Cyndi Collier is an Addiction Counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California where she has been employed since 2000 (including over 15 years at the patient level and 12 years in day treatment.) Cyndi has worked in the addiction field for a total of over 33 years in a wide range of areas including relapse prevention, trauma groups, family groups, creative and experimental therapies, sleep/relax groups, drum circles, and the use of music in group therapy. Cyndi has maintained over 35 years of sobriety, which she describes as, “a gift that continues to teach me, as do the patients I work with.”
Meth addicts will go to great lengths to hide the signs of their addiction, avoiding rehabilitation for methamphetamines, yet many signs and symptoms of use are easy to spot – if you’re paying attention. Here’s what to look out for:
Meth rehabs can help addicts overcome and prevent some of the most devastating effects of drug use. Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant whose immediate euphoric effects are what the user is after. Both short-term and long-term effects of abuse, however, can be extremely dangerous, devastating and permanent. As with many abused drugs, the pleasurable effects of short-term meth decrease with continued use, and give way to the need for higher and higher doses to achieve the same high. The lists below identify many of the most common effects of meth abuse:
Rehab for meth involves a range of methods and techniques tailored to meet the individual patient’s recovery needs and goals. Treatment includes both medical and mental health services provided in a series of specific steps:
The first step in rehabilitation for methamphetamine addiction is addressing the immediate threats posed by the drug. Detoxification – or detox – refers to the process of ridding the body of meth. Methamphetamine detox can take up to two weeks, and is usually very unpleasant and dangerous both physically and emotionally. Supervised medical detox is the safest way to withdraw from methamphetamine addiction.
Following admission into a meth rehab, a staff therapist will meet with the patient to assess his or her current condition, including any diagnoses of comorbid mental or physical disorders or diseases. The therapist will then develop an individualized treatment plan based on the evaluation findings.
Rehabilitation for methamphetamine is based on the patient’s individual treatment plan and the facility’s specific methods and approaches to treatment.
The chances for long-term sobriety are greatly increased when the patient follows up his or her initial treatment with appropriate recovery support and aftercare programs, including:
12-step programs: 12-step programs provide the patient with a supportive environment and structure in which to share his or her experiences with other recovering addicts.
Individual Therapy and Group Counseling: One-on-one therapy sessions allow the patient and therapist to continue building on skills learned during the initial treatment period. Group counseling provides the opportunity for the patient to further develop important coping and communications skills.
Drug Testing: All aftercare strategies should include continued drug testing to instill discipline in the patient, and to quickly address the resulting problems associated with relapse.
The most important consideration when choosing a rehab for meth is effectiveness – that is, finding the program that is most likely to work for that individual. Many meth rehab centers combine the use of several different forms of evidence-based therapies in the treatment of methamphetamine addiction, such as:
Rehabilitation for methamphetamine relies primarily on behavior-based therapies. There are, however a small number of drugs that are sometimes used in conjunction with behavior therapies. They include:
Studies are also underway on a number of potentially promising medicinal treatments, including immunological treatments, that use the body’s own immune system to neutralize methamphetamine in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain.
Cyndi Collier is an Addiction Counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California where she has been employed since 2000 (including over 15 years at the patient level and 12 years in day treatment.) Cyndi has worked in the addiction field for a total of over 33 years in a wide range of areas including relapse prevention, trauma groups, family groups, creative and experimental therapies, sleep/relax groups, drum circles, and the use of music in group therapy. Cyndi has maintained over 35 years of sobriety, which she describes as, “a gift that continues to teach me, as do the patients I work with.”
With inpatient care the chances of success are better, mostly because meth patients are so nervous and jittery and reckless, and it’s hard to deal with your drug problem at home where nobody’s watching. The advantage to inpatient treatment is that patients are in a facility where they’re constantly being monitored. The more around-the-clock support you have, the better the chances of success.
I recently had a patient who in the first day or so, as often happens, said that he had to get back to work and couldn’t stay. What we do is try to settle the patient down, kind of meet them where they’re at, be soothing and get them back to some piece of reality. And go back to that old AA statement of taking it “a day at a time.” Sometimes you have to do that every day, sometimes several times a day.
When a patient is first looking into treatment, that’s a chance for us to give them some advice and tell them that they don’t need a lot of money. We’ll tell the family, “Don’t give [the patient] a credit card.” We prefer that the patient not drive their own car to treatment, that someone else drive them here. The goal is to minimize the ability to go, leave them with few resources so they can’t get too far.
Usually the family has had it [with the addict], but there are times when the family is just as sick, or they didn’t want the patient to go into treatment in the first place. So you have to kind of feel around to see if you really have their support.
Typically, the meth addict has been up for several days and has probably had little to eat. So, the first thing we want to do is to get them fed, get them cleaned up, get them some clean sheets, and give them the chance to just sleep. Very often they can’t sleep because they’re still lingering under the influence of their chemical, and they’ve destroyed their normal sleep pattern. So, sleep is precious to them. You know, it’s the very basic things we need – like food, shelter, rest, a little cleanliness – in order to start to come around and feel better.
The first couple of weeks are going to be mostly focused on detox and the withdrawal process. That first two weeks to thirty days are about getting the patient alive, alert and aware so that we can work them. The meth addict wants to get well fast, and it’s hard to get them to just be here. We begin to educate them that the brain has got to heal first. So, at that point, we begin to try to make them understand that they’re not going to be able to do this thing alone – that “you’ve tried that, and if you could have done it on your own, you would have.”
Then if we do have more time we want to move into exploring the question, “What is the drug helping you run from?” And oftentimes it has to do with childhood stuff, environmental issues, dysfunctional systems that they grew up in. And most often, it’s abuse.
It’s about making the most of the days you have available. The longer a period of time with the patient, the better chance we have to deal with those underlying issues. We say that methamphetamine is just a symptom. If we remove that [the meth] then the rest of the stuff is going to up. So, encouraging them to know that they can face that safely, that they can go at their own pace. And we can help them face [those issues] and teach them how to settle themselves. We do a lot of mindfulness techniques, a lot of meditation, fitness and exercise – all those things to help [the patient] learn to slow down and breathe, and use their support so that they can avoid relapse.
In some cases, it is preferable that the patient find a facility that is not in their immediate vicinity. The patient needs to get away from easy contact with drug friends or someone nearby who could come pick them up. So, look at distance.
You want to look at programs that offer what you’re really after. Go online, ask questions. Call the facility up, ask more questions. If you know somebody that was there, ask them about it. Basically, do your homework.
Also, take a look at accreditation and certification. Sometimes people want to know about how qualified the staff is, and that’s a reasonable question. It’s OK to check all of that out.
You know, if you’re working three jobs to afford to pay for a treatment program, you probably can’t afford that program. We do try to provide financial help to patients that have trouble paying. We understand that times are tough, and we’ll work with you. So, ask the program you’re considering to work with you on financing. And you may not be able to afford the Betty Ford Center, but you can call us and ask for suggestions. We’re glad to help.
Methamphetamine is a highly-addictive stimulant that has an extremely powerful affect on the central nervous system. It was first synthesized in the early 20th Century from its parent drug, amphetamine. Methamphetamine is classified by the USDA as a Schedule II stimulant, and is legally prescribed – though rarely – for a limited number of uses, such ADHD and short-term weight loss, although at significantly lower doses than as commonly abused.
Meth creates an artificial sensation of extreme pleasure by stimulating the release of the chemical dopamine, a neurotransmitter that affects the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Prolonged use of meth causes destruction of the brain’s ability to tell the difference between meth and natural pleasure signals, leading the brain to become dependent on the drug for the immediate pleasure impulses it produces. The result is addiction.
Most meth that is abused in the United States is produced in large labs and smuggled in from Canada, Southeast Asia and, predominantly, Mexico. It is also manufactured in small illicit labs inside the U.S., using inexpensive ingredients such as pseudoephedrine.
Meth may be snorted, injected or swallowed, but is most commonly smoked. Injection and smoking produce the quickest effect, an almost immediate high.
Withdrawal refers to the numerous symptoms experienced by someone who abruptly stops or reduces the long-term use of an addictive drug. Meth withdrawal can be very intense, with symptoms that include anxiety, restlessness, sleeplessness, agitation, depression, fatigue, psychosis, extreme drug cravings, and more. Meth withdrawal usually lasts one to two weeks, but may require four weeks or longer, depending on the length and severity of the addiction. The most severe physical withdrawal symptoms typically occur during the first 24 hours, declining over the course of the following week.