
Why Is It So Hard to Decide to Get Addiction Treatment Help?
- Drug Abuse Effects. Addictive drugs produce psychoactive effects, disrupting the brain’s normal chemical processes.
- The Addiction-Based Mindset. Much of the time spent in addiction treatment entails undoing the addiction-based mindset...
- Lifestyle Effects. As badly as a person may want to stop using drugs,...
Full Answer
Why is getting therapy so hard?
The therapist's location, specialization, charges, gender and age group they most commonly manage often matter. It is impractical, embarrassing and often impossible to discuss mental issues over the phone. Hence, seeking appointments is difficult. Often, the therapist may be excellent.
Why do people not get treatment?
While there are multiple reasons why, one is the fact that people avoid or forego mental health treatment, due to judgment, doubt, pride, fear, misinformation. Individuals fear judgment, change, the unknown, and what they might discover in therapy; additionally, they're too prideful to admit they need help.
Why does it take so long to get therapy?
No matter what type of talk therapy or personal problem, the reason people get so impatient with the process is a relatively universal one — because they desperately want to feel better. Therapy takes so long to show results because it took a lifetime to settle into these patterns that no longer work.
What is the most common barrier to getting treatment?
Low perceived need was the most commonly reported barrier to treatment across levels of severity.
Why is asking for mental help so hard?
The psychological reason why it's tough to ask for help Asking for help often makes people feel uneasy because it requires surrendering control to someone else. “There are some people who really have a hard time with that piece of it,” she says. Another fear is being perceived as needy.
Why is it so hard to talk about mental health?
Why is it so hard to talk about mental health? The prevalence of stigma and discrimination toward people with mental illness makes it difficult to have a transparent conversation about how we feel.
How long is too long in therapy?
Therapy can last anywhere from one session to several months or even years. It all depends on what you want and need. Some people come to therapy with a very specific problem they need to solve and might find that one or two sessions is sufficient.
How long is the average person in therapy?
According to Laura Osinoff, executive director of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies in Manhattan, “On average, you can expect to spend one to three years [in therapy] if you are having, for example, relationship problems.
Do therapists actually help?
Hundreds of studies have found that psychotherapy helps people make positive changes in their lives. Reviews of these studies show that about 75% of people who enter psychotherapy show some benefit.
Why is mental health not taken seriously?
Perhaps because mental illnesses are simply not as concrete as physical illnesses, they are often not taken as seriously. Contrary to this popular belief, mental illnesses are actual diseases that must be treated as seriously as a physical disease, such as cancer or heart disease.
What are barriers to treatment?
What Are Common Barriers to Treatment ProgressFear.Unclear communication between a therapist and client.Severe symptoms.Substance use.Distractions.
Why is there a lack of access to mental health services?
(1) Common barriers to mental health care access include limited availability and affordability of mental health care services, insufficient mental health care policies, lack of education about mental illness, and stigma.
How does addiction take hold?
In effect, addiction takes hold once the brain’s cognitive and emotional centers fall under the influence of a drug’s effects.
How do addictive drugs affect the brain?
Addictive drugs produce psychoactive effects, disrupting the brain’s normal chemical processes. According to the University of Utah Health Sciences, this ability to redirect normal chemical activities accounts for the abuse and addiction potential that comes with drug alcohol abuse.
What is the brain disorder that causes addiction?
Substance use disorder (SUD) also called addiction is a disorder that affects the brain. SUD causes compulsive seeking and use of drugs or alcohol. Long-term use of these substances leads to chemical changes in the brain that keeps you craving for drugs or alcohol. In essence, addiction makes you lose control and unable to quit. This is according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (SAMSHA).
How effective is detoxing?
Detox by itself is not effective to treat addiction. According to The Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 40-60 percent of those treated for substance use disorder will relapse. But completing therapy and staying in treatment, e.g., attending sober groups, improves your chances of sobriety. Behavioral therapy or psychotherapy aims to help you discover the link between substance abuse and any mental health issues you may have. Your therapist will help you to see how substance abuse is harmful. You’ll also develop healthy coping skills to prevent relapse.
What are the co-occurring disorders?
Those who are addicted often struggle with an underlying mental disorder. Common co-occurring disorders include depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorder. These disorders tend to trigger substance abuse. Turning to drugs or alcohol then becomes a way of coping. When getting admitted to treatment, the medical team will do an evaluation to determine if you have a disorder that needs treatment.
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Keeping people out of the hospital in the first place would help relieve the burden on health systems and perhaps prevent people from developing long-term consequences from severe illness. But it’s no surprise that early in the pandemic researchers weren’t focused on at-home treatments.
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How many medication appointments can a psychiatrist do in one hour?
What Amelia fails to mention is that medication appointments have always been shorter than psychotherapy appointments. A psychiatrist can do 2 or 3 medication appointments in one hour, whereas they can only do one psychotherapy appointment.
Why do med students turn up their nose?
But money isn’t the only reason why med students are turning up their nose at the specialty. Beginning with Sigmund Freud, psychiatrists used to emphasize talk therapy. The rise of big pharma changed all that. Insurance companies pay twice as much for a medication consultation than for a traditional therapy session.
What has changed in medical school?
What has changed is the cost of medical school tuition. As education costs skyrocket, it becomes economically unviable to most to attend medical school in the U.S. and come out making a psychiatrist’s salary. The math simply doesn’t work.
Who wrote the medical advisory board?
Medically reviewed by Scientific Advisory Board — Written by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 25, 2014. As long-time readers of World of Psychology know, there’s no easy fix to the convoluted, second-class mental health care system in the United States.
The five barriers to care
In many ways, there are multiple gates between people with behavioral health disorders and access to appropriate care.
What can we do about it?
At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC), our behavioral health team is committed to the vision that behavioral health services should be accessible, high-quality, and stigma-free. To this end, we have enacted a variety of programs to change our members’ experience as they seek behavioral health services.

Drug Abuse Effects
The Addiction-Based Mindset
- Much of the time spent in addiction treatment entails undoing the addiction-based mindset that results from chronic drug abuse. In effect, addiction takes hold once the brain’s cognitive and emotional centers fall under the influence of a drug’s effects. These changes take place within the brain’s reward center, an area that coordinates learning and behavior based on “perceived” positi…
Lifestyle Effects
- As badly as a person may want to stop using drugs, addiction’s effects have, for the most part, reconfigured a person’s priorities, needs and motivations. Someone struggling with addiction has reached a point where the mind believes it needs the drug to deal with everyday life. From an addiction-based perspective, drugs become essential to a person’s daily survival, holding the sa…
Deciding to Get Addiction Treatment Help
- The decision to get needed addiction treatment help often comes with much confusion and emotional turmoil simply because of what’s at stake in terms of how the mind relies on drugs to survive. In effect, nothing “logical” will make sense to you as long as the drug’s effects prevail. Addiction treatment programsenable you to understand how drug abus...