A home detox is only offered to those with a mild to moderate addiction to drugs or alcohol.
During a home detox, you will be expected to withdraw from the addictive substance in the comfort of your own home, rather than attending an inpatient rehab facility in Liverpool [1].
During this time, you will receive medication through the post and phone calls from doctors and therapists.
You will need to monitor your withdrawal symptoms and call the doctor and rehab specialist if your withdrawal symptoms get out of control or escalate in any way.
Your withdrawal symptoms will take a couple of hours, or even a day or two to start. Once this happens, your withdrawal symptoms will worsen and escalate over time.
There are a number of very common withdrawal symptoms, including depression, anxiety, mood swings, tremors, the sweats, flu like symptoms and diarrhoea.
How severe your withdrawal symptoms are will depend on how severe your addiction issues are.
More severe addiction issues will mean that you need to attend an inpatient treatment facility in order to recover, as your withdrawal symptoms could be deemed too severe to be approved for a home detox in Liverpool.
It is important to remember that you are not in a position to decide whether or not you are allowed to detox at home.
Only a medical professional is in the position to approve a home detox, as they will need to assess you first before approving you.
If you are looking to recover from a drug or alcohol addiction, then there are a range of different treatment options available to you, including both inpatient and outpatient treatment.
Inpatient treatment involves temporarily moving into a rehab facility in order to undergo your withdrawal and detox, before receiving therapy in Liverpool.
Outpatient drug and alcohol treatment involves remaining in the comfort of your own home during your recovery, and simply visiting a rehab facility on a weekly or daily basis in order to receive your treatment.
Which type of treatment you qualify for depends on a number of different factors, including how severe your addiction is, what substance(s) you are addicted to and whether or not you suffer from any other conditions, such as mental health conditions.
A home detox is part of the outpatient recovery journey and allows you to detox at home in a safe and controlled way. You will be talked through the detox process and will receive any required medication through the post.
If your addiction is mild, then you might be approved for outpatient rehab treatment and therefore a home detox.
If your addiction is deemed moderate, then you might be asked to attend inpatient rehab treatment during your detox and withdrawal, before returning back home to receive therapy treatment through outpatient care.
If your addiction is deemed severe, then you will likely need to attend inpatient rehab treatment for a number of weeks or even sometimes months. During this time, you will undergo a detox as well as therapy treatment.
If you are addicted to alcohol, then in order to recover you will need to withdraw and detox. This is because alcohol is a physically addictive drug, and your body will be physically dependent on the substance in order to function.
In order to overcome this dependence, you will need to abstain from abusing or consuming alcohol full time. If your addiction is severe, then you will need to do this over a period of time.
There are a number of very common withdrawal symptoms that most people seem to experience when they withdraw from alcohol. This includes but is not limited to the below list of symptoms.
Milder symptoms will start within just a few hours of initially detoxing and withdrawing from alcohol.
Those with a more severe addiction issue will experience withdrawal symptoms sooner, and those with a more mild addiction will notice symptoms after 8 – 12 hours [2].
Severe symptoms such as hallucinations, paranoia, schizophrenia and delirium tremens will require close monitoring, and it is always recommended that if you are attempting to detox at home, then you have a family member or friend monitoring your symptoms.
Delirium tremens are a severe withdrawal symptom that involve severe disorientation, an increased heart rate, high blood pressure, breathing problems, excessive sweating, and restless behaviour. If this symptom goes untreated, then your symptoms can become life threatening [3].
There are a number of reasons why withdrawing from alcohol creates withdrawal symptoms, with the main reason being that the brain changes due to excessive alcohol consumption.
The brain becomes accustomed to these changes and therefore struggles when an individual stop abusing alcohol. These changes are explained further below.
The main reason why people experience withdrawal symptoms is because of the balance in neurotransmitters. Abusing alcohol disrupts the balance of your neurotransmitters and when an individual stops abusing the substance, the brain struggles to process this and reacts in feelings of irritability and anxiety.
When an individual abuses alcohol, their central nervous system gets used to the depressive effects of alcohol. When an individual stops this, the central nervous system becomes hyperactive and this results in an increased heart rate, high blood pressure and potentially seizures.
Likewise, alcohol abuse changes or alters the brain’s structure and function. It creates a new norm, and when an individual stops abusing alcohol the brain struggles to get used to the change.
If you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, then it is important to get the help that you need and deserve. There are a number of different treatment options available to you, including inpatient rehab, outpatient rehab and a home detox.
If you suffer from a mild addiction, then you might get approved for a home detox. The first step is to speak to a rehab specialist, who will ask you a number of questions about your addiction and its severity.
Once they have determined whether your addiction is severe, moderate or mild they will then suggest a course of treatment. To start your recovery journey, speak to a member of our team by calling us on 0800 140 4690.
[1] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-misuse/treatment/
[3] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11069634/
