Alcoholism poses so many hurdles to overcome – much more than simply stopping the intake of this addictive intoxicant. Alcoholism is a brain disease that affects the physical, mental and social aspects of the individual and it even impacts on those around the addict. It is therefore imperative that alcoholism rehab centres offer a comprehensive and holistic treatment solution to their patients to ensure a safe and successful recovery.
This includes specific treatment and measures to cope with two of the most common and most crippling aspects of the recovery process – withdrawal symptoms and relapse. While alcohol abuse might start out as a conscious decision on behalf of the individual, there comes a point where the regular abuse of alcohol leads to changes in the body and the dependency becomes physiological in nature. This is a medical condition and alcoholism rehab centres must thus have access to medical care to successfully treat this addiction.
Alcohol inhibits NMDA neuro-receptors and chronic alcohol exposure results in up-regulation of these receptors. When the intake of alcohol is stopped, these receptors are no longer inhibited and this results in brain hyper-excitability. This manifests clinically as anxiety, irritability, agitation and tremors. Severe manifestations include alcohol withdrawal seizures and delirium tremens.
One of the most common reasons for relapse is the extremely bad feeling caused by the withdrawal symptoms. Not only do you feel physically sick and exhausted, it also drains you emotionally and depression and anxiety are common occurrences among recovering alcoholics. It is in a bid to try and avoid these bad feelings or to find relief from them that many recovering alcoholics reach for the bottle again. The problem is that it is often found that withdrawal symptoms are experienced in a progressively worse way after every relapse.
At We Do Recover we are very much aware of the importance of finding the right alcoholism rehab centres for a successful recovery process. We have combined our expertise to bring you information on leading private facilities in South Africa, the UK and Thailand.
In addition to providing this information, we can also help you to make an informed decision on which facility would be best for you or your loved one.
For more information on alcoholism rehab centres, contact us.