Preventative Treatment and Early Intervention

Preventive treatment and early intervention keep substance abuse from getting out of hand. Read on to learn more about these treatment options.

Table of Contents

What Is Prevention and Early Intervention?

Prevention and early intervention are strategies put in place in order to help prevent addiction or relapse from occurring, as well as help provide treatment as soon as possible for those that need it.

Most addiction treatment and therapy programs will help patients learn about potential risks that could cause a relapse. This helps to self-manage during addiction recovery. Other resources, like having a relapse prevention plan, are helpful so someone knows what to do if they think they’re about to relapse after rehab.1

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Why Early Intervention is Crucial When Treating Addiction

Early intervention is crucial when treating addiction because it makes treatment easier if it is caught early on. Often, if intervention is possible at the early stages, the detox process, recovery time, and integration back into everyday life will all be easier to manage.2

However, that doesn’t mean that someone who has been struggling with addiction for a long time also can’t successfully recover. There are several resources available that can help anyone, no matter how long an addiction has been ongoing.

Substance Abuse and Early Intervention

The early stages of substance abuse can consist of things like:

  • Peer pressure
  • Experimenting with different substances
  • Being surrounded by high amounts of drug or alcohol abuse
  • Misusing prescription medications
Early intervention during these stages helps stop substance abuse and manage recovery before many of the negative consequences of addiction can occur.

Types of Preventive Healthcare

If you’re thinking about preventative treatment, you may wonder what preventive healthcare is, along with what types of it are available. General preventive health care consists of:
  • Your annual checkup
  • Cancer screenings
  • Childhood immunizations
  • Adult immunizations 
  • Your yearly flu shot 
These practices occur on a regular basis to help you stay on top of your overall health and well-being. Likewise, preventative care for addiction essentially has the same goal. Preventive treatment is meant to keep you feeling good and keep the recovery process in check as well.

Understanding Preventative Healthcare

Like general preventative healthcare, preventive treatment in addiction will consist of regular appointments or meetings to manage your recovery. This involves therapy sessions, support group meetings, or checking in with treatment professionals. It may also consist of checking in with your current coping mechanisms and re-evaluating them if they no longer are serving you well. Your therapist can help you figure out what works for you and what you may have to change.

How Do You Know What Preventive Care You Need and When?

Now that you know what preventative care is in addiction, you’re probably wondering what type of preventive care you need and when you need it. Often, if you’ve gone through a recovery program for addiction, the treatment center should be able to provide you with guidelines for relapse prevention and an aftercare program.3

After completing a recovery program, you will likely want to attend therapy or support group meetings around once a week or more to help you stay on track. Eventually, you may be able to lessen how often you go, but staying consistent right after completing treatment is important. Other types of preventative care, like health checkups and doctor’s visits, will likely be scheduled routinely to ensure that you are in good health.

What’s the Difference Between Preventive Care and Diagnostic Care?

While preventive care could potentially lead to a diagnosis if something is uncovered, preventive and diagnostic care don’t mean the same thing. Preventive care is intended as general health checkups or strategies that are put in place to prevent health issues or relapses in addiction from occurring.

On the other hand, diagnostic care is usually sought out when someone is experiencing the negative effects of an addiction or health issue. Diagnostic care provides a full diagnosis of a problem that is occurring. In addiction treatment, diagnostic care would involve meeting with a medical professional to see if you have a diagnosable substance use disorder.4

Benefits of Early Intervention

There are many benefits of early intervention in substance abuse, including:

Leads to Positive Long-Term Effects

Addiction can affect someone’s life in many ways, especially if it’s ongoing for a long period of time. Early intervention can help prevent many negative health and mental effects of addiction from occurring. This leads to positive long-term effects on the success of recovery and staying sober after treatment.

Maintains Healthier Influences and Environments

Those who struggle with addiction for a long time will often end up distancing themselves from friends, family, or other positive influences. Early intervention can help catch substance abuse before this occurs to provide a better support system during treatment.

Improves Life-Course Trajectory

Unfortunately, long-term addiction can alter someone’s life course trajectory. The effects of addiction on someone’s life can cause things like dropping out of school, quitting or getting fired from jobs, or ending relationships. Noticing substance abuse early on helps prevent a lot of this from happening.

Prevents Long-Term Physical Side Effects

Long-term abuse of substances can lead to major health issues. Many substances can take a toll on brain chemistry, along with the functions of internal organs or contracting diseases from used needles or poorly managed drugs. Catching substance abuse early will help prevent adverse physical side effects of drug use to recover health and well-being.

Make Effective Changes to the Family Support System

If family members or friends are causing issues that have led someone to substance abuse, catching it early on can help. This allows loved ones to make changes and provide an effective support system to facilitate recovery and prevent further issues from occurring.

Shift Life Focus to Healthier Alternatives

Utilizing early intervention before drug abuse gets out of control can help someone shift their life focus more easily on healthy habits. This can include spending more time with positive influences, eating a healthy diet, or exercising regularly.

What Are Some Strategies You Can Use in Order to Prevent Addiction?

While preventative care is most common after a recovery program, it can also be implemented in anyone’s life to prevent substance abuse from ever occurring in the first place.
Early Intervention

Prevention Techniques

Some tips for how you can prevent addiction include:
  • Understand how substance abuse develops
  • Avoid temptation and peer pressure
  • Seek help for mental illness
  • Examine the risk factors
  • Keep a well-balanced life
As long as you maintain healthy habits and best practices for drinking or taking prescription medications, you can help prevent addiction from occurring. In addition, encouraging those around you to do the same will facilitate a healthy environment.

Find Out More About Preventative Treatment & Early Intervention at Profound

Profound can help if you want to learn more about preventative treatment and early intervention. Profound is a treatment center for drug and alcohol abuse. All of our treatment programs are evidence-based and can be made to fit your needs. With the help of our knowledgeable and friendly staff every step of the way, you won’t have to go through struggles with addiction alone.

Contact us to learn more about how Profound can help you.

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