Addiction 'should be treated as a disease'

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by Change | 11 Mar 2009

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Drug addiction needs to be treated like any other disease if it is to be beaten, it has been claimed.

Experts have called on people with drug addictions to recognise their problem and see it as a disease so that they can get proper medical help in the same way as if it were any other illness.

Although there can often be a lot of stigma attached to drug or alcohol addictions, the Sunset Malibu drug rehab clinic has claimed that improving public perceptions of the illness and treating it as a disease can help to increase the number of people receiving addiction treatment and eventually conquering their demons.

Warning patients that they can't treat what they can't see, the clinic advises people to face up to their problems and tackle them head-on.

"If you’re going to make drug treatment work for you, you've got to approach the process with an accurate understanding of what it is you're up against," the clinic explains.

The advice follows recent research from the University of Maryland in the US, which found that patients are more likely to recover from their addiction if they go through a process of self-evaluation and work out for themselves what their motives behind seeking addiction treatment really are.

rehab clinics are increasingly advocating this kind of personalised treatment, where the needs of each individual are put at the forefront of addiction treatment, with a programme built to fit around their requirements, rather than getting them to fit into an existing programme.

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