How does drug detox work?
During your free initial drug addiction assessment, your specialist will be able to assess whether going through a drug detox is an appropriate step for you.
If this is the case, the next step will be for you to receive a medical assessment with one of our addiction and detox experts. The purpose of this is to gather important information on the nature of your drug addiction, as well as your medical history, to allow our detox specialists to develop your individual plan.
So, what happens during a detox? Drug detoxification at Priory takes place as part of our residential addiction treatment programme, which means that you'll stay at one of our hospitals for the duration of your detox. The process of detoxification usually lasts for between 7 to 10 days.
With round-the-clock care and specialist medication management, we’ll ensure that you’re closely looked after, safe and comfortable at all times. We have medical and nursing staff on-site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, meaning we’re able to help you with any issues or concerns you have, and provide medical care in a swift and timely manner.
While there’s no medication that prevents all drug withdrawal symptoms, our team use appropriately controlled medication to help you cope with the detox process. This will help ease any anxiety and depression you might be feeling, help you to sleep, and counter as many other problems as possible.
Essentially, the goal of drug detox at Priory is to:
- Remove all traces of harmful and addictive substances from your body
- Reduce any withdrawal symptoms that you may experience when you no longer have drugs in your system, by using appropriately controlled medication
The type and severity of the symptoms you experience during detox depend on a range of factors, including:
- The type of substance you’re addicted to
- How long your body has been dependent on the substance
- How much of the substance you’ve been taking
- Your general physical and mental health