An intervention from loved ones can help some people recognize and accept that they need professional help. If you’re concerned about someone who drinks too much, ask a professional experienced in alcohol treatment for advice on how to approach that person. For serious alcohol use disorder, you may need a stay at a residential treatment facility.
Telehealth Treatment by Health Care Professionals
Most residential treatment programs include individual and group therapy, support groups, educational lectures, family involvement, and activity therapy. If you have any of these symptoms, alcohol may already be a cause for concern. The more symptoms you have, the more urgent the need for change. A health care provider can look at the number, pattern, and severity of symptoms to see whether AUD is present and help you decide the best course of action. This guide is written for individuals—and their family and friends—who are looking for options to address alcohol problems.
Pointing the way to evidence-based care®
The three-step road map outlined in the NIAAA Alcohol Treatment Navigator offers expert guidance to focus and support your efforts. Learn how to find higher quality, science-backed alcohol treatment to raise your changes for success. Just like any other medical condition, people with substance use disorders deserve to have a range of treatment options available to them. Scientists are working to develop a larger menu of pharmaceutical treatments that could be tailored to individual needs. Couples and family counseling incorporates spouses and other family members in the treatment process and can play an important role in repairing and improving family relationships.
- Alcohol dependence is a multifactorial disorder influenced by interacting genetic, biological, psychological and environmental factors.
- When a person is addicted to alcohol, it can be difficult for them to quit drinking on their own, or they may find themselves relapsing after various attempts to remain sober.
- Often, your insurer’s customer service number is printed on the back of your insurance card.
- 24/7, 365-day-a-year crisis counseling and support to people experiencing emotional distress related to natural or human-caused disasters.
- Lean on close friends and family – Having the support of friends and family members is an invaluable asset in recovery.
Costs and insurance
Remind yourself of the adverse long-term effects of heavy drinking and how it won’t really make you feel better, even in the short term. If certain people, https://ecosoberhouse.com/what-are-sober-living-houses/ places, or activities trigger a craving for alcohol, try to avoid them. This may mean making major changes to your social life, such as finding new things to do with your old drinking buddies—or even giving up those friends and finding new ones.
Addiction and Mental Health Resources
- Try taking a class, joining a church or a civic group, volunteering, or attending events in your community.
- Below are samples of e-health tools developed with NIAAA funding.
- If you relapse after completing 90 days of treatment within an AAC program, they can return for 30 days of complimentary treatment.
Regardless of where or how you seek treatment, it’s important to look for approaches that are “evidence-based.” This means the treatments are backed by large, well-designed studies. The Navigator will help you spot higher-quality care. If you or someone you know is living with an AUD, the good news is that there are many different treatment options, and your doctor can help you choose the best one for you.
- One size does not fit all and a treatment approach that may work for one person may not work for another.
- Detox can be done on an outpatient basis or in a hospital or alcohol treatment facility, where you may be prescribed medication to prevent medical complications and relieve withdrawal symptoms.
- Alcohol use disorder is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems.
- It also includes binge drinking — a pattern of drinking where a male has five or more drinks within two hours or a female has at least four drinks within two hours.
- Remember that your loved one is ultimately responsible for managing their own illness.
- Based on clinical experience, many health care providers believe that support from friends and family members is important in overcoming alcohol problems.
Medications can also deter drinking during times when individuals may be at greater risk for a return to drinking (e.g., divorce, death of a family member). What alcohol addiction help kind of treatment does the program or provider offer? It is important to gauge whether the facility provides all the currently available, evidence-based methods or relies on one approach. You may want to learn if the program or provider offers medication and whether mental health issues are addressed together with alcohol treatment.