Our Innovative Addiction Treatment Philosophies
Using drugs or alcohol for long periods of time often leads to addiction, and even when it’s clear someone needs help, they might not realize or be able to accept the truth. Drug use can alter the chemical makeup of the brain, hindering the person’s perception and ability to have a sound train of thought. In turn, it makes it difficult for them to accept that they require help for their addiction. Luckily, there are proven addiction treatments that can help people recover from drug abuse so that they can carry on living meaningful and content lives. WhiteSands Treatment is proud to be a top choice for effective and innovative addiction treatment in Florida. Let’s explore what makes WhiteSands stand out and how we can help you or your loved one.
What Causes Addiction?
Addiction is an extremely compulsive chronic disease that has inherently harmful repercussions. Many of the most addictive drugs available act on the reward circuit of the brain, flooding it with dopamine, which gives the user a sensation of pleasure and happiness. This is what is called a “high.” Over time and with prolonged drug use, the brain adapts to the constant flow of dopamine and requires that high amount to simply feel normal. In turn, when the user is not high, dopamine levels are so low that the person becomes depressed, irritable, and agitated until they can get high again and bring those dopamine levels up.
Drug use typically begins with a voluntary decision to try a certain drug or alcoholic beverage. This could be under peer pressure or simply choosing to use drugs in hopes that it will make one fit in a social crowd. That use can quickly turn into abuse when the person starts craving the substance more and more often until their body and mind become dependent on it. Once a person is reliant on a substance in order to make it through the day, they are addicted, and they need effective and compassionate addiction treatment to overcome this.
Drug addiction is considered a relapsing disease because drug abuse can change the brain permanently, causing the person to always crave that drug that they were so heavily reliant on. Even if one has not used in years, they are still susceptible to falling back into the stronghold of addiction.
How Can I Replace Harmful Addictive Behaviors with Healthy Habits?
At WhiteSands Treatment, we recognize that humans are, by nature, creatures of habit that can be prone to addiction and obsessive behaviors. People with addictive personalities are going to struggle with moderation in any area of their life. That’s why we first focus on the harmful addictive behavior that is leading them to enter treatment and has been destructive in their daily lives. We support patients by helping them create healthy habits, which can become a new part of their daily routine. We also help them avoid falling into the pitfall of other harmful addictive behaviors following the completion of our addiction treatment program. We address this by helping them examine other areas of life for potential addictive behaviors such as work, exercise, food, spending money, or sex addictions and creating a detailed relapse prevention plan that monitors each of these other areas of life prone to addiction.
Many addiction treatment centers don’t challenge their patients mentally and physically throughout the treatment program. They are often either sitting in group sessions or chain smoking on a bench outside while feeling anxious and agitated as a result of that treatment experience. Although we do permit smoking and utilize group and individual therapy, we have worked hard to create a program that encourages patients to be mentally and physically active during the time they are not in active individual or group therapy. A person in treatment for four to six weeks has the opportunity to not only address their addictive behaviors but also work on their physical health and general life management skills.
Why We Believe A Comfortable Guest Makes a Successful Patient
At WhiteSands Treatment, we believe that patients should always be comfortable and treated with dignity and respect. Our CEO, Garry Jonas, recognized that many treatment centers treat patients like cattle, moving them from one location to another in a group, with little recognition of the uncomfortableness and shame many patients struggle with as they work on their issues. He recognized that the anxiety many experience was due to patients not being in the comfort of their own homes. This led to the pioneering idea of designing a program with most therapy occurring from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In the evenings, patients become guests. This schedule mimics the reality of many people returning to work and home. There are set hours each day for therapy and relaxation.
We have all recognized that many patients enter addiction treatment at their personal “rock bottom” and are often highly agitated and anxious. People do not enter treatment because their life is going great, their emotions are balanced, and they have healthy coping skills. Many people enter treatment following an intervention from family, friends, or an employer that has increased feelings of shame and anxiety. These feelings can increase throughout the treatment program experience and, for many, may lead to difficulty engaging in treatment or absorbing the information presented to them. While the patient is trying to deal with these challenging issues, treatment centers typically make it more difficult by limiting the patient’s comforts of home. Limiting these home comforts by losing access to electronic devices, sharing a bedroom and bathroom, and being told what to do every minute of the day can worsen their feelings.
What Does ‘A Patient Becoming a Guest’ Mean?
We’ve worked to create an environment that feels like a hotel or resort. At 4:30 p.m., after completing a full day of group and individual therapy, patients can return to their private bedrooms and find their phones, tablets, and laptops waiting on their queen-sized beds. They can catch up with family, friends, or work, check emails or social media, and process what they have learned that day in their personal sanctuary. They can expect to have privacy watching television in their bedroom, or they can participate in various campus activities.
From 4:30 to 10:30 p.m., they can create their own schedule. Some people prefer to spend time in small groups playing volleyball or basketball, swimming, or playing board games, while others prefer to read in their rooms, walk quietly around our property, or exercise in our large recreation center. We want each person’s needs to be met during this time. They can eat healthy food prepared on our property, either in their rooms or on their patios. Many choose to eat dinner with their families over video calls.
At WhiteSands Treatment, we believe that providing access to electronics offers a necessary degree of privacy and freedom, but we ensure this is done within a clinically supportive environment. Clinicians are on-site during these hours to process negative phone calls, confrontations by family members, or contact from unhealthy friends or family that may lead to cravings or distress. We fully believe that if we were to limit access to electronics throughout the entirety of an addiction treatment stay, people would be confronted with an overwhelming number of triggers once they return home. Because they still have access during our treatment programs, they can learn to process these triggers in a supportive environment where drugs and alcohol are not available.
All devices are collected at 10:30 p.m. (or earlier for those who prefer to sleep earlier), and a period of self-reflection and reading is encouraged before turning in for the night. Life Skills reading is provided daily, and many take this time to complete reading assignments or journaling. This allows them to enter treatment with a healthy and positive mindset the next day. The team at WhiteSands truly believes that treating patients like guests after clinical hours teaches them that they deserve to experience healthy pleasures in life and learn to have fun while sober.
How WhiteSands Approaches Addiction Treatment
At WhiteSands Treatment, we begin to help patients address the underlying issues of addiction from the very first day they start their journey with us. Within the first week of treatment, each patient meets with our medical director, clinical director, psychiatrist, and individual therapist multiple times. As a team, each patient’s needs are carefully reviewed to determine what the best course of addiction treatment will be. This includes working with each patient to help them establish goals for individual therapy, selecting therapy group options, and determining their individualized need for medical treatment. Each patient will have four to five individual or family therapy sessions weekly. This requires WhiteSands to have more qualified clinical staff as part of its treatment team.
From the moment WhiteSands was created, we have been on a mission to develop the most comprehensive and individualized treatment program. We all know the high relapse rates that are possible after completing addiction treatment, and our industry needs to continue the work to improve these outcomes. We believe the heart of improving outcomes is getting to the underlying issues of why someone uses substances. Why are they self-medicating with drugs and alcohol? A person can be physically detoxed from the substance in a matter of days, but the mental withdrawal and obsession last much longer. At WhiteSands, we want to focus on what is at the heart of the mental component of addiction.
Determining the underlying issues and the mental component of addiction takes intensive one-on-one therapy and having a broad menu of groups to choose from that can address any underlying problems. At WhiteSands Treatment, it is our goal to help those we serve to gain a better awareness of underlying emotional challenges such as depression and anxiety while learning new coping skills to deal with past traumatic experiences, family dynamics, and situational stressors at home, work, or school.
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The disease of addiction works by altering the way the brain registers pleasure, corrupting it, and convincing it that it needs the desired substance in order to function properly. ” title=”Understanding Addiction “][summary_box col=”2″ url=”/addictive-substances/” content=”There are a plethora of addictive substances on the market. From readily available and legal alcohol to prescription painkillers and illicit drugs; people can get addicted to anything.” title=”A to Z Addiction Substances”][summary_box col=”2″ url=”/addiction/dealing-with-addiction/ ” content=”Addiction does not magically appear overnight, but rather, is a gradual endeavor that takes years to get to. 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