Substance use disorders affect millions of people in the United States each year. One of the key criteria of a substance use disorder is an inability to quit on your own. Despite this, recovery is possible. A custom-curated addiction recovery program can help you break free from addiction once and for all and start living a better and healthier life in sobriety.

Understanding Addiction

In order to understand how customized addiction recovery programs can help, it’s first important to recognize the effects that addiction can have. The simplest definition of addiction is an inability to stop using drugs or alcohol despite experiencing serious consequences as a result of that substance use.

Addiction is not a choice. Using drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids, or prescription medications can lead to lasting brain changes that make it difficult for people to experience a sense of reward outside of substance use.

It can also lead to invasive substance cravings, severe withdrawal symptoms if you suddenly stop, and worsening physical and mental health symptoms.

In diagnosing addiction, mental health experts look for eleven key criteria and symptoms, including:

  1. Craving
  2. Using more substances than intended or for longer than intended
  3. Spending a great deal of time using your substance of choice, seeking it out, or recovering from its effects
  4. Growing tolerance for your substance of choice
  5. Withdrawal symptoms when you stop
  6. Multiple failed attempts to stop on your own
  7. Loss of interest in hobbies or activities outside of substance use
  8. Continued use despite interpersonal consequences cause by substance use
  9. Worsening physical health symptoms
  10. Using substances when it is dangerous to do so, such as while driving or operating machinery
  11. Failing to meet major obligations at work, home, or school due to substance use

Like many other mental health disorders, addiction occurs on a spectrum. Identifying with two or three of the above symptoms could be considered a mild substance use disorder, whereas having four or five symptoms is moderate, and six or more is severe.

As dire as addiction may seem, there is hope for recovery. Starting treatment at an evidence-based addiction recovery program can help you learn the skills to beat your addiction once and for all and finally start living a better life in recovery.

7 Benefits of Customized Addiction Recovery Programs

No two people face the same set of symptoms or challenges in their path to recovery. As such, there is no one-size-fits-all addiction recovery program that can meet every client’s needs without substantial modification.

At Plus by APN, our team aims to tackle this challenge by offering highly customized, uniquely curated addiction recovery program options. After meeting with our team for an initial assessment and diagnosis process, we work together with our clients to determine what treatments and therapies best fit their unique needs and preferences.

This custom-tailored approach provides several unique benefits above your run-of-the-mill addiction recovery programming. The benefits of a curated program include:

1. Spending Your Time on What Works

No matter which style of treatment you choose, an addiction recovery program requires a substantial time commitment. However, choosing a generic program can lead you to spend a great deal of time using treatment options that don’t fit your needs.

Taking the first steps toward recovery is a major decision, and the motivation you’ve found to overcome a substance use problem can quickly begin to wane if you feel as though you are wasting time.

In a custom-curated addiction recovery program, you can focus on the options that work best for you and the treatment methods that you enjoy. This includes both evidence-based treatment options, such as individual therapy or relapse prevention, as well as complementary or alternative treatments, which can improve your quality of life and sense of well-being.

2. Better Treatment Outcomes

Customized treatment isn’t only about enjoying treatment more. The therapy and treatment options that you feel you can truly connect with are typically the ones that provide better outcomes, meaning:

  • Lower risk of relapse
  • Rapid resolution of substance use disorder symptoms
  • Development of healthy coping mechanisms
  • Improved quality of life
  • Faster improvements in personal and social functioning

The reason these treatments work better is simple: when you feel engaged in treatment, you’re typically more willing to do the work. Treatment engagement has been frequently associated with a number of positive outcomes and makes it more likely for people to stay involved, work toward their goals, and remain enthusiastic about recovery.

3. Flexibility

Flexibility is inherent to any custom-curated addiction recovery program. By offering our clients a comprehensive suite of physical and mental health services, you have the option to adjust your treatment plan as you see fit.

Did you start cognitive-behavioral therapy, only to discover later that you connect more with eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing? A custom-curated program gives you the option to try out new therapeutic styles and treatment options.

Or perhaps when you started treatment, you were hesitant to participate in group therapy. But after receiving treatments for anxiety and improving your withdrawal symptoms, you could have found the confidence and desire to connect with other people who share a common problem.

Custom-curated addiction recovery programs grow with you while you grow and learn in treatment. Recovering from an addiction is a life-changing experience, and people often find new interests, capabilities, and personal strengths in the process.

By collaborating with clients to customize treatment through this process, we ensure that you have everything you need for every stage of recovery.

4. Effective Treatment for Co-Occurring Conditions

In addiction treatment, co-occurring mental health conditions are the norm, not the exception. When it is left untreated, a mental health disorder can seriously impact your ability to achieve and maintain your sobriety. Seeking dual-diagnosis treatment is the best way to ensure that a mental health condition doesn’t hold back your recovery.

A custom-curated addiction recovery program offers you the best options for true dual-diagnosis treatment. With a variety of different therapies and treatment options available, you can find specific solutions to fit your exact co-occurring condition.

Some of the most common mental health conditions that co-occur with substance use disorders include:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Having effective treatment options for these conditions is vital, even if you enter treatment believing that addiction is the only problem you’re facing. Often, substance use can mask the symptoms of a mental health condition, and people often only begin to experience the symptoms in earnest once they’ve achieved sobriety.

5. Targeted Interventions

Relatedly, a curated addiction recovery program offers targeted treatment options for specific conditions. Different types of therapy or treatment interventions are often designed to treat specific mental health challenges. For instance:

  • Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Specifically designed to treat trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Used to treat multiple different mental health conditions but is particularly effective at treating depression and anxiety
  • Ketamine-Assisted Treatment: Shown remarkable results in helping people overcome treatment-resistant mental health conditions
  • Interpersonal Therapy: Focuses on helping people build communication skills and resolve interpersonal conflict
  • Stellate Ganglion Blocks: Can rapidly reduce anxiety and the physical symptoms of PTSD

A custom-curated program can help guide clients to receive the right type of treatment for their specific needs rather than trying to take a more generalist mental health approach.

In practice, this means that you get your symptoms treated in the right way, you experience symptom relief faster, and you can take comfort in knowing that there is significant scientific and clinical support for the types of interventions you receive.

6. Self-Discovery

Achieving recovery from a substance use disorder is often a major turning point in life. Recovery will frequently bring about dramatic changes in personality, vitality, motivation, and interests, and having the flexibility of a custom-curated addiction recovery program lets you explore and discover the new facets of your changing life.

By emphasizing holistic approaches, our addiction recovery program allows people to explore new ways of thinking, build resilience, and discover their values after reaching sobriety. After all, sobriety is only the first step on a lifelong recovery journey.

Unlike generic treatment programs, there is no predetermined course for you to follow in a custom-curated program. You get to set the stage for your life’s new chapter and discover what is most meaningful and impactful to you.

7. Multiple Levels of Care

A custom-curated program offers substantial adaptability in terms of levels of care as well. Traditionally, addiction treatment follows a relatively rigid pathway through the so-called treatment continuum:

  1. Medical detoxification
  2. Residential treatment
  3. Partial hospitalization
  4. Intensive outpatient
  5. Outpatient
  6. Aftercare

While this model of addiction care is typically on the mark in terms of what people need in order to make sustainable change, it imposes structure onto the inherently unstructured process of recovery.

Rather than fitting people into certain level-of-care “boxes,” a custom-curated program is designed to cater to your exact needs when you need them. Working with our team, you determine the intensity and frequency of the care that you need rather than being placed into an existing system that dictates that for you.

The Custom-Curated Process at Plus by APN

Plus by APN is a specific set of services offered under the APN umbrella. By focusing on innovative treatment options to help people overcome addiction and co-occurring mental health conditions, our program offers the best in complementary and integrative approaches that can help you find rapid and lasting symptom relief.

Starting a custom-curated addiction recovery program at Plus by APN starts with a simple phone call. Our mental health experts are standing by to take your call and can help guide you toward the treatment options that best fit your needs.

The process itself starts with a detailed and thorough assessment and diagnosis process. This gives our providers the baseline information required to help develop a customized program, helping them gather information such as:

  • The severity of your substance use problem
  • Any co-occurring medical or mental health conditions
  • Frequency and duration of substance use
  • Your personal preferences for treatment

With this information in hand, our team works directly with you to develop a curated program focused on the treatments and therapies that will have the greatest impact on your ability to achieve recovery.

Start Treatment Today

When you’re ready to begin, reach out to our team by calling 424.644.6486. You can also fill out our confidential online contact form for more information. Addiction can be a devastating mental health condition, but recovery is possible, provided you get the evidence-based and compassionate support you need. Our professional team is dedicated to improving the lives of every client who uses our services.

Don’t delay seeking treatment any longer. A holistic and integrative treatment program leading to a lasting recovery is just a single phone call away.

References

  • Dixon, Lisa B., et al. “Treatment Engagement of Individuals Experiencing Mental Illness: Review and Update.” World Psychiatry, vol. 15, no. 1, 2016, pp. 13-20, https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20306. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.
  • Hasin D, Liu X, Nunes E, McCloud S, Samet S, Endicott J. Effects of Major Depression on Remission and Relapse of Substance Dependence. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002;59(4):375–380. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.59.4.375