Why Is Therapy Important During Detox?

Detox offers you a safe, medically monitored place to experience withdrawal from drugs and alcohol. Withdrawal can be uncomfortable at best and painful at worst. During this period, you will likely experience a variety of mental health symptoms. Co-occurring mental illnesses often rear their heads when you withdraw as well.

Therapy can help you throughout your stay in a detox facility. You will need support to cope with the process your body is going through. Additionally, therapy can help you start mentally unpacking your substance use disorder (SUD) as early into treatment as possible.

This can occur using individual therapy or group therapy.

Therapy can make drug and alcohol detox easier.

Co-Occurring Mental Illnesses

It can be common to self-medicate with substances. You may not know how to cope with or treat your mental struggles, so you suppress them. This masks serious mental illnesses like:

• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
• Social anxiety
• Major depressive disorder (MDD)
• Bipolar disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

All of these issues can worsen when unaddressed and repressed with drugs or alcohol. Over time, they can contribute to drug and alcohol addiction. 

When you withdraw from substances, you might be hit on multiple fronts. You may experience many symptoms of any co-occurring mental illnesses you have neglected as well as withdrawal symptoms that impact you both mentally and physically. These can exacerbate one another, increasing overall mental distress.

Possible mental symptoms of withdrawal include:

• Depression
• Severe anxiety
• Insomnia
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Uncontrollable crying
• Mood swings
• Hallucinations
• Nightmares
• Paranoia
• Delirium
• Dissociation
• Inability to concentrate
• Confusion
• Suicidal ideation

The specific withdrawal symptoms you will experience will depend on the type of substances, the potency, the length of use, the frequency of consumption, and underlying conditions. If you experience co-occurring mental illnesses, the seriousness may compound.

Luckily, your medical team can help manage many of these issues with medications, though therapy should accompany the medical interventions. The most effective long-term outcomes for many mental illnesses involve a combination of medications and therapy.

Individual Therapy

SUD is not simply dependency. You experience mental and emotional connections to the substance as well. In starting your detox, you dedicate yourself to a better life, but there are many opportunities to change your mind.

For instance, you are at high risk for relapse when you first get out of detox and drug rehab. You have access to substances again, and nobody is monitoring your actions. As such, you will need coping mechanisms and aftercare plans in place. 

Mental health professionals can teach you techniques that will help long after you have completed detox and rehab. Different forms of psychotherapy may prove useful for your mental stability. As you dissect your reasons for consuming substances and motivations for change, you will gain clarity. Your therapist can help you reflect on past choices that lead you to substance abuse, fill your recovery toolbox for the present, and create plans to keep you sober in the future.

On top of teaching you new ways to handle your addiction, therapists in detox centers can serve as a sounding board. The physical and mental symptoms you will experience during withdrawal can bring up strong emotions. It is damaging to bottle everything up. Therapists will listen to you talk and affirm your feelings. You will have someone who wants you to succeed, and who will offer you compassion and encouragement.

Group Therapy

Though you might be uncomfortable with the idea of group therapy, it provides many benefits for you while going through detox, so try and push past your hesitancy as best as possible. Group therapy provides social support from individuals who understand your experience firsthand. You may not realize others feel the same way until you open up.

Group therapy can empower you to express your thoughts and needs to others. The therapist leading everyone may facilitate conversations that you would otherwise feel nervous initiating. You will also develop a sense of community with others in the same center. These people could be a big part of your support system once you have completed treatment, and you may be part of theirs.

A benefit specific to addiction group therapy is that it encourages you to socialize with peers. During the height of your addiction, you may have isolated yourself from others and blocked yourself from developing emotional connections. Due to the secrecy element of SUD, you may exhibit these behaviors.

This is even more prevalent if you are neurodivergent while in active addiction. In group therapy, you learn how to interact with others again. You must find ways to communicate effectively. Others in your group may challenge your viewpoints, pushing you to grow.

The people in your therapy group can be big supporters, give tips, and keep you accountable in recovery. Overall, group therapy will encourage your sobriety journey. 

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