Norwich Addiction Treatment Resources

Settlers from Saybrook founded Norwich in 1659, led by Reverend James Fitch and Major John Mason. The early settlement occurred around the Norwichtown Green, and it only took 25 years to announce the new public landing downtown. Rapid industrial growth changed the town into an urban center by the 1900s.

Today, the city thrives with a substantial population, a modern industrial park, a complete array of municipal services, publicly owned utilities and its own minor league baseball team. It’s a hot spot with a positive outlook for businesses and residents alike.

Unfortunately, Connecticut is no stranger to drug addiction. The economic downfall the state experienced in its heavily industrial areas cast a shadow on its residents, resulting in substance abuse and unemployment. In fact, people in Connecticut are more likely to die from a drug overdose than a car accident. These majority of these deaths are linked to opioids, whether through prescription painkillers or obtained illicitly.

In 2019, there were 1,196 deaths in the state of Connecticut from drug overdoses. Norwich ranked #10 in the state, tying with New London and East Haven, with 10 of those 1,196 deaths. That is 2.56 deaths per 10,000 residents.

How and Why to Get Help for Drug Addiction

It’s difficult to be objective to your own addictions. If you’re experiencing negative effects in your life as a result of substances, it’s time to take a step back and consider the possibility of addiction. Once you’ve accepted this fact, then you’ve already started the road to recovery. After that, it’s all about figuring out how best to get sober.

If you’re at the point of questioning whether you need rehab, figuring out the next step can be quite confusing. Unfortunately, many people don’t enter treatment because they don’t feel their problem is severe or they haven’t yet hit rock bottom. The fact of the matter is that wondering whether you need help means you likely do.

Understanding Addiction’s Severity

If you know your relationships are negatively impacted because of drug use, addiction is likely present. Addiction isn’t a binary diagnosis, though; it’s a spectrum of severity, and the criteria of addiction can help categorize your substance use disorder as severe, moderate or mild. In all, there are 11 criteria:

• Cravings
• Dangerous use of drugs
• Desire but inability to quit
• Lack of control
• Difficulties in relationships
• Time spent trying to get more of the drug
• Reluctance to take responsibility
• Tolerance
• Withdrawal
• Worsening situations
• The more symptoms are met, the more severe the addiction likely is. However, even mild diagnoses are worth seeking help for

Because addiction is progressive and is measured on a spectrum, even a mild diagnosis can become worse over time. It’s also a chronic disease in the same vein as diabetes, cancer, hypertension or asthma. You wouldn’t wait until cancer progressed to a later stage before getting treatment, so why treat addiction that way?

Why Get Help?

Before long, drug abuse will destroy all aspects of a person’s life if treatment doesn’t happen. Nobody starts drugs wanting to become an addict, but once they become reliant upon a substance, it’s common to reject the idea that recovery could ever happen. Without seeking help for addiction, the disease can be all but impossible to defeat.

Countless patients in Norwich and around the world have seen success when undergoing a multidisciplinary approach to treating substance use disorder. The right rehab approaches treatment from several angles, carefully customizing the plan with the individual and his or her unique circumstances in mind. This includes individual, group and holistic therapies.

Types of Drug Addiction Treatment in Norwich

Just as addiction comes in several forms, so too do recovery options in Norwich. The term “rehab” refers to the variety of intensive, supervised programs meant to help participants transition into a sober life, teaching them the tools they need to manage their stress without drugs.

Medical Detox

Addiction treatment research has classified the spectrum of programs into a few different types. Individual programs and treatment methods continue to evolve as more research is performed, and the programs today often don’t fit into a single classification, offering a variety of treatment methods under one roof.

In most cases, a facility will begin with medically managed withdrawal and detoxification. This is the process by which the body becomes clean of all substances, and it’s meant to help the person make it through the potentially dangerous side effects of sudden withdrawal before working on living sober.

While the detox stage helps with getting past the initial physical cravings, it alone cannot teach someone the ways to avoid temptation in the future. In other words, undergoing only medical detox is unlikely to produce long-lasting results. This process should always be followed by a referral for further treatment. Granite Recovery Centers provides medical detoxification for people who do not need immediate medical intervention, are not a danger to themselves, and are capable of self-evacuation in the event of an emergency.

Long-Term Inpatient

Patients who stay at a long-term residential rehab facility near Norwich have access to care all day and all night in a non-hospital setting. The therapeutic community is the most well-known model of this category, designed to have residents stay from several months to a year. The goal at a long-term facility is to teach the client new socialization skills with the help of the local community, which includes the staff and the other residents, as aspects of the treatment plan.

Here, substance use disorder is viewed under the lens of psychological and social deficits in a person’s life. The goal of treatment is to develop responsibility and personal accountability in addition to socially productive lives. Sometimes, structured treatment can feel confrontational as activities are centered around examining destructive patterns and damaging beliefs.

Short-Term Inpatient

As the name suggests, short-term programs provide brief treatment in a similar way that long-term facilities do. These short-term programs are based on a modified 12-Step Program originally developed to treat alcoholics. However, when the 1980s saw a surge in cocaine use, many alcohol-only rehab centers began to open their services to treat other addictions. The goal of these programs is to treat patients over a three-to-six-week period followed by outpatient therapy and other aftercare services.

Outpatient Treatment Programs

Outpatient programs do not involve overnight stays at a rehab facility, which allows the client to continue going to work and living at home with their family. Because there is no boarding involved, outpatient treatment is less expensive than inpatient or residential treatment. However, many patients are not ready to start with an outpatient program as it is best for those with home stability and a strong support system.

Other Factors to Consider

It is challenging to figure out the best Norwich rehab for one’s needs. Outpatient and inpatient rehabs both focus on teaching participants better ways to manage daily stresses and avoid temptations and situations where they might come into contact with drugs. There are also specialty rehab centers available for those who want a program that develops a treatment based on religious affiliation, gender or a particular age group.

The goal of a rehab facility is to help its clients stay off drugs even after they leave the facility. Many programs provide post-rehab services like job training to help graduates return to a fulfilling life.

Granite Recovery Centers

Norwich, Connecticut, residents have access to Granite Recovery Centers. This family of rehabs offers gender-separate, 12-step programs at several facilities throughout the state of New Hampshire. Their facilities accept men and women aged 18 and over, and each center has a dedicated support staff of medical professionals and recovery specialists to help those looking to recover from alcohol and drug addiction. Psychotherapists and medical professionals are also on staff to assist clients through this difficult time, from initial detox to residential treatment.

Each of our facilities provides the full spectrum of care, ranging from medical detox and primary treatment to intensive outpatient care and sober living aftercare. All treatment programs have a specific focus individualized to a given client, and they are all based on the 12-Step Program.

Green Mountain Treatment Center

Located near the White Mountains in Effingham, New Hampshire, Green Mountain Treatment Center is a residential rehab available to residents of Norwich and the surrounding areas. Men and women who suffer from co-occurring disorders and substance use disorder can adopt a well-balanced, holistic approach to recovery based on the 12-Step Program.

Green Mountain is located near the White Mountains on a 72-acre campus. Capable of housing more than 70 people at a time, the treatment facility separates its men and women on opposite ends of the campus where they will not interact during the program.

In the women’s program, residents share a room with one other person and enjoy a private, spacious bathroom. There are two cabins on this side of the campus. On the other side of the campus, where the men’s program takes place, is the main building of the rehab center. In the main building, clients have access to a dining hall, couches, a cafeteria and a fireplace with TVs. It’s recommended that clients bring just one suitcase with pajamas, clothes, non-alcoholic toiletries and enough cigarettes to last a month, if necessary. Residents may not have perfumes, games or electronic devices.

During the day, residents eat three meals prepared by an onsite kitchen staff. The menus are designed by a dietitian with nutrition standards in mind.

New Freedom Academy

New Freedom Academy is another rehab facility offered by Granite Recovery Centers and is dedicated to providing a serene and safe environment for adult women and men to recover from substance use disorder. This facility rests on 17 acres in New Hampshire and guides residents through the early stages of treatment by helping them get past apathy, anxiety and fear. As New Freedom Academy is a smaller campus, it can only house 20 residents at a time.

The staff at this facility understands the link between addiction and mental health and believes that life is to be embraced rather than avoided. To do that, it is necessary to change one’s reactions to life so that they can be joyous and successful instead of afraid and dependent on drugs. The State of New Hampshire has licensed New Freedom Academy, which is also accredited by CARF.

Addiction affects all aspects of a person’s life, and so it is necessary to treat the issue from all angles. The best chance for recovery involves a complete life change. It’s too common for individuals to go through rehab and then stop employing the techniques learned to relapse, eventually ending up back on drugs. At New Freedom Academy, residents engage in dietary health, meditation, body-centered therapies like yoga and mindfulness to undergo a universal change that helps them transition back to a healthy, full life worth living.