Alcohol Abuse Treatment and Addiction treatment may be often discusses as seperate thing, but alcohol is just another substance that humans can become addicted to.  Instead of being discussed as treatments for different problems, they will be addressed as part of the same problem – an addiction.

Dr. Dean Adell, who hotls a medical talk radio program, says that addiction medicine is a specialized field of medicine that the practitioners should be specially trained to handle.   Many good doctors have chosen to specialize in the field, but the treating an addiction is largely done the same way.  There can be up to three steps: detox, in-patient therapy, and enrolling in an outpatient program.

In-patient drug addiction treatment can be expensive and is intensive.  It is intended to help the patient become clean and start out with a strong transition back to his normal routine, but in-patient therapy alone is not enough.    It is good for determining destructive behavior problems and other possibly underlying psychological problems, but out-patient programs, such as twelve step programs, must be used as part of a successful alcohol abuse treatment or an addiction treatment.

Even a person who is clean will remain an addict for the rest of his or her life.  Out-patient programs increase the chances of a person not slipping into their destructive behavior and provide a support network of other people who understand what another addict is going through.    The support network can help a person stay off whatever substance he or she has abused.  

Most out-patient programs follow the twelve traditions initially laid down by the group Alcoholic’s Anonymous.   Many churches host AA meetings and an in-patient facility should help their patients locate outpatient resources to treat addiction before a patient leaves.