend meetings and participate in the 12 step fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
We have realised that they could treat people who are both alcoholics and drug addicts, and as such extended the range of their addiction treatment programs to virtually anyone who had any type of addictive behaviour.
Having said that, the addiction treatment programs that the majority of rehabs offer are rooted in the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, and offer a number of sound beliefs and tools to help the individual gets over and stay sober.
Perhaps most important part of any addiction treatment program is to introduce the individual to the twelve step process, and introduce the individual to meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous as a way of long-term support and guidance.