Relapse Prevention Therapy at Drug Rehab Center Florida

Here in House of Freedom, a drug rehab center in Florida, Addiction Science is a major part of the holistic approach we use in rehabilitation therapy. In our Relapse Prevention therapies we focus on many environmental and physiological factors of addiction, and one such finding of the neurophysiology of addiction(how addiction uses the normal brain functions) is the brain pathway that links the area involved in identification and association of environments (hippocampus) to the area that processes reward, Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA). This is important, for example, because places where addicts previously sought or obtained drugs can cause them to crave drugs again and lead them to relapse. This circuit provides a target to manipulate to help break the addiction cycle.

What makes you crave a Big Mac when you see the golden arches? Or long for a beer when you see a cold one on TV? This pathway is greatly associated to these experiences.

The pathway connects the hippocampus, the part of the brain that analyzes and interprets the environment around you (using the contextual information that comes in through your senses, such as  seeing a beer on TV) with the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, which processes reward-driven behaviors (such as grabbing a beer from the refrigerator).

Reward-driven behaviors release the brain chemical dopamine. Such behaviors include sex and eating, which are very important in daily life. But some drugs release these dopamine “rewards” at higher levels than natural reactions do; the heart of addiction.

“Now, one of the issues we know of in drug addition is that a simple re-exposure to the drug-using environment … will often result in relapse”  said Clinical Director at House of Freedom, Shirlley Y. Campos, LMHP for more than 10 years. Hopefully blocking such pathway could propose one more helpful alternative for treatment.

If drugs can be found that block the pathway, it’s possible they could reduce environment-driven cravings, as a supplemental treatment to drug rehab center in Florida and addiction counseling.

Other effects of blocking this integral pathway remain to be seen, however. The hippocampus plays an important part in learning and memory and is also important in understanding the changing environment around us. If normal reward-seeking behaviors, like eating and drinking, were also blocked by the therapy, the eventual result could be anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure at all. Therefore, studies continue to determine the molecules and receptors the brain uses to communicate along it.

Obviuosly, much continues to be discovered about this baffling condition. Meanwhile, our drug rehab center in Florida will continue to fight against this monster of drug-addiction. On behalf of all the treatment team of House of Freedom, we hope this information has been helpful and illustrative of one of the many traits this condition has. God bless you.

House of Freedom is CARF Accredited, drug rehab center in Orlando Florida, which unlike traditional addiction treatment centers, we deliver substance abuse treatment center services that deal with the physical, mental, social, and spiritual component of drug and alcohol addiction treatment.  Our alcohol and drug rehabilitation center has both inpatient drug rehab services and outpatient drug treatment in Orlando Florida.

If you or a loved one are in need of drug or alcohol addiction rehab treatment center in Orlando Florida, GET HELP NOW!!  Contact us at 1-888-796-8040.