Before you begin to understand more about cocaine, meth, heroin, prescription drug or alcohol detox, it's important to know about how your body works. Your body operates on two major principles of health - growth/rebuild and detoxification/repair. You can think of detoxification as a cleaning process where the body is cleaning itself out so repair can occur.

Both sets of processes happen daily, whether or not you take drugs or drink alcohol. In detoxification, your body is cleaning itself of wastes from metabolism, chemicals and food additives in the food you eat, as well as chemicals and heavy metals from the environment and air that you breathe.

When you begin using drugs or drinking alcohol, you add an extra burden to your body's detoxification systems. These toxins from drugs and alcohol are considered just as bad as all other toxins. Toxins affect your body because they interrupt normal metabolic and biochemical processes. They accumulate inside the cells and must be removed; otherwise they will eventually kill the cell.

Drug detox means the removal of toxins from drugs that remain in the cells so that the cells can return to how they were designed to work. Alcohol detox means the removal of toxins from alcohol that remain in the cells.

Alcohol and drug detox programs in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Alaska are all the same in that they are initiated when you stop using alcohol or drugs like cocaine, meth, heroin, and prescription drugs and enter into the drug rehab facility. From the minute that you stop drinking alcohol or using drugs, the body kicks in with its detoxification processes. The body always wants to function on a high level - without toxins of any kind. The changes that occur in the next hours are referred to as the alcohol detox or drug detox process.

The amount of time needed for drug detox depends on how long it takes the body to remove the toxins and reset its cells back to what they were before the drugs were used. Even prescription medications, headache medications, statin drugs and blood sugar lowering drugs have to be detoxified in the body. This occurs through the colon, liver, kidneys and skin.

However, all drugs including street drugs have a half-life and an amount of time that the drug stays in the body. For some drugs, the total time the drug stays in the body is only a few days; this is why the drug is taken more frequently.

Other drugs stay in the body for a much longer time - up to a month or more. All drugs may inadvertently affect cells, causing damage to them. The amount of time it takes your body to repair itself from the damage from drugs is not included in the length of time it takes your body to remove the drug residues.

Opiates such as Oxycontin, Morphine, and heroin stay longer in the body than other medically prescribed drugs. Thus, when you go through drug detox in Alaska, Montana, Utah or any other state (cocaine detox, meth detox, heroin detox, and prescription drug detox), it's going to take longer. Also, there's quite a bit of damage that these drugs do to your receptor sites for endorphins, and that's why the drug detox process takes a minimum of a few weeks, and preferably a time period of at least 30 days.

If you look at a detox process that will totally heal you from the addiction, you can expect to add additional time. Drug abuse causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies that also take time to repair. The drug detox facility you choose in Idaho, Oregon, or Washington or any other state should tell you how long your detox process is expected after your initial history and physical examination.

Alcohol detox is similar in that the alcoholism is linked with many serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Alcohol detox programs in any western state - Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Montana, Utah, or Alaska all last about the same amount of time but are dependent on your physical condition when you arrive. These programs are also called alcohol rehab.

The withdrawal symptoms experienced from alcohol detox or drug detox may include pain. Sometimes a patient's condition may be life threatening. The symptoms experienced depend on the type of addictions you have, the length of time you have been addicted, and how often you were using the drugs.

The reason there is pain during a detox process, no matter what state you are in, is because the body has to readjust to lower levels of endorphins. The purpose of endorphins is to block pain in the body, and when you have higher levels of endorphins, you feel 'high'. During the detox process (cocaine detox, meth detox, heroin detox or prescription drug detox), your body isn't getting these high levels of endorphins and then pain is manifesting as a symptom. Giving you painkillers during the process will prolong the detoxification process.

Some of the symptoms experienced during alcohol detox include: headaches, depression, anxiety, fatigue, irritability, nausea, vomiting. Seizures and delirium tremens, called the DTs, may also manifest and you could have hallucinations and extreme agitation. Interestingly, these are extreme magnesium deficiency symptoms and your caregivers at the alcohol rehab must recognize it during the detox process.

Some of the symptoms experienced during the drug detox process in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Washington and other western states include: anxiety, irritability, nausea, vomiting, sweating, chills and insomnia. Seizures may also occur.

There are different types of detox programs available - medical or nonmedical; and outpatient or inpatient.

Outpatient Detox is where you are treated and released without any long stays in the facility. Outpatient detox in any state of the U.S. may be medical or non-medical.

Inpatient Detox is where you are treated over a period of time at a detox facility in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Alaska, or other states. The period of time you are physically in the facility varies, depending on the type of detox.

A medical detox program in Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho or other states will always use prescription medication during the detox process. The prescription is usually administered via oral medications and also through intravenous therapy.

The oral medications include two medications that help detox opiates called methadone and suboxone. Thus, cocaine treatment, meth treatment, heroin treatment and prescription drug treatment involve these medications.

You should know that although methadone and suboxone may help you detox from street drug and prescription drug opiates, they are used as a substitute and you will still have to wean yourself off them over time. The medications used during intravenous therapy may include methadone and suboxone.

The oral medications used during alcohol detox in Washington, Utah, Alaska, and other states are generally benzodiazepines such as Librium and Ativan.

A non-medical detox program in Montana, Idaho, Utah, or other states will not use oral or intravenous prescription medication during the detox process. Instead of prescription medications, they will use pain relief and health building protocols such as vitamin therapy, diet therapy, acupuncture, saunas, meditation and yoga.

Some insurance companies cover detox programs in various states of the U.S., but they may be limited as to how many days or a maximum amount of money may be set for the detox program. If you have a co-pay or a deductible, you may be expected to pay a percentage of the bill yourself. This is why it's a good idea for you to check with your insurance company first before signing up at any detox in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, or any other state.

The cost of any detox program is dependent on the type of program chosen and how long it lasts. Cocaine treatment, meth treatment, prescription drug treatment, and heroin treatment involve restoring the body's opiate receptors to normal and this takes longer and thus is more expensive.

As you can imagine, outpatient detox treatment is not anywhere near the costs of checking into an inpatient detox facility. Private inpatient detox centers are generally more expensive than ones that are not private. However, they may also offer incentives such as discounts if paid in cash or offer scholarships that are applied to the cost.

The cost of the detox program in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, or any state

should always be considered in terms of the investment in your health. Addictions if left to continue on their own can lead to death, and this is why heroin or prescription drug rehab can save lives. How much is your life worth to you? Can you foresee another 10 or even 20 years of drug or alcohol addiction - and where will that get you? Will you have any additional money in 10 or 20 years, considering the rise in inflation, your job prospects if you are addicted, and other factors?

Drug and alcohol addiction destroys the desire to be healthy, and interferes with any health-building habits such as eating healthy meals, exercising, not smoking, and of course, not using drugs and/or alcohol. Thus, many people have to learn how what it takes to be healthy during their inpatient detox program. At these programs, they may teach healthy eating, how to exercise, how to meditate, and how to think mentally healthy thoughts.

You've no doubt heard of the 12-step program. This is a program you will find in many detox facilities in Oregon, Utah, Idaho and other western states. The 12-step process is based on the idea that your addiction is incurable - and possibly genetic. Thus, the philosophy is that you will need ongoing treatment for the rest of your life. The 12-step process offers some psychological strategies for dealing with the stressors of life and includes an accountability component where you are accountable to your mentor for your actions.

Some people want a 12-step program to help them get through the next six months of their life or may use the program for times longer than this.

By believing that your addiction is incurable, you are setting up a way to fail at recovery. When you think about it, if you believe a disease is incurable, it's easy to give up and not do much to help yourself. It's also easy to pass the buck and not take responsibility for your actions. When you believe a disease is curable, on the other hand, you will do everything you can in your power to overcome the disease.

Addiction cannot be incurable because many have been able to overcome it. At many detox facilities in Idaho, Washington, Utah, Oregon, Montana, and other states, you'll find that the counselors do not believe that addiction is incurable, nor is it genetic. Addiction may occur for many reasons, and sometimes the addiction is the result of prescription drug medications.

Thus, would you say the doctor caused addiction and made you develop the need for addiction treatment? The doctor would say it's the drug's fault, as the pharmacological companies have made the drugs more potent and addictive and if your physiology is human, then it will become susceptible to developing addiction. Sometimes as little as one dosage of the medication is addictive and leads to the need for addiction treatment.

One of the first steps in detox is psychological, admitting you have a problem, but the next steps involve taking personal responsibility for your choices. If you were 'stuck' in a situation where you had to take the prescription drug that was addictive for pain, then decreasing the source of the pain is the solution. You wouldn't need any painkillers if the source of the pain were eliminated. This is why it's so important to work with practitioners who can heal your body of the source of the pain before you go into the detox center.

The good news is that detox centers in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and other states are ready for you to begin your healing process. Addiction treatment can be very successful.