April 27th, 2008 by jgold454

Drug addiction, especially a strong drug addiction like heroin addiction, is both a physical as well as a mental dependency. Heroin ensconces itself so deeply in the body of the person and adds to the person’s immunity against itself that the person soon begins to take more and more of the drug.

Medications like methadone and the recently introduced buprenorphine work well at curbing the symptoms of heroin addiction by making the withdrawal less painful, but they certainly cannot be relied on completely. The point that needs to be understood is that these medications can relieve the physical dependency of the drug, but they will do nothing to reduce the craving of heroin in the mind of the person, which occurs through the mind.This is where a therapy like a cognitive behavioral therapy can work.

In its simplest form, a cognitive behavioral therapy can be considered as a therapy in which the person is rewarded in some way or the other for keeping away from the drug. The person is repeatedly tested for the presence of the drug, and if the tests are negative, then the person is awarded brownie points. These rewards could be anything that pleases the patient, from simple verbal commendation to some material gift that would really make the person feel happy about staying away from the drug.

For cognitive behavioral therapy to work, medical experts lean on family intervention, because they can very well decide what would be the best reward for the person.

In tandem with family, the heroin treatment programs use cognitive behavioral therapy to the hilt to gradually but permanently bring people completely out of a heroin addiction.