Addiction to benzodiazepines can look different from addiction to drugs of other types, but make no mistake — if you are living with a benzodiazepine addiction, your life can be just as difficult as the lives of those suffering with any drug addiction. And chances are, you have a prescription for benzodiazepines that was given to you by your doctor because this drug was supposed to help you — to make your life easier. And perhaps at first it did, but now, you are seeking detox from benzodiazepines. The team at Alpine Recovery Lodge can help you. We’ve seen many clients through benzodiazepine rehab who then went on to live peaceful, happy lives without this drug, and you can be among them.
Benzodiazepines are sold under many names, the most common of which are Xanax, Valium, Klonopin and Ativan. Its main use is to promote sleep and quell anxiety, but because these drugs can be used in different ways, addictions to benzodiazepines can form for different reasons.
You may have been prescribed a benzodiazepine to manage your anxiety and told to take a low dose once or twice a day, or to take it only as needed. While some people can manage to do this, others cannot, and they develop an addiction to benzodiazepines. Even if you take only the prescribed amount, you may find that you’re addicted to benzodiazepines when you try to stop.
Stopping benzodiazepines cold turkey can create a boomerang-type reaction, in which your anxiety and sleeplessness return in full force, perhaps even at greater levels than you had before you began taking them. This new, potent level of anxiety may feel impossible to tolerate, causing you to go “doctor shopping,” ask friends if they can spare a few pills or even turn to the illegal drug market to get more of the benzodiazepines you are now dependent on.
When you come to Alpine Recovery Lodge to detox from benzodiazepines, our staff of trained professionals and our medical team will be here to see you through the process. A prescription to manage benzodiazepine withdrawal would be antithetical to your detox, so we manage your withdrawal process drug-free. In time, as your body once again learns to regulate itself without benzodiazepines, you will be able to eat, sleep and breathe worry-free.
Benzodiazepine detox is the first step in getting clean, but drug rehab is a process that involves therapy and a plan to replace destructive behaviors with more positive ones. While many people are legitimately diagnosed with anxiety and benefit from lifelong pharmaceutical use, many others can be taught to manage their feelings without a prescription. Some of our clients who were addicted to benzodiazepines now think of the drug as a Band-aid solution that caused them more problems than it was worth.
Many anxiety sufferers can be taught skills to manage their anxiety, such as breathing techniques, meditation and how to challenge and change negative and destructive thinking patterns. Learning these strategies takes time and practice, and it’s much easier and faster to take a shortcut and pop a benzodiazepine. The anxiety is still there, it is just covered up by the drug. If you can learn to cope with your anxiety, you can rid yourself of your benzodiazepine addiction forever.
Individual therapy is a critical part of drug rehabilitation, helping you to break free of benzodiazepine addiction, but at Alpine Recovery Lodge, we also provide group therapy and family therapy. Group therapy is essential for providing a supportive environment, and it helps demonstrate to clients who are addicted to benzodiazepines that they are not alone, and there are others alongside them in their struggle. Family therapy is especially helpful in situations where there is a dual diagnosis — anxiety and addiction to benzodiazepines. When your family can understand what your triggers are, what you are going through and what you are working on, they can be more helpful to your recovery. They can take their own behavior into account and work to avoid triggering you once you return home from our inpatient recovery center.
At Alpine Recovery Lodge, we also provide nature and experiential therapy. Nature therapy helps everyone, to some extent, but it has particular success with those living with anxiety and depression. Both these mental health conditions tend to prevent you from going outside, and this can put you into a downward spiral faster than you might expect. At our Utah drug treatment center, we encourage clients to go outside and hike, walk, play sports or simply relax in the gazebo or a hammock as part of the rehabilitation process. In experiential therapy, we work with clients to help them express their pain, fears and other emotions through creative pursuits, such as painting, drawing, playing music, writing or role-playing.
Our residential recovery program gets you through detox and the hardest part of rehab – after that, you transition to our day program, or PHP. There, you will continue to attend therapy and education sessions five to six days a week, but after the conclusion of the program each day at 2:30, you will be allowed to leave campus and return home to your family. This is an exciting step, but not everyone is ready at this stage to return to the outside world, so we want you to know that remaining a resident through PHP is an option.
The final step in the program is intensive outpatient treatment, or IOP. This program is structured much the same way as day treatment, but operates on a modified schedule. You will attend fewer hours a day and you will gradually reduce the number of days you attend until you graduate from the program.
We chose to locate our residential drug treatment facility at the foot of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains in Utah because we know your environment plays a big role in your success in drug rehab, and after. Staying in our well-appointed lodge and being able to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows at any time and see soaring mountains, brilliant foliage, or deer or other woodland creatures making themselves at home on the grounds greatly helps facilitate your recovery from your benzodiazepine addiction.
While you’re here in our inpatient rehabilitation facility, we want you to focus on getting better and regaining your health. You don’t have to think about work, school or family obligations. All your meals will be prepared for you by our in-house chef. Eating healthy, sleeping at regular times, getting adequate exercise and relying on supportive friends and family members all make it easier to kick your benzodiazepine habit and live life as it was meant to be for you.
You deserve better than to live in fear, tethered to a prescription just to feel normal. We can help you beat your benzodiazepine addiction. Don’t wait — call us today.
Alpine Recovery Lodge
