As an effective pain-relief medication, doctors prescribe codeine on a frequent basis to treat conditions involving mild to moderate pain. Codeine has a fast-acting effect on pain symptoms as well as other pleasant effects, such as calm and euphoria. When taken as prescribed there’s a fairly low risk of addiction, but the risk is still there.

The addiction potential has to do with the way codeine interacts with pain receptors in the brain. When used for recreational purposes, the potential for codeine addiction increases considerably. Codeine addiction treatment focuses on undoing the physical and psychological damage caused by the misuse of codeine drugs.

Codeine Addiction

Even when taken as prescribed, codeine’s effects on the body can still develop into an addiction if not properly monitored. According to Columbia Health, the longer a person takes codeine the more the body adapts to prescribed dosage amounts. Codeine’s strong resemblance to the body’s natural pain-killing chemicals makes it easy for the body to develop a tolerance to the drug. This means, the body gradually requires larger and larger doses of codeine in order to achieve the same desired results, whether for pain-management or for getting “high.”

Because of the reinforcing effects of the drug on the body, someone wanting to break an addiction requires the type of professional help a codeine addiction treatment program can provide.

Detoxification Treatment

Detoxification involves eliminating all traces of codeine from the body. As part of the codeine addiction treatment process, detoxification treatment is an essential first step. Ongoing use of codeine causes the body to become dependent on the effects of the drug. When the body doesn’t get its regularly scheduled dose, a person will experience withdrawal effects, such as irritability, fatigue, depression and nausea. It’s the withdrawal experience that makes it so hard for a person to break a codeine addiction.

As part of the codeine addiction treatment process, medication therapies are often prescribed to help ease a person’s withdrawal effects. This method gives recovering addicts a better chance of making it through the detoxification stage.

Medication Maintenance Therapy

Codeine withdrawal effects can last anywhere from one weeks to a year depending on the severity of a person’s addiction. Most people will continue to experience residual withdrawal effects long after they stop taking the drug. These residual aftereffects can potentially drive a person to relapse. While residual effects may seem minimal compared to full-blown withdrawal, recovering addicts may feel fairly miserable for a while until the body’s chemical processes return to normal.

Codeine addiction treatment includes medication maintenance therapies to lessen the discomforts a person experiences as the body restores itself to normal.

Behavioral Treatment

While medication therapies go a long way towards a helping a person stop using, behavioral therapy treatments are an equally important aspect of codeine addiction treatment. Even as the body loses its craving for the drug, the behavioral components of addiction continue to drive a person’s outlook and behaviors.

Codeine addiction treatment uses different types of therapy approaches to help a person develop a drug-free lifestyle. More oftentimes than not, a person’s abuse of codeine masks other emotional and psychological issues in his or her life. Behavioral therapies help recovering addicts work through underlying issues and develop a healthy outlook on life.

Codeine Addiction Treatment Levels

Not everyone will enter treatment at the same stages of addiction. For this reason, drug programs are equipped to address a person’s needs by providing different levels of codeine addiction treatment. For people with long-term addictions, inpatient treatment programs provide a highly structured environment where recovering addicts can focus on getting well. Many inpatient programs also offer detoxification care as a prelude to inpatient treatment.

People who’ve completed inpatient treatment or those with mild to moderate addictions may benefit from outpatient treatment programs. Outpatient codeine addiction treatment offers counseling and medication services much like inpatient treatment does. The only difference is participants live at home rather than in the treatment facility.

Codeine Treatment Centers

Codeine addiction treatment centers provide a wide range of treatment services that vary from center to center. While curing addiction remains the overall goal of each program, finding the program that meets a person’s individual treatment needs offers the best chance of a successful recovery.

As some people may suffer from existing psychological conditions, such as anxiety and depression disorders, many centers also offer specialized treatment approaches designed to help those with dual-diagnosis conditions.

Ultimately, individualized codeine addiction treatment is the best and only way to ensure a person receives the type of treatment needed to prevent relapse and live a drug-free lifestyle.