When can you say that you are addicted?
It becomes increasingly more evident that you are powerless with regard to the substance or the behaviour you are addicted to. The substance or behaviour takes over the steering wheel. You live under the spell of it. You try to reduce it or even to stop. And time and again you don’t succeed. When you start again, you also realise that the indulgence is taking ever bigger forms. The consequences continuously become stronger and therefore your life becomes rudderless. You lose track and your ‘losses’ mount up.
Relationships are at breaking point and work and/or study comes to a dead end. Your health is visibly deteriorating. The financial problems become increasingly bigger. In short: chaos is increasing. Your world becomes constantly smaller. You realise that you are addicted and that you need help; professional help.
Where can I go to get the best possible help?
Regular institutions work extremely slowly. The first appointment has taken a lot of effort. The follow-up takes weeks and weeks and a possible admission will often take months. This is in many cases the reality. And that is before we say anything about addressing the actual treatment within the scope of regular healthcare. Or the profile of the average patient. Let alone the after-care. Private addiction care means you can immediately, even on the same day, make an appointment with SolutionS as the authority par excellence. This also applies to any clinical admission.
The SolutionS clinics, with the SolutionS Center in the Netherlands in the forefront, have no waiting periods and work with the so-called 35-day programme based on the Twelve Step Model. There is an extremely intensive after-care process for the first three months which is seamlessly dovetailed with the stay in the clinic. The effectiveness of the treatment in the private sphere is incomparably higher than in regular healthcare.
When do you have to be treated internally? Could it not be done extra-murally?
When addiction has struck and your life has become disordered the consequences are far-reaching. Your relationship is at breaking point or has already been broken down, your work or study is being imperilled and your health is increasingly and urgently leaving much to be desired. Then a speedy clinical admission will be the most efficient solution. An extra-mural programme par definition has its restrictions. On the other hand if you are early enough, an extra-mural process can definitely offer the required corrective effect. But this should preferably be linked to a binding arrangement that if the extra-mural approach does not yield the desired result, the clinical process will still have to be followed.
How does it work with the costs of a clinical admission and any reimbursement by the health insurer?
The treatment costs are high in an absolute sense. That, for everybody, is a lot of money. Fortunately increasingly more possibilities appear to be arising for full or partial insurance cover. Recent amendments in the legislation in the area of health insurance make it desirable to make an inventory for each individual case of what the possibilities are. If there is no insurance cover, the costs will have to be financed from private resources. This is often a heavy burden. But it is a good thing to realise that an adequate and effective treatment can be the best and most important investment in your life.
What does the treatment entail in such a clinic?
The programme is intensive and runs 7 days a week. From early in the morning till late at night. The emphasis is on group therapy. It provides the space required for one-to-one talks. Within the programme there is space for all kinds of activities covered by the denominator of ‘wellness’ as well as the development of the necessary spiritual insights. That makes the programme very varied and this has a maximum return. With regard to its content the approach is supported by the Twelve Step Model. The experienced expertise of the staff makes the programme optimally insightful. The mutual relationship between therapy, wellness and spirituality help to optimise the effect of the overall treatment.
What happens when I leave the clinic?
The theme of the stay in the clinic is to kick the habit. As soon as you leave the clinic the object is ‘stay clean’. And this is quite a different trick. Linked inseparably to this is the crucial subject of relapse prevention.
In the clinic we treat the first couple of steps of the Twelve Step Model. The rest of the steps are central to the after-care programme. In addition, the central subject here is the chapter of ‘Change’. This means implementing all the changes necessary and required in order to significantly enhance the quality of life in all its facets.
The after-care programme is highly intensive and dovetails seamlessly with the stay in the clinic. There are at least two one-to-one sessions per week for at least three months. There are continuous opportunities for consultation and advice, especially in emergency situations. Moreover, there are group sessions every two weeks, for the main person as well as for the people in the client’s direct environment (separately).
We also dedicate ourselves to the utmost to building a bridge between our help and the self-help groups in order in this way to enable the client to be assured of lasting support. In doing so we concentrate for instance on Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous and for the people in the client’s direct environment and family members Al-Anon.
What does an extra-mural programme entail?
An extra-mural programme should obviously be tailored to the individual possibilities of the client but our aim is to hold at least 2 sessions per week evenly spread over that week.
This means either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday. Normally we work with a treatment period of twelve weeks. We determine the final duration of the programme by means of fixed evaluation moments. It is also imaginable that apart from the assigned counsellor we call in the help of a psychiatrist or other expert for specific subjects such as emerge during the treatment.
What is a detox treatment?
A detox is the same as detoxification. The first step in the treatment is a thorough detoxification of the body and at the same time making sure that the physical condition is brought to the required level in order to be able to start adequately with the therapy. Not everybody needs a detox. In practice a detox from alcohol or drugs takes at least 5 but often not more than 10 days. An exception to this are those addicted to medicines whereby the detox can take substantially more time. A detox treatment takes place under the guidance of a physician specialised to this end and is co-ordinated by nurses experienced in this field, based on an observation every 24 hours.