Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Mayfair

The more you understand the nature of addiction, its causes, and its consequences, the easier it will be to focus on recovery.

We are here to help you further your knowledge on addiction, check into rehab near you, or guide you through relapse recovery.

What is Addiction?

There are many definitions as to what constitutes an ‘addiction’ or an ‘addict’. Usually, it is defined by who is addicted, the nature of the addiction, and what they are addicted to.

The DSM-IV defined addiction as the constant compulsion to seek and use substances. This is accompanied by a lack of control, relapse, and withdrawal symptoms once the user stops taking drugs or drinking alcohol. [1]

Addicts find it incredibly difficult to cut down. Once the intake is reduced or stopped, addicts suffer from serious withdrawal symptoms and tend to relapse to reduce these symptoms.

The first signs of addiction often include:

Lack of control
Inability to cut down
Behavioural issues
Decreased socialisation
Commitment abandoning
Ignoring the negative consequences of using
Denial and relapse
Problems with hygiene
Insomnia
Mood swings
Change in weight

The severity of withdrawal symptoms depends on the nature of your addiction, how long you have been using it, and your genetics.

Recent research has suggested that addiction is a disease of the mind. This is called the ‘disease model of addiction, meaning addiction can be both treated and managed like diseases can. [2]

Many people wrongly assume addiction to be a result of moral failing. The reality is that addiction is a biological disease, both physically and mentally harmful.

Addiction consists of three phases, the first being ‘binging and intoxication’. Drugs increase the levels of dopamine in the brain, altering our reward pathways. These chemically altered levels of euphoria change the way the brain works, conditioning itself to adapt to a new level of dopamine.

The second phase of addiction is withdrawal. Once the substance wears off or is not administered for some time, the brain starts craving the substance. Addicts have altered their brains to expect the dopamine released by the substance.

Repeated exposure means that you require more of the substance, more often, to achieve the same effect.

Withdrawals then set in when your brain and body are craving drugs or alcohol. These harmful withdrawal symptoms are both mental and physical.

The final stage of addiction is ‘preoccupation and anticipation’. Brains are damaged by drugs and alcohol, impairing the user’s ability to fight urges and cravings. This inability to stop, cut down or control cravings is what characterises addiction.

The longstanding relationship between drugs, alcohol, and mental health is still rife. This is motivated by two types of relationships: addiction as a side effect of mental health, and mental health as a side effect of addiction.

This is called co-morbidity, where two or more conditions exist and manifest at the same time.

Before searching for rehabilitation in Mayfair, it is important that you understand if you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and what you need help with.

Do I Need Help?

If you are currently living in Mayfair and think you or a loved one might be addicted, fill out an at-home self-help questionnaire such as CAGE.

The CAGE questionnaire was originally designed for alcoholism but has now been adapted for drug use: [3]

CAGE Questions for Alcohol Use:

Have you ever felt you should CUT down on your drinking? YES/NO
Have people ever ANNOYED you by critiquing your drinking? YES/NO
Have you ever felt bad or GUILTY about your drinking? YES/NO
Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover? (EYEOPENER) YES/NO

CAGE Questions Adapted to Include Drug Use (CAGE-AID):

Have you ever felt you ought to cut down on your drinking or drug use? YES/NO
Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking or drug use? YES/NO
Have you felt bad or guilty about your drinking or drug use? YES/NO
Have you ever had a drink or used drugs first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover (eye-opener)? YES/NO

A YES answer will give you a score of 1, and a NO answer will give you 0 points. A score of 2 or more is deemed clinically significant, and you should seek help in Mayfair for drug use or alcoholism.

The AUDIT is an in-depth self-help questionnaire designed specifically for alcoholism. You should answer the first 4 questions, and if you are ‘fast+’ then you should fill out the final 6 questions:[4]

How often have you had 6 or more units of female, or 8 or more if male, on a single occasion in the last year?
How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected from you because of your drinking?
How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?
Has a relative, friend, doctor, or other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested that you cut it down?

Are you FAST+?

How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
How many units of alcohol do you drink on a typical day when you are drinking?
How often during the last year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?
How often during the last year have you needed an alcoholic drink in the morning to get going after a heavy drinking session?
How often during the last year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?
Have you or somebody else been injured as a result of your drinking?

Once you have completed either the CAGE or AUDIT questionnaire, you are better prepared to start managing your addiction in Mayfair.

Intervention is the first step in changing both addictive behaviour and an addict’s mindset.

Intervention: The First Step

Intervention is designed to motivate drug users or alcoholics into getting treatment. This is done in a variety of different ways to get you ready for the addiction therapy you choose to carry out in Mayfair.

The most common type of intervention for drug and alcohol abuse is CRAFT, short for ‘community reinforcement and family training.

The CRAFT approach is specifically designed for ‘concerned others’. These concerned others need not be family members, just people of close connection to the addict that is worried.

This is not a standard confrontational intervention, but a form of intervention that works on communication and the reward pathways in the addict’s brain. [5]

CRAFT has a focus on mental health, proven to be over 70% effective at getting loved ones into treatment and rehabilitation. CRAFT manages this by:

Helping concerned others understand different ways of communicating with addicts
Asking concerned others to positively reinforce pro-social and anti-using behaviour
Asking concerned others to let the negative consequences of using play out
CRAFT asks that everyone involved to educate themselves on the impacts, origins, and different types of treatment.
Discuss long-term and realistic goals for the addict, their family, and their friends

The ASAM created a treatment plan for addiction, with a criterion of 6 dimensions. These dimensions are based on risk, scored from 1-4. The higher the risk of each dimension, the more attention is needed on that area of recovery: [6]

Dimension 1 – Acute intoxication and/or withdrawal: is the patient specifically susceptible to severe withdrawal symptoms?
Dimension 2 – Biomedical conditions and complications: does the patient have any underlying health conditions that could affect rehabilitation treatment?
Dimension 3 – Emotional, behavioural, or cognitive conditions and complications: is the emotional state of the patient well regulated?
Dimension 4 – Readiness to change: does the patient have sufficient motivation to change?
Dimension 5 – Relapse, continued use, or continued problem potential: does the patient seem vulnerable to relapse, or potential relapse?
Dimension 6 – Recovery/living environment: is the patient social, to the extent it may interfere with their rehabilitation treatment?

Scores from the ASAM criteria can help rehabilitation and relapse prevention. Clinicians can tailor treatment plans specifically for you in Mayfair, working on your weakest areas whilst highlighting your strengths.

Medical professionals will also help you choose a treatment option best suited to you in Mayfair and implement these techniques.

Rehabilitation in Mayfair

Rehabilitation in Mayfair for drug and alcohol abuse falls into two main categories, inpatient and outpatient rehab.

Inpatient, also called residential rehab, involves you moving out of your home in Mayfair and living in the inpatient centre.

The prices can vary depending on the centre and region, ranging from around £14,000 a week to over £100,000 a week.

This price is all-inclusive, including rent, food, medication, staff training and utilities. This can be paid upfront, or you can set up a private payment plan with the residential centre itself.

There is a certain negative stigma attached to inpatient treatment. Celebrities often post their rehab clinics and experiences on social media, marketing high-end deluxe centres and intense therapies. These are very expensive and often seem out of range.

These are not the only inpatient centres available in London, so do your research for possible inpatient rehab centres in Mayfair that match your budget.

The time spent in the inpatient centre may vary, but 28 days is the suggested time to complete treatment and work on relapse prevention.

7 days in the minimum stay in rehab, as this is specifically required for detox from physically addictive substances. This is because physical addiction requires medication to detox safely.

Physically addictive substances such as heroin and alcohol often have life-threatening withdrawal symptoms. If you go ‘cold-turkey’, you risk withdrawal symptoms such as seizures, high blood pressure, and chronic vomiting.

Medical detox is not required for substances that are not physically addictive, like cocaine and marijuana.

The most common pharmacological detox medication is Librium. Librium is administered for 10 days and slowly reduced over time because Librium can be addictive.

Pharmacological detox helps to stabilise the brain pathways that have been damaged through drug or alcohol abuse, reducing the mental side effects of detox. [7]

Librium is provided during inpatient therapy, but outpatients will be required to pay for any detox medication and attend the centre to take it.

Drug and Alcohol Therapy

Therapy in Mayfair comes in different shapes and sizes, all tailored towards the nature of your addiction.

If you are struggling with addiction or co-occurring mental health disorder, then consider the following therapy options in Mayfair:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy:

CBT is widely used for therapeutic intervention, based on the behavioural and mental addiction.

CBT focuses on irrational thoughts and their link with negative behaviour. Negative thought patterns can undermine your efforts to make better choices, acting out with drug-using and consuming alcohol.

CBT addresses the thought patterns that have led you to addiction, helping you change the way you respond to your irrational thoughts.

CBT acknowledges the past, working towards a better future. Reviewing the way addicts think helps to facilitate positive change. Self-esteem and self-awareness are built through coping mechanisms and implemented into every section of daily life.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy:

DBT is a form of CBT, a talking therapy created for those who struggle with their emotions.

Dialectical behavioural therapy helps you to understand why you are feeling emotions so intensely and accept them. You will learn skills to manage these feelings and make a positive change.

DBT is mainly for those struggling with self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and depression. However, you must be committed to making these positive changes, ready to work in therapy and implement techniques into daily life.

DBT can be completed through group therapy or individual therapy with a professional coach. You will begin to work on yourself as a whole, making sense of the negative thought processes, emotions, and behavioural outcomes.

Motivational Interviewing:

Motivational interviewing is an evidence-based therapy approach to behavioural change. This guiding communication was developed by Miller and Rollnick, improving addiction through good listening behaviour, giving advice and education.

Motivational interviewing requires the medical professional to engage with the patient as an equal. This is not a confrontation, so the clinician must refrain from giving direct advice and warnings. [9]

Holistic Therapy:

Holistic therapy, also called holistic psychotherapy, addresses the users’ problems as a whole, rather than individual symptoms of addiction.

To realign the energy and spirit in the user is the aim of holistic therapy, motivating the addict to accept who they are and work towards a better future.

There are many different forms of holistic therapy:

Equine therapy
Music and art therapy
Adventure therapy
Massage and acupuncture therapy
Reflexology
Mindfulness

Once you have considered which addiction therapy is suitable for you in Mayfair, you will need to focus on relapse prevention.

Rehab Aftercare in Mayfair

Aftercare is as important as intervention and rehabilitation. Without relapse prevention, you will relapse into old habits and start using drugs or drinking alcohol again.

Aftercare comes in many forms, such as individual and group therapy, helping those in recovery to break chains of negative thoughts and reduce cravings.

The most popular group therapy is alcoholics anonymous, also known as AA. During AA meetings, past, present, and ‘concerned others’ gather together at meetings and exchange stories, relapse prevention techniques, and struggles.

They abide by 12 rules, also known as 12-step facilitation therapy:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Decided to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

These group therapy sessions require an open mind. All addiction is different, so we must never judge someone for what they have been through.

This starts with understanding what can threaten your relapse, and how to recognise common triggers such as:

Overwhelming stress
Boredom
Money issues
Places you used to abuse drugs or alcohol
People you used to abuse drugs or alcohol with

To help avoid these triggers of relapse, you should practice self-care such as regular exercise and good nutrition in Mayfair. Join plenty of support groups and try other forms of personal therapy.

Talk to people and get anything bothering you off your chest, we are here to help you find the right form of therapy for addiction in Mayfair.

References

[1] Theoretical Frameworks and Mechanistic Aspects of Alcohol Addiction: Alcohol Addiction as a Reward Deficit Disorder. George F Koob, 2011. Part of the Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences book series (CTBN, volume 13) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-28720-6_129

[2] ‘Neurobiological Advances from the Brain Disease Model of Addiction. Nora D. Volkow, M.D., George F. Koob, Ph.D., and A. Thomas McLellan, PhD. January 28, 2016N Engl J Med 2016; 374:363-371
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1511480

[3]https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_healthcare/downloads/all_plans/CAGE%20Substance%20Screening%20Tool.pdf

[4] https://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/files/audit.pdf

[5] https://www.robertjmeyersphd.com/craft.html

[6] American Society of Addiction Medicine (2021) ASAM: Quality and Science. available @ASAM Home Page.

[7] Sachdeva A, Choudhary M, Chandra M. Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome: Benzodiazepines and Beyond. J Clin Diagn Res. 2015 Sep;9(9): VE01-VE07. DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/13407.6538. Epub 2015 Sep 1. PMID: 26500991; PMCID: PMC4606320.

[8] McHugh RK, Hearon BA, Otto MW. Cognitive behavioural therapy for substance use disorders. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2010 Sep;33(3):511-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.psc.2010.04.012. PMID: 20599130; PMCID: PMC2897895.

[9] https://motivationalinterviewing.org/understanding-motivational-interviewing

Featured Drug and Alcohol Rehabs in Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Mayfair

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Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Mayfair

What is Addiction?

Do I Need Help?

Intervention: The First Step

Rehabilitation in Mayfair

Drug and Alcohol Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy:

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy:

Motivational Interviewing:

Holistic Therapy:

Rehab Aftercare in Mayfair

References

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