Liberty Home Clinic offers world-class treatment and rehab for those struggling with substance use disorder. Located in beautiful locations in South Africa and Belgium, our rehab treatment can help those who want to overcome their substance use, co-occurring mental health disorders, and process addictions.

Meth Addiction Treatment at Liberty Home Clinic

At Liberty Home Clinic, both of our facilities offer world-class treatment to help people overcome drug use. Our treatment options are split between two treatment centres, one located in South Africa and the other in Belgium.

Primary Treatment

Our inpatient rehab centre is located in Marina da Gama in Cape Town, South Africa, just a few minutes away from the beach. This treatment facility is in a secure neighbourhood.

Our facility in South Africa focuses entirely on residential treatment. However, our staff works closely with other facilities that can offer medical detox. Once detox is done, a patient can begin their primary treatment. Our centre offers substance misuse and mental health services for those with co-occurring disorders.

Residential treatment can be rather costly in Europe, but Liberty Home Clinic can offer the same standard of care at a reduced price.

Secondary Treatment

Our other facility is located in Kortrijk, Belgium. This treatment centre does not offer inpatient treatment but offers sober living programmes. The facility is located in a serene setting surrounded by picturesque landscapes. Potential guests must first complete an inpatient treatment programme at any facility, test negative for any mind-altering substances, and go through detox if they experience a relapse. For the security of our patients, the facility is locked down between the hours of 22:00 and 7:00.

What to Expect in Rehab for Methamphetamine Addiction

While meth dependence can be hard to treat because of how addictive it is and how it affects its users, meth treatment is available. Here’s an overview of the comprehensive treatment that can be found in meth rehab:

CBT is a therapeutic modality that is concerned with identifying and changing cognitive distortions (negative thought patterns). By identifying these and changing these cognitive distortions, a person can change the behaviour that results from them.

CBT is highly adaptable and can be used to treat a variety of mental health disorders and various forms of substance misuse.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

DBT is an offshoot of CBT that combines acceptance and change strategies. This type of treatment helps addiction by teaching patients skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

DBT can help individuals manage cravings, reduce harmful behaviours, and improve emotional stability to foster long-term recovery and resilience.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Individual therapy can be greatly beneficial for those struggling with meth addiction. Therapy sessions can provide someone in recovery with a safe space and expert guidance to delve into the root causes of their addiction and develop coping strategies to manage their drug addiction.

Individual Therapy

Group therapy is often integrated into a patient's treatment plan. Group therapy can offer meth users a sense of community. Many people who struggle with methamphetamine use can feel alone, but being in a group of people who have had similar struggles with meth abuse can give some people a sense of community and help them feel less lonely. They may also be able to learn from others who are further along in their treatment.

Group Therapy

Reintegration care is a form of secondary care that can help a patient learn how to cope with the real world as a sober person. This is done by teaching a patient the skills they need to manage addiction in a calm environment. In this programme, patients will either volunteer or learn how to get jobs. There are daily group therapy sessions and weekly individual sessions, no medications are administered, and staff are unavailable 24/7.

Liberty Home's Reintegration Programme can last anywhere between a month and a year, but patients who feel like they've acquired the skills they need can transition to the Sober Living programme.

Reintegration

The Sober Living/Mindfulness Programme is meant to maintain sobriety using the skills learned in the programme above. It is meant to encourage individuals to make the choice to stay sober continuously.

Sober Living

What is Meth Addiction?

Methamphetamine addiction, or meth addiction, is a medical condition that is characterised by compulsive meth use despite suffering adverse consequences.

Methamphetamine, often referred to as meth or crystal meth, is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system, producing intense euphoria, increased energy, and heightened alertness. Meth addiction can also cause withdrawal symptoms should the user stop using meth.

How to Recognise Meth Addiction

Several behavioural and physical signs can indicate meth addiction. Individuals addicted to meth may exhibit extreme hyperactivity, increased talkativeness, and erratic, unpredictable behaviour. Meth users can often have irregular sleeping patterns, such as difficulty sleeping and staying awake for extended periods, followed by prolonged sleep.

The most troubling sign of being addicted to heroin is tolerance, which is when a person’s body becomes more tolerant of the drug. When this happens, a person needs to use the drug in greater quantities to achieve the desired effects. However, this can greatly increase a person’s risk of overdosing.

The most obvious symptom, however, is craving heroin. People who are addicted to opioids such as heroin will crave it to the point where the drug may become the highest priority in their lives.

Another symptom of heroin addiction is that when a person does stop taking heroin, they go through withdrawal symptoms.

Effects of Meth Use

The use of methamphetamine has intense and immediate effects. Users often experience increased wakefulness, a burst of energy, and elevated heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature.

Meth can also suppress the appetite, which can lead to rapid weight loss. Dilated pupils, dry mouth, and sweating are also frequent.

Mentally, meth induces heightened alertness, euphoria, and increased talkativeness. Using meth can cause people to become hyperactive and experience a false sense of confidence and power. However, these effects are often accompanied by anxiety, agitation, and paranoia.

Individuals on meth might engage in repetitive, compulsive actions, such as picking at their skin, and may become irritable or belligerent. The intense rush and subsequent crash can lead to the user continuously taking the drug to maintain their high. These short-term effects, while initially pleasurable for some, can quickly lead to dangerous and erratic behaviour.

Long-Term Effects and Risks of Meth Use

Long-term meth use carries severe physical and psychological risks. Cardiovascular issues, such as rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and heart damage, are common with meth use. Chronic meth use can also lead to liver, kidney, and lung damage.

Psychologically, prolonged meth use can cause anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, and violent behaviour. Cognitive impairments, including memory loss, difficulty focusing, and impaired decision-making, are also prevalent.

Hallucinations can also cause users to feel insects crawling on or underneath their skin, leading to excessive scratching, scarring, and open wounds.

Socially, long-term meth misuse can often result in isolation, strained relationships, job loss, and financial difficulties. Meth users are also at an increased risk of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis because they may share needles.

Meth Withdrawal Symptoms

Withdrawing from meth can come with withdrawal symptoms which can be severe and challenging to manage. Physical extreme fatigue, increased appetite, and sleep disturbances, including insomnia and hypersomnia, which is sleeping too much. They may also suffer from headaches, muscle pains, and cravings for meth.

Psychological symptoms of withdrawal include significant mood swings, increased belligerence, anxiety, and depression. Individuals detoxing from meth may feel a profound sense of despair and hopelessness, which can sometimes lead to suicidal ideation. Everyday tasks can become difficult due to cognitive impairments and difficulty concentrating.

Emotionally, individuals may experience anhedonia, which is the inability to feel pleasure. This can cause people to feel unmotivated.

Severe cases of withdrawal can result in paranoia and hallucinations. The duration and intensity of these symptoms can vary from case to case, but they reach their peak within the first week and can last for several weeks, which can make meth withdrawal a deeply distressing experience.

Seek Support For Treating Meth Addiction Today

Seeking treatment for meth addiction can be difficult. For many users, there’s a sense of shame that comes with addiction. But methamphetamine use disorder, and addiction in general, is not something to be ashamed of. Rather, it is a disease that requires effective treatment to overcome.

Our staff at both of our centres know all too well how hard substance use and addiction can be to recover from. All of them are in recovery from their own struggles with dependence and addiction.

But also know that the right substance use treatment can help people with addiction recover. When you’re ready to get treatment, Liberty Home Clinic will be there to help you break the cycle of addiction.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long is the Residential/Inpatient Treatment at Liberty Home Clinic?

Treatment duration is at least 28 days and can extend up to 8 weeks in primary care.

What are the Types of Therapies Offered at Liberty Home Clinic?

Therapies include Individual Therapy (CBT, DBT, Narrative therapy, person-centred therapy) and Group Therapy (Psychoeducational groups, Psychotherapy groups, etc.).

What Conditions Are Treated Using CBT at Liberty Home Clinic?

CBT is used to treat substance use disorders, borderline personality disorder, OCD, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and severe mental illness.

How Common Is Meth Use?

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime believes that meth is one of the most widely-consumed synthetic opioids in the world. Its use in North America is on the rise, where it contributes to the opioid epidemic. Its also significant throughout Australia and Asia.

Why is Meth Addictive?

Meth is highly addictive because of the way it stimulates the brain’s reward system. It releases a large surge of dopamine, which creates intense euphoria and increased energy.