Alcohol Abuse Treatment - Alcohol Rehab Directory

Are you living in Iowa and think that you may be suffering from an alcohol abuse problem? You might be abusing alcohol if you have three or more of the following problems in a year:

• You cannot quit drinking or control how much you drink.
• You continue to drink even though it harms your relationships and causes you to develop physical problems.
• You have tried to quit drinking or to cut back the amount you drink but haven't been able to.
• You have withdrawal symptoms when you stop drinking. These include feeling sick to your stomach, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety.
• You need to drink more to get the same effect.
• You spend a lot of time drinking and recovering from drinking, or you have given up other activities so you can drink.

Alcohol abuse problems often take place over an extended period of time. It's not a weakness or a lack of willpower. Like many other health issues, it has a course that can be predicted, has known symptoms, and is influenced by your genes and your life situation. Alcohol is part of many people's lives and may have a place in cultural and family traditions. It can sometimes be hard to know when you begin to drink too much.

You are at risk of alcohol abuse and should speak to an Iowa alcohol abuse treatment professional if you are:

• A woman who has more than 3 drinks at one time or more than 7 drinks a week. A standard drink is 1 can of beer, 1 glass of wine, or 1 mixed drink.
• A man who has more than 4 drinks at one time or more than 14 drinks a week.

The affects of alcohol abuse are devastating. Alcoholism has been known to ruin friendships, destroy marriages, separate families and disrupt communities. Iowa is no different in its affliction by alcoholism. Alcohol abuse treatment clinics in Iowa work with the individual and families to carve out treatment programs that work. Because taking the first step is so difficult, it is often a loved one who first searches for information. If that is why you are reading this, there is help available. Holding an intervention to get your loved one into alcohol abuse treatment is sometimes necessary to help stop the destructiveness of alcoholism. Alcohol recovery will involve a tailor made plan of action specifically geared toward the needs of the alcoholic and his family.

When the term alcohol abuse treatment is discussed, one of the first things that comes to mind concerns withdrawal symptoms during alcohol detox. When an alcoholic abruptly quits drinking alcohol, he or she usually suffers from alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as depression, headaches, rapid heart rate, and feeling nervous. Even with professional Iowa alcohol detox, these symptoms may take days or weeks before the body returns to "normal."

A number of various techniques exist for treating alcohol withdrawal symptoms. While many, if not most of these alcohol detox approaches use medications, a number of alcohol therapies, conversely, do not. Indeed, according to current research findings, the safest way to treat mild alcohol withdrawal symptoms is without medications. Such non-drug alcohol detox programs use screening and extensive social support throughout the entire withdrawal process. Other non-drug alcohol detox therapies, also utilize proper nutrition and vitamin therapy (especially thiamin) when treating mild withdrawal symptoms.

When you have completed the alcohol detox process you will need to continue to work through your alcohol rehab program. Counseling - individual and/or group - and other behavioral therapies are commonly used in alcohol rehab. Behavioral therapies vary in their focus and may involve addressing a patient's motivation to change, providing incentives for abstinence, building skills to resist alcohol use, replacing alcohol-using activities with constructive and rewarding activities, improving problem solving skills, and facilitating better interpersonal relationships. Also, participation in group therapy and other peer support programs during and following alcohol rehab can help maintain abstinence.