Veterans addiction wellness in New Hampshire
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VETERANS addiction wellness IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Most individuals are familiar with someone who has served or is currently serving in the military, whether a coworker, friend, parent, sibling, spouse, child, or another family member. Due to their profession’s violent and highly demanding nature, these combat veterans may have endured psychological hardships that a regular person could never understand. As a method of putting up with this pressure, these brave veterans create various coping strategies to operate better or get through the highly demanding nature of their jobs, some of which are good habits and others of which have far-reaching detrimental impacts.
VETERANS AND ADDICTION
According to research, most of the substance usage and relapse cases in veterans can be attributed to the stress their line of work brings. Most veterans have dealt with anxiety at some point throughout their service and, as a result, are usually diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder happens when someone has a horrific event that leaves them feeling helpless and afraid; even when their lives may not be in danger, they may unknowingly become obsessed with the details of what happened.
Many veterans face this situation at one point in their lives and may turn towards using various substances to keep these feelings at bay as a means of escape. However, while this method seems effective in the short term, it inevitably becomes a pressing issue in the long run with potentially deadly consequences as these veterans would soon realize their inability to function correctly without the regular use of the substance in question.
According to Psychiatric Times, drug misuse is quite prevalent among veterans who have been in battle and have returned home. Also, according to the National Institute on Drug Dependence, exposure to violent war situations is substantially correlated with alcohol and drug abuse. This is because veterans commonly suffer from traumatic brain damage, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other forms of impairment, all of which increase their risk of drug usage.
Due to the cheap availability of alcohol, heavy drinking has also been attributed to Veterans. Research done by the National Institute on Drug Dependence showed that veterans may get addicted to alcohol after leaving the military, even if they manage to avoid the trap of alcohol usage while serving. A significant reason for this is that some military personnel finds it challenging to adjust to civilian life, especially those who serve in combat zones. Many veterans then turn to the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism as a result.
Also, according to reports, although veterans’ use of illicit drugs can be considered at an all-time low, their dependence on prescribed medications is increasing at a phenomenal rate. According to data from Psychiatric Times, the two prescribed medicines that veterans misuse the most are benzodiazepines and opiate painkillers. According to another 2012 American-Statesman study, the military has spent at least $2.7 billion over the past ten years on antidepressants and $1.6 billion on narcotic and opiate medicines like Oxycontin.
Many veterans’ drug misuse genesis might also be linked to the medical care they received while in active military service. This is because of the practice of recommending highly stimulating drugs like opioids for pain management and stimulants like Adderall to maintain alertness, and when these soldiers eventually start to gain a certain level of tolerance to their respective doses, increasing dosages of medicine are given to them to maintain the medicine’s effectiveness. As a result of this, they eventually face mounting drug addiction issues once they leave the military and are released back into civilian life.
TREATING ADDICTION DISORDERS IN VETERANS
The major problem veterans face when returning home is the inability to cope with everyday civilian life. Due to the kind of wellness their bodies and minds had been subjected to while in service, integrating into daily life becomes almost impossible for some. As such, the easiest and least demanding approach they take to incorporate into the new civilian life is to turn to self-medication. This affair eventually ends up having a slippery slope effect as PTSD, depression, and irritability on the veteran mostly lead to things like drug misuse after returning from a deployment.
To curb this prevalent issue, veterans must receive immediate wellness to return to a regular life where they may prosper without abusing drugs or alcohol. Fortunately, combining therapy and medication-assisted wellness has successfully sped up veterans’ recovery.
For veterans suffering from a substance use disorder of any kind, Recovery Mountain provides various levels of alcohol addiction wellness and drug addiction wellness. For veterans suffering from a slight dependency problem and are unsure about what wellness program to start with, wellness methods like outpatient wellness or intensive outpatient wellness over a long period of time is an ideal program to start with. Here, veterans can schedule regular visits with our professional caregivers and receive the best medical counseling, behavioral therapy, and medication prescription where necessary.
However, residential wellness or rehabilitation may be necessary in the case of a more severe addiction problem. This involves admitting the veteran in question into our specialized facilities for close monitoring. Here, the best care in the form of detoxification, withdrawal therapy, counseling, physiotherapy, and various behavioral therapies will be professionally administered to ensure the affected veteran’s gradual but guaranteed recovery.
Additionally, PTSD can be considered one of the major factors encouraging substance misuse in veterans; hence, the need for a proper dual diagnosis wellness is very important if full recovery is to be ensured. To this end, Recovery Mountain also specializes in offering the best behavioral therapies, like the very effective cognitive, exposure, and dialectical behavioral therapies, as well as rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
We at Recovery Mountain are committed to helping change the narrative. We promise the absolute best for each and every one of our retired heroes seeking help.