An addiction counselor knows when you experience pleasure or perform pro-survival activities like eating ice cream exercising even sex -- your brain releases a chemical called dopamine. When people first use a drug such as nicotine, alcohol or marijuana, dopamine floods the brain. If they keep using the drug, the brain senses that it's getting more than enough dopamine, and signals are sent to the brain to stop producing as much on its own. That leads to depression, which leads people to keep using the drug -- not to get high, but just to stop feeling awful and increases the chance of addiction and the need for an addiction counselor.
Addiction counselors help people who have problems with alcohol, drugs and other addictions. An effective addiction counselor should know and be versed at the mechanics of addiction. In doing so he greatly improves the chances of helping the drug or alcohol addict achieve addiction recovery.
The future of an Addiction counselor
With healthcare reform Government economists expect jobs for addiction counselors to grow much faster than the average for all careers through 2016. In fact, it is among the twenty fastest-growing careers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average salary of substance abuse and addiction counselors was $39,670 in 2008.
Addiction counselors are there to help prevent substance abuse, counsel people with drug and alcohol problems and provide other services to people suffering from addiction. There are millions Americans suffering from drug addiction or alcoholism and need substance abuse treatment and the services of an addiction counselor. Drug Addiction and substance abuse, is a combination of psychological and physical dependence and addiction counselors are people that have chosen an occupation that requires them to help patients overcome their addiction.
The addiction counselor will need to have a complete understanding of the components of addiction and the remedies therein build a strong foundation for the drug or alcohol addict. The addiction counselor should understand the mechanics of the addiction, and the associated belief structure that leads the patient to continued vulnerability to their addiction. This process involves a comprehensive handling of all facets of addiction so barriers to addiction recovery are removed and a life can be lived without drug addiction or substance abuse.
It goes without saying that not every patient is cured the first time they see an addiction counselor it takes a multi prong approach by the addict and help of the competent addiction counselor. Addicts that have achieved complete addiction recovery via help of an addiction counselor greatly diminish the probability of relapse, although it may take months of addiction counseling in order to overcome addiction.
An addiction counselor should promote overcoming addiction is possible for the drug addict or alcoholic. Once that is established addiction recovery can be obtained. Substance abusers may have medical concerns associated with immediate cessation in some cases, and therefore additional consideration must be given. A number of addiction counselors subscribe to a school of thought that more or less treats psychological addictions as chemical imbalances in the brain, and thus very similar to a form of substance abuse.
An addiction counselor should be aware of the dangers of all drugs specifically those marketed as tools to remedy chemical imbalances which has yet to proven as an effective method in obtaining addiction recovery on a permanent basis.
Addiction counselors have a lot of tools at their disposal to assist drug or alcohol addicts in regaining complete control over their lives. The addiction counselor can listen and help guide the addict to a self realization about his or her life, which is by far the most effective in achieving addiction recovery.
An Addiction Counselor should be someone with a healthy lifestyle and a strong sense of ethics. As an addiction counselor taking good care of yourself will have the added benefit of helping you avoid burnout. Clean hands make a happy life, even as an addiction counselor.
Addiction Counseling and Addiction Treatment
Spending on addiction treatment is about $20 billion annually, although only about one-tenth of people needing substance use treatment receive any specialty treatment. Untreated addiction imposes enormous costs on American society. In 2005, federal, state and local governments alone spent over $465 billion on addiction-related health, social, economic and criminal justice costs (of this amount, less than two percent was spent on prevention and treatment).
Many health insurance plans offer lesser benefits for addiction counseling services than are offered for other kinds of health care. For example, a plan might have a higher deductible and lower lifetime limit on treatment days for addiction services than they have for other types of medical care. The Wellstone-Domenici Parity Act is intended to end this kind of discrimination in most plans. Even when plans offer fair benefits “on paper,” however, restrictive medical management techniques frequently make it difficult for beneficiaries to access clinically appropriate levels of care (with respect to both intensity or duration of treatment).
Due largely to the inadequacies of the private insurance market’s limited coverage of addiction services, drug addiction is much more likely than most other conditions to be treated in the public health system. Currently, only about 10 percent of addiction treatment is paid for by private insurers. This represents a nearly 20 percent decrease in private insurance payments since the 1980s. Federal, state and local governments have been forced to fill the void—over half of all addiction treatment is paid for by government sources other than Medicaid and Medicare, compared to just an 11 percent level for other health spending. This scenario is ripe for healthcare fraud and inadequate substance abuse treatment.
Effective addiction treatment is few and far between with many substance abuse programs simply failing to provide adequate addiction counselors and substance abuse treatment. Many insurance companies at one time provided great coverage for addiction treatment but with the failing success rates with inadequate addiction treatment and rising drug addiction statistics, specifically prescription drug addiction it’s no wonder private health insurers don’t cover substance abuse treatment.
AddictionWatch.com
When in need of an addiction counselor or looking for the right addiction treatment center, it is important to consider all the facets of drug addiction or substance abuse and realize there drug rehab programs out there that do not necessarily have the best interest of you or you’re loved one at heart.
Most addiction treatment centers offer one of four types of drug or alcohol rehabilitation programs that vary in cost, length and most importantly success. These programs offer many different kinds of treatment for the recovery of addicts, like inpatient treatment, outpatient rehab, detox facilities, and sober living homes. Inpatient addiction treatment is generally designed for addicts who require more intensive treatment from their addictions where they will reside with supervision and counseling from certified addiction treatment professionals.
Outpatient addiction treatment is usually for those addicts who have less severe addictions and might achieve success in a drug rehabilitation program with a few addiction counseling sessions a week for several hours, then return home at the end of the day. Detox is the first step in recovering from addiction to alcohol and benzodiazepines and offered at some addiction treatment centers, but only those with medical equipment and staff on hand to handle the safe detoxification of addicts in a comfortable environment.
For more information about addiction and addiction treatment centers, please feel free to explore our website. If you have questions about your drug use or that of a loved one, please call us at 1-866-989-4499. We are here to help!
