Helping a Loved One Accept Methadone Maintenance Treatment

Author: Emily Oconnor

An estimated nine percent of the U.S. population abuses opiates within any given year, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Whether it’s heroin or prescription pain medications, once an opiate addiction takes hold, addicts will most likely fall deeper into addiction without getting needed treatment help.

Methadone maintenance treatment has a long-established track record in helping recovering addicts overcome opiate addiction. Helping a loved one accept methadone maintenance treatment will, more oftentimes than not, require a direct approach conducted in a supportive, loving manner. Once in treatment, supporting a loved throughout the different stages of recovery is equally important for ensuring he or she maintains a drug-free lifestyle.

Drug Treatment Interventions

Watching a loved one sink deeper and deeper into the world of addiction can be a heartbreaking experience. As opiates take over a person’s existence, he or she becomes less and less of the person you once knew. The effects of the addiction gradually take over a person’s mind, will and personality to the point where you actually are dealing with a completely different person.

Helping a friend into methadone treatment can save their life!

In many cases, someone with an opiate addiction will deny a problem even exists and rather fault the person who confronts them on the issue. When all else fails, a drug treatment intervention may be the only way to help a loved enter methadone maintenance treatment.

Drug treatment interventions involve an interventionist or drug treatment professional who devises a plan to get your loved one into methadone maintenance treatment. Interventions also include family and friends who are currently involved in the addict’s life. No doubt, your loved one will act out during the intervention and almost certainly attack those present. For this reason, it’s especially important to take a loving, supportive approach when doing an intervention.

As ongoing drug use leaves a loved one at risk of severe consequences and even death, taking a “whatever it takes” attitude may be necessary to get your loved one to accept methadone maintenance treatment as his or her only option.

Post-Detox Supports

The first step towards getting a loved one into methadone maintenance treatment begins at the detox treatment level. While many detox programs begin methadone treatments right away, a loved one may still have a difficult time adjusting to life without drugs.

Even though methadone maintenance treatment detox programs have ample experience in helping recovering addicts through the detox stage, the importance of maintaining ongoing support from friends and family cannot be underestimated as loved ones go through this difficult first stage in recovery.

Maintenance Supports

The methadone maintenance treatment process can last anywhere from six months to a year or more depending on the severity of your loved one’s addiction. The withdrawal effects from an opiate addiction can last well into the treatment process, meaning recovering addicts remain at risk of relapse at any given stage of treatment.

Supporting loved ones throughout the methadone maintenance treatment process means taking an active role in their therapy treatment as many programs encourage participation from friends and family. While getting a loved into treatment is an essential first step, ensuring he or she remains in treatment is equally important.