The Importance of Counseling Along with Methadone Addiction Treatment

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When undergoing methadone addiction treatment, it’s important for treatment centers to also provide counseling services to their patients. Without counseling, an individual may relapse and never understand the underlying reason for his or her addiction. Counseling can help those in methadone addiction treatment to understand their triggers and find healthier ways to cope with life’s frustrations instead of falling back on drug use.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one important principle to effective treatment is counseling. Counseling in either individual and/or group formats can complement other behavioral approaches. Together, they constitute the most commonly used forms of drug abuse treatment.

How Does Counseling Help Individuals in Methadone Addiction Treatment?

Providing counseling to participants in methadone addiction treatment can make a difference in sustaining recovery. The more they understand the addiction process and how it impacts their life, including the life of their loved ones, the higher their chances of staying sober.

Just as treatment plans for addiction are tailored to the needs of an individual, counseling can also be customized. Not everyone in methadone addiction treatment shares the same exact problems from their daily lives. Counseling can help individuals open up and share his or her struggles with their peers while gaining emotional support and knowledge from the group. Many individuals who are just starting recovery or who may feel insecure about sharing, may prefer one-on-one counseling until they feel more comfortable.

There are advantages to both forms of counseling. Benefits of receiving counseling in individual and/or group sessions can include:

Individual Counseling

Working with a counselor can be very helpful in addiction recovery.

• Individual counseling can help those suffering from dual diagnoses. These people may have mental health conditions that needs to be addressed separately from their addiction. The individual may suffer from bipolar disorder, severe depression, or other mental conditions that makes it hard to share within group sessions. In these scenarios, methadone addiction treatment alone may not be effective for people suffering from co-occurring disorders.
• One-on-one counseling may provide more time for the addict to speak more openly to the counselor. This can provide the opportunity to get to the root cause of their addiction. For instance, they may learn that the reason for drug use is the need to escape their problems, but this coping measure grew beyond their control.
• With the help of a counselor, an individual can learn ways healthier ways to cope with conflicts in their personal relationships. They can learn to communicate better with those they love. Counseling can help an individual start the mental healing process, and to better understand how conflicts can be resolved without resorting to drug abuse.

Group Counseling

• In most instances, group counseling may be more cost effective than individual counseling. If cost is a concern, looking into group counseling may be preferable.
• Those in group counseling have the opportunity to build new friendships and lasting relationships with their peers. In a group counseling session, everyone involved can help to motivate each other and lend emotional support. While individually each person in the group may have different issues, they all face the same goal to overcome their addictions.

• Listening to others open up and talk about their problems and how they have tried dealing with it can often give an individual motivation or insight into trying new approaches to deal with their own issues. These new ideas may arise from hearing others talk about their own problems.
• Group counseling also offers the opportunity of confronting challenge and holding yourself and others accountable. The new friends and relationships that are formed can offer encouragement as well. Each person in the group can keep an eye out for each other to provide needed motivation and emotional support to meet the challenge of staying clean and drug-free.

Every individual is different. For some, individual counseling may be exactly what they need along with methadone addiction treatment. For many others, group counseling may be a preferred option. Regardless of the format’s advantages, each person should choose the option they feel most comfortable with.

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