How can you tell the quality of a treatment center? Southern California offers many resources for substance abuse treatment, so there are many options to choose from. The first question is what level of care you or your loved one will need: detox, residential, or outpatient. At Blue Coast Behavioral Health, we focus on outpatient treatment. Most individuals who go to outpatient complete detox and residential first, but in some cases, the individual may be stable with a strong support system to go straight to outpatient. When looking at outpatient rehab Orange County CA, there are several criteria to consider: psychoeducation, therapy approach, and comprehensive aftercare.
Outpatient Rehab Orange County CA
Outpatient care at Blue Coast Behavioral Health is tailored to fit the needs of the individual. We offer several phases of treatment that generally titrate down as the person re-integrates into the world. During these phases, psychoeducation introduces self awareness and the tools needed to change habitual behaviors. Addiction rewires the way the brain functions on a neurological level. So the skill to “undo” that damage and return to healthy behaviors is critical in getting back to a normal life.
Psychoeducation is particularly important for individuals who struggle with a mood disorder. Some of the most common mood disorders are major depressive disorder (clinical depression), bipolar disorder, general anxiety disorder, attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. All of these clinical diagnoses present complications for getting clean and sober in the long term because they create obstacles if left untreated. By learning about one’s own mood disorder and how it affects perception of events, it is possible to change that narrative and turn to other coping mechanisms other than drugs and/or alcohol.
Therapeutic Modalities in Outpatient Care
There are several evidence-based modalities that treatment centers (including here at Blue Coast Behavioral Health) use to help individuals recover from addiction. One of the biggest ones is the Matrix Model. This particular modality was created to help people struggling with stimulant abuse. Contrasted with alcoholics, stimulant users tend to have shorter histories of use, experience periods of abstinence followed by relapse, and are not in denial. These three criteria can easily be applied to many alcoholics in recovery as well.
The Matrix Model requires individuals to accept that they have a problem with chemical dependence and want to recover from that. This means that people in active addiction who think they don’t have a problem are not good candidates for this therapeutic modality. Once a person has accepted the need for change, they can focus on the underlying causes and drivers of addictive behavior and thinking. Triggers and cravings are two examples of issues that outpatient therapy goes to great length to address and manage. Crisis management is also an important tool that outpatient programs teach; after all, the risk of relapse rises under the stress that crises inevitably create. In order to manage that, individuals learn cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques that assist in making it through crisis situations without relapse.
If you or someone you love is struggling with a substance use disorder, our addiction counselors at Blue Coast Behavioral Health are available 24/7 by phone: 714-203-2708