Detox Research Paper

Detox - short for detoxification - means getting dangerous substances out of your system, which is the first step towards treatment of and recovery from addiction. Drugs and alcohol, although not necessarily toxic in the way say, arsenic or cyanide are, are insidious substances to have inside you. They breed dependency and lower inhibition against their own use. In that sense, they impair one's judgment, and make it easier to continue use that is ultimately harmful to one's mental and physical health.

A successful detox program has two components. The first is ridding a person's system of the offending substance, either "cold turkey," by stepped withdrawal, or through the mediation of other less harmful substances. The manner of withdrawal is specific to each individual drug, and proper supervision and support is required to make the process as tolerable as possible - recognizing that discomfort may often be acute, and no detox program can promise to be completely free of pain or other withdrawal symptoms.

The second component of a detox program …show more content…
This recognition is the first step toward recovery. Sometimes however, detox is imposed by others - most often family members or the court system. In those cases relapse can be more common, and an integral component of the program is attempting to achieve buy-in by the victim through intensive counseling and, eventually, recognition that the quality of life obtained by being "clean" is immeasurably better than that imposed by