Recovery can also be more difficult for women because women are less likely to ask for help than men. Since addiction is incurable, finding help from a women’s addiction treatment center is an essential first step in your recovery. A women’s addiction treatment center provides you with the skills you need, the tools and support you need to manage triggers, cravings, and stressors. By getting help from an accredited addiction treatment program, you can create a foundation for long term recovery.
Addiction is a chronic, progressive and fatal disease that can negatively affect your personal life, health, and finances. As many as 10% of Americans will develop a substance abuse disorder in their lifetime, demonstrating how common addiction truly is. Women and men both can develop physical and psychological addictions, but women experience addiction differently. For example, women are more prone to deal with medical problems as a result of drug abuse than men.
Addiction and Women
Drug use isn’t uncommon among women, as 19.5 million women used illicit substances in the past year. Drugs either create stimulating or depressing effects, which can make it very dangerous to combine multiple substances. When you use drugs, your brain is compelled to release more pleasurable neurotransmitters than it should. The surge of neurotransmitters is responsible for the positive effects of intoxication, as well as for causing your brain to associate the substance with pleasure.
When your pleasure and reward center identifies your substance of choice with happiness, your brain craves the substance whenever you aren’t using it. During addiction, your brain also associates people, places and things that remind you of your substance of choice with pleasure, which leads to intense cravings.
Constantly craving your substance of choice can make it hard to quit using, especially if you develop a physical dependency. Physical addictions occur when your body becomes dependent on your substance of choice. You then will deal with troubling physical withdrawal symptoms, like tremors and shakes, when you try to stop using. Some withdrawal symptoms can even cause death. Receiving help from a women’s addiction treatment center can limit the severity of your symptoms. These can include:
- Seizures, disorientation, and confusion
- Anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation
- Vomiting, nausea, and dehydration
- Changes to your blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate
- Restlessness, cramps, and pain
What a Women’s Addiction Treatment Center Offers
When you decide it’s time to get help for your addiction, a women’s addiction treatment center can help you regain control over your life. Inpatient programs typically last for up to four weeks. They are an excellent option if you have a severe addiction, lengthy treatment history or major withdrawal symptoms. Another benefit of inpatient rehab programs is constant access to medical and mental health professionals.
If you have a co-occurring condition, a dual diagnosis rehab program at a women’s addiction treatment center can help you treat both your substance abuse and mental health disorder. Treating both conditions is necessary in order to recover, as controlling your mental health symptoms can decrease your cravings.
A women’s addiction treatment center can also provide a slew of outpatient programs. Examples of these are partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs. Outpatient programs are a great way to continue treatment following completion of an inpatient program at a women’s addiction treatment center.
Finding the Best Care Today
When you are struggling with a substance abuse disorder, your personal, financial, and employment life can suffer. Your risk of experiencing a fatal overdose is at an all-time high, making early treatment potentially life-saving. A women’s addiction treatment center can provide you with a safe place to focus on your recovery and learn how to successfully beat addiction. Call us today at 1.844.768.1161 to find out more about our programs and your treatment options.