Detox is the first step in getting clean and sober. After you’ve completed a detox program, you’ll be able to begin treatment for your addiction as well as any underlying mental health issues.
Some people opt to detox at home for various reasons, including cost, lack of information, and fear.
While self-detoxing might be safe at times, it can also be quite harmful. In fact, detoxing from alcohol or some substances at home may be lethal.
This is why detoxing in a safe, supportive setting is always recommended.
If you stay close to New Jersey, you must check Ascendant ’s offering, as their luxury detox facilities have treated and cured hundreds of substance abuse victims.
Table of Contents
What Is Drug Detox?
The process of safely and effectively withdrawing a person from a psychoactive drug is known as drug detoxification.
Clinical judgment, the user’s personal taste, circumstances, lifestyle, expectations, degree of dependency, and associated health concerns- all play a role in determining which detoxification approach to utilize.
Detoxification does not necessarily indicate that a patient has been diagnosed with a drug use problem such as addiction, abuse, or medicine misuse.
Although detoxification is often the first step to begin drug rehabilitation therapy. But, there are numerous other reasons why people must detox.
How Does Drug Detoxification Work?
After a medication has been metabolized in the body, detoxification refers to a decrease in biological activity.
Even though almost every organ in the human body can metabolize medicines, the small intestine and liver are the primary sites for the main drug-metabolizing enzymes.
A human’s body has a wide range of enzymes that may catalyze biotransformation events, divided into Drug Detox Phase I and Phase II procedures.
Phase I reflects oxidation, reduction, and hydrolytic processes.
Phase II conjugates an endogenous molecule with the drug that typically improves the hydrophilicity of the respective metabolite.
In the end, all drug metabolites are mainly eliminated through urination or vomit.
Why Should You Never Detox At Home?
While detoxing, there’s no reason to put yourself in dangerous circumstances. A detox clinic has professionals available 24 hours a day to treat your symptoms and safeguard your safety, which cannot be guaranteed if you decide to go through home detox.
Let’s find out the reasons why you should never detox at home:
1: The Success Rate Is Pretty Low
To assist clients in detox safely and efficiently, detox clinics utilize several drugs and therapies.
The withdrawal symptoms are somewhat tolerable with these therapies. For example, you may be given clonidine to aid with alcohol or opiate withdrawal or Zofran to help with nausea.
It’s simpler to finish detox when your symptoms are under control, which cannot be completed at home.
Unfortunately, if these symptoms aren’t addressed, you’ll be more prone to relapse and use drugs or alcohol again.
2: It Can Result In Treatment Lapse
Many persons who battle with substance misuse also have a mental illness or have experienced trauma in the past.
They also have trouble addressing problems and managing stress. This is why long-term rehabilitation requires counseling, alternative treatments, and 12-step groups, among other things.
The detox centers provide drug and alcohol detox services, including comprehensive medical evaluations, withdrawal symptom monitoring, alternative treatments, and medication-assisted therapy.
Until these patients are detoxed, they are kept as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately, managing all these symptoms is not possible at home, which may indicate a lapse in the treatment, which is never a good option.
3: The Home Environment May Not Be Supportive And Safe
It’s critical to have a safe and secure home environment while recovering from addiction. If it isn’t, your prospects of making a full recovery are jeopardized.
Unfortunately, some people who grew up in homes where drugs and alcohol were freely available have an increased chance of being addicted. Now, it will be difficult to detox safely and successfully if your living environment is hazardous in any manner.
Even if you live in a safe environment, your home is not the finest spot for detoxing. You might flourish at a detox clinic because it provides a controlled environment.
Your sole objective will be to concentrate on yourself and your rehabilitation.
4: It Can Be Dangerous
People who consume ample amounts of drugs over a long period are the most vulnerable to difficulties.
For these people, withdrawal symptoms are usually more severe, leaving them to deal with symptoms like sleeplessness, nausea, mood changes, tremors, and anxiety on their own.
Detoxing from some substances can also be dangerous.
For example, seizures, hallucinations, and delirium tremens are signs of drug withdrawal that can lead to death. In addition, drug withdrawal can be fatal because of severe psychological withdrawal consequences such as anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
5: The Risk Of Relapse Is High
Recovery from drug and alcohol abuse takes time because addiction alters brain circuits. As a result, even if you can successfully detox at home, you won’t have the skills or resources to stay sober.
When you’re presented with a stressful scenario again, you’ll be tempted to turn to drugs and alcohol.
With medically supervised detox, you’ll have access to various therapies to help you get back on your feet. Unfortunately, your home detox program won’t have access to all these resources, potentially increasing the risk of relapse.
6: There Is No Peer Support
Professional detox includes not just medical supervision but also peer assistance. Throughout detox, you are not alone throughout detox, which might be the difference between completing detox and relapsing.
The first few days of detox are usually the most difficult. However, some symptoms will begin to fade after this, and you will be able to use other therapies to improve your comfort and happiness.
It might be beneficial to your rehabilitation to go through the process with others, which is impossible at home.
You’re reminded that you’re not alone and that others are going through the same things you are.
7: Your Family Is Not Educated About Drug Detox Procedures
Family education plays a significant role in successful detoxification.
It’s critical that your family attends family counseling, learns about addiction, and understands how to keep a safe atmosphere if they want to make you okay.
Most drug and alcohol treatment institutions provide family counseling as part of their services. This allows families to be taught how to be positive role models for their loved ones.
Some detox centers also suggest places where you can exercise after a detox program, which your family cannot. You probably have spoiled your muscular structure with substance abuse behaviors, so it’s time you join a gym and get those thicker thighs and shoulders in no time.
Wrapping It Up
Addiction isn’t an illness caused by a lack of willpower. Instead, the pain of not taking the drug may be so excruciating that relapsing to them appears to be the only way to cope.
If you’re detoxing at home, you’ll need to get into a treatment center as soon as possible.
Addiction is a complicated condition with more than just physical symptoms. It may also be simpler for you to join self-help groups and participate in group therapy once your detox program is complete.
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