Alcohol Rehab: Los Angeles and Orange County Rehabilitation
With an incredible stronghold of options in alcohol rehab, Los Angeles and its surrounding areas are very popular choices for rehabilitation amongst alcoholics. The reputation LA has long held as a party city may hold true in some respects, but the counter-culture of healthy balanced living that has developed in contrast to it has given way to a vibrant recovery community. When alcoholics begin to think about treatment options for alcohol rehab, Los Angeles and Orange Counties are often the first places they turn.
What is alcoholism?
Alcoholism can be defined as the pattern of continuing to consume alcohol even in the presence of drastic negative consequences. Though this behavioral pattern is often presumed to be the result of poor judgement, it is actually the result of the mental aspect of the disease of alcoholism. When coupled with the physical aspect of the disease, this mental condition motivates the alcoholic to protect his or her ability to drink above all else, even their most beloved family and friends.
Why can’t an alcoholic stop drinking?
The physical aspect of alcoholism is relatively straightforward. When an individual consumes alcohol on a regular basis, the body becomes accustomed to its presence, adjusting its definition of normality to include the presence of alcohol. This normalizing of intoxication is the cause of alcoholism’s two most notable physical characteristics – tolerance and withdrawal. Increased tolerance to alcohol occurs when it is consumed regularly for a long period of time. Essentially this means that people need to drink more and more to achieve the desired effect as their drinking careers progress. Withdrawal is the physical shock the body of an alcoholic undergoes when alcohol abruptly ceases to be consumed. With many alcoholics, withdrawal symptoms are severe (uncontrollable shaking is the most infamous of these symptoms). Withdrawal from alcohol can be both painful and dangerous, and should take place in a medically supervised alcohol rehab. Los Angeles and Orange County treatment programs begin with a medical detoxification, ensuring that alcoholics are safe and as comfortable as possible during this period.
The mental aspect of alcoholism is more complex, and less widely understood. This component of the disease encompasses many topics, such as initial motivation to drink, desire to drink in spite of negative results, and mental consequences of prolonged alcohol consumption. Though the psychological realm of the disease of alcoholism is much more difficult to parse out than the physical, it is the psychology of alcoholism that makes the disease truly unique.
Understanding the mental causes, symptoms and effects of alcoholism are crucial to treating it. Any effective program of alcohol rehab (Los Angeles or elsewhere) will include psychological analysis and therapy. Starting in childhood, alcoholics tend to be people who have a hard time coping with life. They can usually identify feelings of insecurity, fear and anxiety over normal situations that troubled them before ever taking a drink. In addition, they may suffer from depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or any number of other mental conditions. Upon discovering alcohol, these individuals feel they have found a solution to their problem. Alcohol seems at first to be the medicine that will make life more potable.
Unfortunately, the medicinal effects of alcohol are little more than a surface numbing of deep emotional and psychic pain. When alcohol stops working as an anesthetic and begins to create its own wreckage, alcoholics find that their situation is worse than ever. The pre-existing mental turmoil experienced by alcoholic individuals is compounded by the mental symptoms of alcohol abuse. Severe depression, irrational thinking, destructive tendencies, paranoia and isolation are some of the common psychological effects of alcoholism. These are all debilitating mental conditions that will quickly begin to lift as toxins leave system in alcohol rehab. Los Angeles and Orange County treatment facilities assist mental rehabilitation through group and individual therapy, and calming activities like meditation and yoga.
The truly bewildering mental characteristic of alcoholism is the desire to continue drinking in spite of these mental consequences and many other practical losses. Alcoholics lose jobs, driver’s licenses, homes, custody of their children, marriages, relationships with parents and friends, and still cannot stop drinking. No other chronic disease affects its victims in a manner that causes them to refuse to acknowledge or treat it. Alcoholics may lose essentially everything that once mattered them in life, but eventually they will reach a point where they can go on no longer. They are terrified of life without alcohol, but life with alcohol has become so horrific that the unknown realm of sobriety seems like the only option. At this point, there is much to gain from enrollment in alcohol rehab. Los Angeles and Orange County alcohol treatment programs offer top-of-the line care that will support alcoholics during the difficult initial phase of recovery.
Alcohol rehab: Los Angeles and Orange County treatment programs
When seeking out the appropriate alcohol rehab, Los Angeles and Orange County programs are a wise place to begin. The Southern California region is home to some of the nation’s finest options in alcohol rehab, Los Angeles and Orange Counties having the added benefit of the most vibrant 12-step community in the world.
For women who are looking for help with alcoholism, gender-specific treatment programs offer a safe and intimate environment in which true self-discovery and growth can occur. Safe Harbor Treatment Center for Women, located in Orange County, offers a multilateral program of structured therapeutic groups, individual therapy and counseling, 12-step meetings, life skills development and uplifting social activities. Through these various avenues, female alcoholics have the opportunity to leave alcohol behind them as they move forward into a healthy new way of life.
What makes Safe Harbor a truly exceptional alcohol rehab – Los Angeles and Orange Counties’ premier women’s facility – is its outstanding sense of community. Far from feeling like an institution, Safe Harbor has the energy of a family of women supporting one another in their common pursuit of a better life. Any alcoholic woman looking for a second chance has a home waiting for her at Safe Harbor.
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