If you or a loved one is struggling with an opioid use disorder rehab is the only safe option. Fentanyl is one of the most commonly abused prescription opioids because it’s often used to replace street drugs like heroin and morphine. This makes sense considering fentanyl is up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Dealers have to import or buy smaller quantities of drug, reducing their own risks. At the same time, fentanyl is dangerous, extremely easy to overdose on and extremely addictive. It’s also responsible for as many as 70% of all opioid-related overdoses. If you’re struggling, you need help.
But, with thousands of rehab centers in the United States, choosing one can be difficult. If you’re looking for fentanyl recovery, the following factors can help you to make a good decision.
Every opioid use disorder treatment center is required to have federal accreditation from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. If your facility does not have this accreditation, they cannot treat opioid use disorder. This includes pain pills, fentanyl, morphine, heroin, and any other opioid drug.
In addition, you’ll want to look for state accreditation. For example, rehab centers operating in California must be licensed and certified by the California Department of Healthcare Services.
You might also want your facility to have Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) accreditation.
In addition, if you want a Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement for treatment, you’ll need your facility to be accredited by the Joint Commission (JTC) formerly The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Opioid use disorders can cause long-term changes to the brain and to how you think. This often means that you won’t “return to normal” for at least a year after getting clean. People in early recovery are especially vulnerable to relapse. However, vulnerability to relapse will never go away.
Therefore, it’s important that your facility offers long-term support and aftercare. That might be the option to get support and to talk to someone if you relapse. It might also mean checkups and aftercare counseling for the first year. Or, it might mean help moving you into a local aftercare program in your area.
Aftercare can vary from moving you into a 12-step program to moving you into a halfway house and offering weekly counseling sessions for the first year. Different rehab centers have very different approaches. You can consult with a counselor to see what you need, but more long-term support is usually better.
Fentanyl is extremely strong and has a high overdose risk. That becomes exacerbated when you get clean and your tolerance drops. Then, if you do relapse, you’re more likely to use a higher dose than you can physically tolerate. This leads to a 10x increase in risk of overdose related death. Because fentanyl is responsible for 70% of all opioid-overdoses, people with a fentanyl addiction are in the highest risk group.
Using a medication-assisted treatment program with buprenorphine or methadone significantly reduces that risk. Here, you receive an opioid in a light dose. It prevents cravings and withdrawal symptoms. This significantly reduces your chances of relapse while taking the drug. But most are also distributed with Naloxone. So, if you attempt to abuse the drug, you’ll go into withdrawal.
Having that safety net can be important when even a tiny bit too much of a drug can cause an overdose. Of course, it’s not a mandatory requirement for treating fentanyl addiction. However, it can significantly reduce risks over attempting to get clean without the help.
If your rehab facility is accredited, it means they use approved and evidence-based treatments. However, it’s always a good idea to check what they use. For example, does your facility use cognitive behavioral therapy? Does it use dialectal behavioral therapy? Or EMDR? Those three behavioral therapies are widely recognized as being the most successful therapy treatments for substance use disorder.
However, you’ll also want to look for other evidence-based therapies that aren’t “required” for certification. For example, fitness and nutritional programs can greatly improve outcomes. You might also benefit from specific types of therapy or treatment. And, if you have counselors or coaches who specialize in fentanyl or opioid recovery, you’re likely going to have more support than if you have a general treatment approach.
Each of these can improve the outcomes of therapy and treatment. However, not all of them are “treatment “on their own. Instead, they complement and add to your primary treatment, which is normally behavioral therapy.
People come to addiction and substance use disorder in many different ways. Hundreds of factors can overlap to result in vulnerability and eventual addiction. Many people get started with opioids through prescription pain pills. Others try heroin or attempt to and instead get fentanyl. Some people start using to reduce the symptoms of pain, others to reduce the symptoms of mental health disorders, and others to have fun or to fit in with a group. Whatever your reasons, they’re likely unique and fairly specific to your mental health and situation.
More importantly, as you move through substance use and addiction, your experiences, your exposure to trauma, and your motivations to continue or to stop using are different. That will impact your motivations for going into recovery, it will impact what treatment you need, and it will affect what should be treated first. This means that building a personalized treatment program around the issues you’re facing, adapting it as you move through recovery, and ensuring that the treatment you’re receiving is the treatment you need will always be the best call.
Over 2.7 million Americans are addicted to an opioid like fentanyl. If you or a loved one is struggling, you’re not alone. But, it’s still important to get help. With thousands of treatment centers in the United States, there’s always an option to get that help. Hopefully you can use this information to choose a treatment center that works for you and for your needs.
Asana Recovery offers detox, residential, and outpatient addiction treatment services at our center located in Orange County, California. Please contact us today to speak with one of our experienced addiction treatment team if you have any questions about our programs.
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