What are the Different Types of Alcohol Addiction Help?

There are many types of addiction help, and specifically alcohol addiction help. Which type of help an addict should use will depend on what best suits the addict's personality and level of addiction. Seeing a primary care physician or addiction specialist, enrolling in outpatient or inpatient detox and treatment centers; getting therapy, and attending group meetings are some of the most common ways to get help with an alcohol addiction.

One common place to go for alcohol addiction help is a primary care physician. The physician can assess the severity of the addiction and make recommended treatment plans. Depending on the severity of the problem he or she may be able to treat the addict directly, but more than likely the patient will be referred out to a specialist or treatment center. Still, seeing one's own primary care physician is a good first step.

For heavy addicts, one of the first steps in ending a dependence on alcohol is to stop drinking altogether. This, however, can cause severe physical withdrawals which may be addressed by a tapering dose of a benzodiazepine for 3 to 5 days. This detox period may be accomplished on an outpatient basis or an inpatient basis in a regular hospital. Benzodiazepine suppresses alcohol withdrawal because it works much like alcohol, but because of this, alcohol abusers tend to abuse benzos as well. Ideally, an alcoholic should have someone with them to manage and administer the doses.

Specialized detox centers are often one of the first in a long list of types of treatments an addict will benefit from. There are both social and medical detox settings. Medical detox centers help the addict get through the physical pain of withdrawal during detox. To do this they have health care providers on site to help medically treat the patient. Social detox centers, however, don't offer medical care. They may monitor vital signs, but if a patient is suffering medically, they'll likely call 911 or an emergency service to come to the facility to administer medical treatment.

A sober living homes is yet another type of alcohol addiction help. These homes are generally inhabited by a group of addicts all on the road to recovery. By living with others in the same situation as well as a person in charge who helps the addict stay clean and stick to a productive schedule, the addict may slowly be able to transition back to normal life without relapsing back into old drinking habits.

One-on-one therapy with a counselor, psychologist, or therapist is yet another type of alcohol addiction help. Often some sort of therapy is provided in all types of addiction help. Cognitive behavioral therapy and art therapy are two types of therapeutic models that often help addicts uncover and deal with the triggers to their addictions.

Perhaps the most common alcohol addiction help is outpatient group meetings. Perhaps the most well-known program in this category is Alcoholics Anonymous®. Addicts in these programs meet weekly and follow a 12-step program, often with the help of a sponsor — an addict who is further along in his or her recovery than the sponsee. There are also group meetings focused on teenage alcoholics, like Alateen ®, as well as meetings for families of alcoholics, like Al-Anon®.