Alcohol & Drug Rehabs in Buckinghamshire

Sadly, 2020 saw Buckinghamshire suffer the highest number of drug deaths since statistics began almost 30 years ago.

The Bucks Herald reported that these deaths involved poisoning from various legal and illegal drugs, including prescription drugs.

What’s more, a report by Public Health England shows that alcohol problems appear to be on the rise in Buckinghamshire. 759 new presentations to treatment between 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020 demonstrate this problem.

These figures show how each city or town in the UK has a level of drug and alcohol addiction problems, with these numbers indicating a high need for drug and alcohol rehabs in Buckinghamshire.

But there is help at hand if substance or alcohol abuse is worrying you. Simply call us today to help you find the correct treatment method.

Signs That You May Need Rehab

Knowing how to recognise when you or a loved one needs rehab is essential to getting the help that it needed.

This also enables you to recognise when rehab isn’t suitable for an individual.

Rehab doesn’t always breed the same kind of recovery success for those where the programme may be too strict or structured.

Hence, feeling dragged into in-patient rehab usually breeds poor participation and poor results.

But there are times when you can be highly confident that a person is right for rehab. The below signs indicate a need for rehab referral:

1. Sufferers of High Tolerance

A dangerous physical dependency often results from the frequent and long-term use of drugs and alcohol.

Gradually, as your tolerance builds the drug’s effectiveness reduces, and you need more and more alcohol or substance to feel the same impact.

For example, anyone with a high tolerance to alcohol that consumes 30 or more units per day would benefit from an urgent referral to alcohol rehab.

2. Mood Swings and Violence

When drugs and alcohol take over, your loved one’s behaviour can change dramatically.

When under the influence of drugs or alcohol, anyone suffering from personality changes, mood swings or fits of violence would benefit from rehab.

3. High-Risk Clients

Some high-risk clients always benefit from rehab, including those suffering from severe drug and alcohol misuse.

Often severe addictions bring hazardous withdrawal symptoms such as delirium tremens or alcohol seizures, or extreme side effects like Wernicke Encephalopathy.

4. Sufferers of Co-occurring Mental Health Conditions

Suffering from co-occurring mental health conditions make it incredibly difficult to complete home detox. Unfortunately, these issues are a common factor in addiction.

Whether addiction shows itself as a symptom of the mental health condition or as a side effect, sufferers of both conditions need professional help to overcome the addiction and mental health conditions.

People suffering from suicidal thoughts, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia would find it difficult to recover from addiction without the help of rehab.

5. Using the DSM-IV-TR Criteria

Determining if a person needs residential rehab treatment is difficult, especially if they lie about or hide their drug or alcohol consumption.

To diagnose substance dependence, clinicians can use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR).

This assessment provides clinicians with a diagnostic criterion for addiction and suitable treatment.

To determine if patients are suffering from substance dependence, they need to demonstrate three or more of the symptoms of substance dependence. These include:

• A high tolerance to drugs.
• Consuming drugs for longer than intended.
• Failure to recover from the abuse of substances, despite past attempts or a deep desire.
• Much of the individual time is spent searching out, using, or recovering from substances.
• Consumption continues despite the knowledge of the consequences.
• A patient suffers from withdrawal symptoms, evident by the desperate need to use substances.
• Relationships and everyday responsibilities suffer due to drug use.

The Disease Model of Addiction

One of the reasons people find it so challenging to accept treatment is because they see their addiction as a failure rather than a chronic disease of the brain.

Unfortunately, this frame of mind does not help your recovery.

Instead, following the Disease Model of Addiction’s ethos that addiction is a brain disease will allow you to progress towards recovery.

The model states that addiction makes chemical changes to the brain when drugs and alcohol are regularly consumed.

Unfortunately, this makes it extremely difficult to avoid the compulsion to continue using drugs or alcohol.

Defining addiction as a compulsive disorder suggests that control over your decision making, or free will, is not a part of the compulsion.

Therefore, the Disease Model of Addiction proposes that personalised patient-centred addiction treatments are the key to overcoming addiction.

Benefits of Choosing Residential Rehab Treatment in Buckinghamshire

Anyone suffering from a drug or alcohol abuse problem or addiction has a whole range of treatment at their fingertips: all they need to do is get over that first step.

Of course, that first step is accepting that they have a problem that they need help with.

The best form of treatment for anyone with an addiction or moderate to severe alcohol or substance abuse is drug and alcohol rehab in your local area.

Rehab gives most people the best chance of success.

Of course, your other options for addiction treatment includes outpatient treatment.

In contrast to the in-patient nature of residential rehab, outpatient programmes allow you to go through essential therapy at home.

This makes many people feel more comfortable as they still manage their everyday responsibilities.

However, outpatient treatment is provided at a local outpatient treatment centre.

With no protection from life’s stresses or temptation triggers and with prolonged periods between treatment, this is simply not suitable for some sufferers.

Residential rehab is much more effective at reducing the chronic relapse rate that comes with addiction.

Because drug and alcohol rehab in Buckinghamshire is provided through an in-patient format, you have less chance of succumbing to your addiction cravings.

What’s more, residential rehab offers both physical and psychological treatment that has proven to be the most effective addiction treatment.

For those suffering from physical addictions (like alcohol or heroin), rehab protects them from the dangers of alcohol and drug withdrawal through medically-assisted detox.

To combat the mental effects of addiction, rehab then provides thorough assessments and specialised therapies.

Concerning life after rehab, residential rehab allows you to create your own essential relapse prevention plan, often combined with 12 months of free aftercare.

Common therapies you may be offered during your time at drug and alcohol residential rehab include:

• Codependency treatment
• Holistic therapy, which includes: art therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, equine therapy, mindfulness, acupuncture and yoga.
• Brief intervention
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Contingency management
• Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT – both known as talking therapies)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Family therapy
• Group psychotherapy
• Motivational therapy
• Individual therapy
• Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REB)
• General psychiatric treatment

Which is Best? Private Rehab or Council Funded Rehab Treatment

Because of the high success rates that private rehab provides, at Rehab 4 Alcoholism, we always refer our clients to private rehab.

As mentioned above, there are many benefits to private residential rehab.

However, the main negative for most people is the potentially high cost.

If your budget doesn’t account for private rehab, there are suitable publicly funded rehabs in Buckinghamshire.

But before you write off private rehab altogether due to the price, it’s best to consider the pros and cons of each treatment method.

The main difference between private and council-funded are listed below:

• Although private rehab may sound expensive, it affords you almost immediate treatment. When clients find their lives are being damaged through drug or alcohol abuse, immediate treatment is necessary.
• With council funded-rehab treatment, you’ll not have to pay a penny, but you may be forced to endure a long waiting list, delaying your essential addiction treatment.
• Unfortunately, this wait can have a detrimental effect on your motivation and life-long recovery prospects.
• Private rehab also allows access to rehab centres in your local area, making you feel more at ease as you go through your treatment. In contrast, council-funded rehab doesn’t always afford you the option of residential rehab in your local area.
• Instead, these long waiting lists may mean you are not eligible for local rehab or even in-patient treatment. With outpatient treatment sometimes the only available option, publicly funded rehab can put your chances of recovery under threat.
• Not only does private rehab provide immediate treatment in a local setting, but you’ll also receive thoroughly reliable assessments from highly skilled and qualified clinicians. This assessment means you receive personalised treatment plans followed by essential therapies.

Pricing Options for Rehab Based on Length of Stay

Speaking of private rehab, many find it helpful to know how much a private drug and alcohol rehab in Buckinghamshire costs.

As already mentioned, the cost of rehab varies based on several factors.

But the main factor’s that will alter how much you pay for rehab includes whether you need a multiple or single occupancy room and the length of time you spend in rehab.

For example, for milder addictions that only require a 10-day medically-assisted detox in a private room, the price is usually between £3,000 to £6,000.

But if you don’t mind sharing, you’ll only pay between £2,000 to £4,000.

When more moderate to severe addictions present themselves, a 28-day stay may be needed.

For a single occupancy room, month-long rehab costs about £8,000 to £12,000. Or you’ll only pay around £6,000 if you’re happy to share a room.

Going through a home detox programme is the real way to save money, only costing around £1,500.

But this form of treatment is only suitable for mild addictions that don’t need the extra support and haven of residential rehab.

Group Meetings as an Alternative to Rehab

As already mentioned, outpatient treatment and home detox are some practical alternatives to rehab.

But group meetings can also be highly effective in providing treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

1. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are both groups that benefit alcohol and substance abuse sufferers.

Groups meetings such as these provide the opportunity to share their stories and pain.

What’s more, these groups allow members to receive emotional support and inspire change in each other.

A 12-step programme, like that found through AA, often proves to be a positive treatment programme.

2. SMART Group Meetings

Another beneficial form of meetings includes the popular Self-Management And Recovery Training (SMART) group meetings.

These meetings consist of a regular and organised format that effectively treats addiction.

When run by trained organisers, meetings like these also have a greater chance of success.

SMART meetings also use evidence-based tools such as motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

This approach allows individuals to learn to be independent of their alcohol, drug, or behavioural addictions.

3. Al-Anon and Alateen Family Group Meetings

Whether you suffer from drug, alcohol, or behavioural addictions such as gambling, addiction is a family problem.

But there is a way to heal the wounds of addiction, facilitate communication and allow the family to come back together.

One such practical way to do this is through the comfort of Al-Anon Family Group meetings.

Group meetings like these ensure participants have the opportunity to participate rather than listen.

Sharing through group therapy can be beneficial to recovery motivation, meaning these family group meetings can be helpful for many.

The Rehab Admissions Process in Buckinghamshire

As already mentioned, the admissions process in Buckinghamshire involves assessments to make a suitable rehab referral.

Once you’ve decided on a rehab centre, clinicians will use more detailed assessments to create an effective and personalised treatment plan.

Assessments often include:

1. DSM-5

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is a supremely helpful tool for clinicians.

By asking patients to answer 11 questions based on substance use, clinicians can determine the severity of their substance abuse.

The number of symptoms a patient demonstrates is split into three levels, including mild, moderate, and severe.

Professional staff are then able to formulate a comprehensive and personalised treatment plan.

A mild substance use disorder (SUD) is demonstrated through two to three symptoms, a moderate SUD through four to five signs, and a severe SUD (also classified as addiction) through six or more.

2. The ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) Criteria

Treating addiction requires a correct diagnosis, which clinicians can do through the ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) criteria.

For example, clinicians can diagnose addiction efficiently by confirming how many of the six dimensions of the ASAM Patient Placement criteria a patient meets.

Not only does this allow clinicians to determine the type but also the severity of the addiction.

This complete diagnosis ensures your treatment needs are met with a thorough treatment plan.

Professional staff can do this through the practical guidelines of the ASAM criteria, which allows for the regulating of treatment planning.

3. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)

Another popular tool used by UK rehab staff includes the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).

This assessment lets clinicians check for alcohol abuse and any consequences of addiction on a person’s life.

Clinicians can check for alcohol addiction by asking patients to answer ten questions with a score of zero to four.

The questions cover three parts of alcohol abuse: alcohol intake, dependency, and consequences.

When scoring eight or more, clinicians would be concerned about patients, whereas a score of 13 or more would indicate dangerous alcohol dependency.

4. Dual Diagnosis

Mental health conditions follow addiction at an alarming rate. These co-occurring mental health conditions often occur as the side effect of drug or alcohol abuse.

However, sometimes these conditions can be present before the addiction, with the addiction presenting itself as:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Suicidal thoughts
• Bipolar disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Finding a rehab centre that offers a complete dual diagnosis to check for mental health conditions and addiction is vital in ensuring your sobriety.

In addition, attending a rehab that diagnoses and treats both conditions with evidence-based recovery treatments gives you the best chance at sobriety.

How Do I Know if I Need Detox?

We’ve already discussed the necessity of medcially-assisted detox and how it works, but how do you know when you need a detox plan?

Unfortunately, many are unaware of when they need detox for either alcohol or drug use.

There are straightforward ways to determine if a detox programme is required now. These include:

• When individuals use alcohol or substances to get them through the day.
• Moderate or even severe withdrawal symptoms show themselves when individuals try to quit or reduce their drug or alcohol consumption.
• Mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms can include nausea, aches and pains, fatigue, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and confusion.
• Severe withdrawal symptoms, such as Alcoholic Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS), can include hypertension, hallucinations, and extreme delirium tremens.
• When demonstrating these withdrawal symptoms, it means you are physically dependent on drugs or alcohol and require professional help through detox.

Next Steps: Abstinence

One of the reasons that detox is so necessary is because it relates to the core aim of rehab, encouraging abstinence.

Going through detox allows your body to rid itself of the toxins of drugs or alcohol so you can focus on abstinence.

In contrast to the ineffectiveness of moderation management or harm reduction, abstinence can provide much more success with a clear path to recovery and clear goals.

Because simply reducing your alcohol consumption or substances is not effective in combatting addiction, abstinence is often the only effective recovery method to achieving sobriety.

Therefore, the purpose of rehab is always to encourage total abstinence from drugs or alcohol.

Attempting to achieve abstinence alone, without the supervision and assistance of professional support, means you have no protection from the temptation triggers.

Rehab allows you to achieve complete abstinence and motivates your recovery journey by taking you away from the stresses of daily life.

Rehab focused abstinence allows your brain to return to its healthier, pre-addiction state. In this way, abstinence usually results in a much higher recovery rate.

Knowing When a Loved One Needs a Professional Intervention

Before you can get to the point of abstinence via rehab, some people need a little convincing that they need help with their addiction.

But how do you know when the time is right for an intervention?

The chances are, if you’re already questioning this, an intervention is probably a necessity.

Likewise, if drugs or alcohol have begun to harm your loved one, an intervention is likely the only way to help them.

In contrast to the professional treatment of intervention therapies, families and friends can use intervention as a formal effort to challenge the alcohol or substance abuse of a loved one.

Each person will have the opportunity to make their loved one aware of the personal effect of their drug or alcohol consumption.

In addition, using an intervention specialist creates extra effectiveness for those who refuse to admit they have a problem or deny getting help.

Interventions increase the motivation to get help and provide a structured approach to making changes in an individual’s life.

What’s more, an intervention specialist ensures extra effectiveness as they can help you to:

• Structure the intervention
• Formulate a plan of action
• Ensure that you approach the addiction sufferer with love and support

Other ways to ensure the effectiveness of your intervention include the CRAFT approach to intervention (Community Reinforcement and Family Training).

When employing the CRAFT intervention approach, you ensure your family benefits from a constructive view of addiction recovery.

Vital intervention methods like immediate treatment entry, communication skills, life enrichment, safety training and motivational building work towards helping the whole family.

How Long Does Rehab Last?

When your loved one accepts that they have an addiction that requires rehab, they may wonder how long they may spend in rehab.

If the thought of leaving your home and family causes particular distress, it can help to know how long you will be away.

It’s hard to provide a definite time frame as the time individuals need in rehab differs from person to person.

However, several factors determine how long you spend in rehab, including:

• Whether or not you have a physical dependency and require a medically managed detox programme. Drugs like opioids, benzodiazepines and alcohol, cause unsafe withdrawal symptoms when you cease consumption. In this case, you would spend at least seven days in rehab to go through detox.
• The specific type of addiction you suffer from.
• Many, if not all addictions, result in psychological side effects that need therapies to address. Unfortunately, going through these vital therapies means you may need a further three weeks in rehab, taking your stay up to 28-days.
• Those with extremely severe addictions may require an even longer stay in rehab. Should you need it, you can extend your stay from 60 to 90 days.

We understand that this type of time frame can seem daunting.

But committing to this time away from your life gives you the best chance of a happy and healthy life after rehab.

Rehab’s Relapse Prevention Plan

One of the ways that rehab gives you the best chance of life-long sobriety after rehab is by formulating your very own relapse prevention plan.

Because recovery doesn’t just end with rehab, it takes lifelong effort to ensure you stay sober after rehab.

Your recovery efforts will take permanent self-awareness, planning and effort. But things will become much, much easier with time.

During the last few days of your stay at rehab, you’ll have the chance to compile your relapse prevention plan with the professional rehab staff.

Your personal plan will include trigger identification (like stresses, cravings, and temptations), coping mechanisms and ongoing support group or counselling information.

This works as a plan of action for when relapse becomes a possibility.

One of the methods the staff may encourage you to use is the HALT model (standing for Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired), which focuses on self-care to avoid vulnerability to everyday human emotions and triggers.

A second helpful model includes Marlatt’s Model of Relapse Prevention. This model focuses on the high relapse rate through short-lived, high-risk situations such as triggers, and stable factors like cravings and your lifestyle.

Achieving self-awareness is recognising your high-risk situations and learning to cope with them reduces your chance of relapse.

Lastly, the Gorski-Cenaps Relapse Prevention Model provides addiction sufferers with nine crucial steps for avoiding relapse.

Educating yourself about your warning signs of relapse and coping skills are some of the ways it teaches addiction sufferers to prevent relapse.

Tips for Choosing the Right Rehab in Buckinghamshire

We’ve given you lots of information to mull over, so we understand it can be daunting to choose the right rehab centre.

Just deciding on treatment alone is difficult enough but deciding which rehab and treatment choice is best for you can be almost impossible.

Follow the below steps to help you find the best rehab centre for your particular needs:

• Always ask plenty of questions.
• Choose a rehab that provides suitable therapies as per your recovery needs.
• Look for a rehab suited to your budget.
• Ensure you choose a centre with a track record of 20 years plus, a high success rate and good reviews.
• Check that the staff are fully qualified, trained and have sufficient experience.
• Only choose a centre that leaves you feeling comfortable when talking to staff.

Cannabis Rehab in Buckinghamshire

Many people believe that cannabis is a harmless drug, even containing health benefits.

Although there is no physical dependency produced by cannabis, meaning you can’t become physically addicted, cannabis carries dangerous psychoactive effects.

Because cannabis mimics natural pleasure feelings in the brain, repeated use leads to a constant false high that users continue to chase.

As your tolerance builds, you become psychologically addicted to cannabis, with long-term use showing severe psychological consequences.

Although you won’t need to go through physical withdrawal symptoms, mental illnesses such as intense hallucinations, schizophrenia, and delusions can occur.

Although you won’t need to enrol on a medically managed detox for cannabis, you will need a rehab that provides the therapies you need to battle the psychological side effects of long term cannabis use.

Cocaine Rehab in Buckinghamshire

Like cannabis, cocaine comes without psychical dependence but packs a punch in the psychological addiction field.

Cocaine rewires the pleasure responses in the brain to ensure you can’t enjoy everyday pleasures.

Cocaine does this by providing short bursts of intense pleasure.

Changes like these create an increased need to consume cocaine, which combines increased consumption with increased tolerance to result in eventual addiction.

So not only does long-term cocaine use create adverse effects on both your mind and body, but it also only makes severe changes to the brain.

Although you won’t need to go through detox as part of your cocaine recovery, it is essential to find a drug rehab that provides sufficient psychological therapies.

These therapies will support your recovery and reduce your chance of relapse.

Heroin Rehab in Buckinghamshire

Unlike both cannabis and cocaine, heroin often creates severe physical dependence.

Once heroin addiction has its claws in you, you’ll find it almost impossible to achieve sobriety on your own due to the dangerous and highly unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

Finding the right heroin rehab local to you means you’ll be able to defeat the physical withdrawals of heroin detox through a medically managed detox.

What’s more, the rehab centre you choose should provide therapies and treatments to tackle the psychological damage that also comes with heroin addiction.

Choosing the right heroin rehab in Buckinghamshire means you’ll have all the comfort and support needed for safe heroin withdrawals.

Other organisations to consider

Below is a list of other organisations that offer free support and advice for addiction in and around Buckinghamshire:

1. Compass Young People Drugs Service

Address: 138A Queensway, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK2 2RS

Telephone: 01908 379673

Website: https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/services/mental-health-services/addictions-and-substance-misuse/arc-milton-keynes

2. Drug Addiction Support

Address: 33-37 Farthing Grove, Netherfield, Milton Keynes MK6 4JH

Telephone: 01908 250730

Website: https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/services/mental-health-services/addictions-and-substance-misuse/arc-milton-keynes

3. Turning Point – Banbury

Address: Banbury Health Centre, 58 Bridge St, Banbury OX16 5QD

Telephone: 01295 225544

Website: http://wellbeing.turning-point.co.uk/oxfordshire/hubs/banbury-hub/

You can also reach out to Mind UK, YoungMinds, Rethink Mental Illness, Samaritans and Papyrus, SMART Recovery or find an Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous near you.

The NHS are also there to help you.

Help from Rehab4Alcoholism

We are here to tell you that you can cope with life’s challenges through means that do not involve the consumption of alcohol.

Rehab 4 Alcoholism is able to match you to multiple drug and alcohol rehab clinics in Buckinghamshire.

We offer a free and comprehensive assessment to ensure your needs are best met throughout the process.

To discover these proven strategies that will help you stay alcohol-free for the rest of your life, contact us today.

At Rehab 4 Alcoholism, we offer free advice from a team of non-judgemental professionals, many of whom are in recovery and understand how hard can be to change your relationship with addiction.

For more information about , simply reach out to our 24/7, confidential hotline on 0800 111 4108.