Detoxification
Safety during the detoxification process and the importance of continued rehabilitation is detailed by Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD.
Transcript
Hi, this is Dr. Bhatt with Straight Talk With The Doc. I want to talk a little bit about detoxification and when people who suffer with addiction or mental health illnesses who come to treatment who think that detox – that’s it.
Detoxification is the process when medical treatment is provided to help people safely and comfortably come off of substances of abuse. The unfortunate part is, many times people complete detox and they physically feel better and they think they don’t have to address the underlying causes of their addiction, which is the rehabilitative component of it, or the portion of it.
So, many times we see people who leave treatment, leave detox, and they end up relapsing very quickly. And that’s because all the underlying factors that contribute to why they use a substance never were addressed.
So, the important part is, when seeking treatment for addiction and your substance use disorders, focus on things that ultimately are the causative agents of why you’re using. Many times, people don’t know what that is. They know that they’re using, but they don’t know the reasons of why the addiction came to be. So, it’s important to engage in rehabilitation also, so you can explore the biological, psychological, and social reasons as to why you’re using in the first place, not just to simply medically come off of the substance that you’re using.