Many of the most abused drugs are depressants. These are drugs which allow you to sleep, feel less pain and feel "buzzed" or lightheaded just after you have used them but then make you feel extremely depressed once the drugs have left your system. Users of depressants end up abusing these drugs because they are constantly trying to get away from the depressed feelings they have after the drugs have been filtered out of the body. Unfortunately, treating just the addiction is not enough. You need to treat the depression behind the addiction as well, and this is how drug rehab works.

Cold Turkey vs. Weaning

With many drugs, you can go cold turkey, but with the majority of depressants, you need to be weaned off of them. This is because the physical side effects of not getting more of your preferred drug often cause intense emotional and/or physical discomfort, depending on the type of depressants you take.

For example, someone taking a sleeping pill may become an insomniac for days and has to retrain the brain to go to sleep on its own. Someone else who is addicted to neurological depressants will feel intense sensations and physical pain from going cold turkey and will need a substitute drug with which to wean off. All of these drug substitutions and prescribed methods are closely monitored in rehab so no one hurts themselves or finds an alternative that is not on their therapy plan.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Begins Almost Immediately

A day to three days after your arrival in a drug rehab center, you will start cognitive behavioral therapy. This gives your mind something else to do while your body detoxes and helps you begin to build a platform of change in your life.

It also connects you to a valuable resource for the treatment of depression, which is often the cause of depressant drug addiction. Your psychiatrist and/or your therapist can be the biggest help to your recovery if you are willing to spend as much time as possible talking about what makes you depressed and what brings you down.

Providing Your Body with Better Nutrition and Physical Health

As you enter drug rehab, your entire body, including your blood and internal organs, are given a complete physical and health assessment. From there, the dietary staff and the health clinicians develop their part of your treatment plan that suggests what types of vitamins, supplements and foods you need in addition to physical exercise regimens. This part of your treatment plan is rarely optional in the first few weeks, as you will need good nutrition to recover from the damage of the drugs and you will need something to do to keep your mind off of drugs.

The exercise portion will also teach you about natural "highs," which will elevate your mood naturally and keep it elevated, which is something your former depressant drug of choice could not do.