One point that is quite clear in the addiction treatment program in Texas is the fact that detoxification is not the end-all-and-be-all of the recovery process. In fact, the detoxification phase is just a medical phase that removes the presence of the addictive substance from the body and does not work for entire recovery from the dependency at all. The true treatment comes from removing the temptation for using the substance from the mind of the patient. This is the true meaning of rehabilitation anyway; to make the patient readjust himself or herself to the life left behind due to the addiction.

An addiction treatment center in Texas realizes that it is important to treat the mind of the person to overcome the addiction just as it is important to treat the body. That is the reason there is an elaborate aftercare program in the state that helps bring people completely into sobriety. Here we see some details on how the aftercare phase of the recovery program is implemented.

The first thing that is decided here is what kind of aftercare must the patient be made to go through. There are two kinds of aftercare programs in Texas. If the patient's withdrawal has been mild enough and if it is almost assured that the patient won't have a relapse into the addiction so easily, an outpatient format of aftercare is considered sufficient. However, if the patient has been with an addiction for a long time and that has caused the patient to have a strong withdrawal then it becomes necessary to give them a stronger mode of aftercare, which might include the residential format of treatment.

It is important to note the intention of the aftercare program. It is to kill the temptation of the substance from the person's mind so that the person never consumes the substance again. This is not an easy process and requires the implementation of several steps. The three main aspects of the aftercare program run by an addiction treatment center in Texas are putting the patient on maintenance medication, counseling them for their personal issues and educating them about the addiction and on methods that can help them to keep the urge for the substance at bay.

Maintenance Medication

Maintenance medication is a term used to describe special medical treatments that are directed at mitigating the patient's urges for the substance. As long as the patient is on the maintenance medication, he or she will not feel the temptation for using more of the substance. A good example here is that of Antabuse which is used for alcohol addiction treatment in Texas. The patient is put on Antabuse treatment after the alcohol detox. Antabuse has the capacity of wearing off the person's taste for alcohol from his or her mind. In fact, a regular and controlled use of Antabuse will create a dislike for alcohol in the mind of the patient. Hence, it helps a lot in bringing the patient completely out of the habit of using alcohol.

Another good example is that of buprenorphine, a recent treatment method used for heroin addicted persons. Buprenorphine is an opioid just like heroin is, but much less addictive. As long as the patient is kept on buprenorphine treatment, he or she will feel a much reduced temptation for using heroin. Buprenorphine also acts on the body in much the same manner as heroin does. For that reason, it is quite adept in keeping the patient's heroin cravings at bay.

Counseling

Counseling forms a very important part of the process involved in any addiction treatment center in Texas. The patient may have some emotional problems that might be keeping them in the addiction. In most cases, the addiction is only a way of coming out of some kind of mental ailment. A person may consume a drug to combat against his or her depression, for example. If such is the case, it becomes very difficult to remove the addiction from the minds of the patient.

Here the need is to isolate the addiction from the emotional problem that the person faces. This is done by making the patient understand the depth of his or her problem, usually through psychiatric counseling.

Education

The education, which is usually provided in a group format, is to teach the patient on what their addiction is all about, how it works and how it can bring them to complete ruin. Patients are also trained on certain methods such as meditation and relaxation exercises that can help keep them out of their addiction. In some centers, there are family programs too that can help equip them on the right kind of knowledge to stay out of the addiction and to become instrumental in keeping the addiction at bay.