Our treatment staff is continually improving Sierra by the Sea’s tools to provide the best possible chance at long term recovery.
Reducing Cravings Increases Long Term Results
Sierra by the Sea’s men’s residential program provides a comfortable, exclusive, and highly supervised treatment environment for men to successfully get their first 30 to 90 days sober. With long term recovery in mind, we always aim to prepare the men to “step down” to the next level of treatment (rather than cease treatment after 30 to 90 days of successful sobriety).
Since our goal is to give men the best chance at maintaining sobriety, it follows that our staff has been educated in the use of medication that makes detoxification more comfortable and reduces cravings in early sobriety. Examples include:
- buprenorphine (sold as Suboxone and Subutex)
- naltrexone (sold as Vivitrol, Revia, and Depade)
The men’s program treatment staff is almost exclusively composed of men who are in recovery themselves. Based on our years of experience, we did not take the adoption of these groundbreaking new medications lightly.
We have now reviewed enough scientific research (as well as our own personal experiences treating men with these drugs) to have mastered the appropriate use of the medications. Sierra by the Sea’s men’s residential program staff encourages the use of Suboxone or Vivitrol when appropriate and only if it will be complemented by a thorough program of recovery.
Suboxone and Subutex are the brand names for a medication called buprenorphine, which has had remarkable success in aiding the recovery of opiate-dependent individuals in recent years.
Buprenorphine is an “opioid antagonist” which means that it makes the brain’s receptors to opiate-based drugs less able to process the opioid that the individual is addicted to. This makes the cravings and withdrawal less painful for the user during the detoxification process and also reduces cravings during early sobriety.
Examples of drugs that are “opiate based” include:
- Heroin
- Oxycontin (oxycodone)
- Vicodin (hydrocodone)
- Norco
- Methadone
- Percocet (Percodan)
- Dilaudid
- Morphine
- Soma
- Darvocet
- Dilaudid
- Fentanyl
Suboxone is usually administered via injection during the initial detoxification period. We have been continuing the prescription of Suboxone well into early sobriety by prescribing the tablet version “Subutex,” which is taken by allowing it to dissolve in the mouth.
To begin the assessment process and find out if Suboxone or Subutex is right for you or your loved one, please call us at (949) 612-2210 to have your questions answered or fill out a private and confidential form on our contact us page.
Vivitrol (Naltrexone)
Vivitrol is a prescription medication that contains naltrexone, which is also an opioid antagonist. Other brand names for naltrexone include Revia and Depade. The most common use for Vivitrol is to reduce cravings for men and women recovering from alcoholism. Vivitrol has been shown to reduce the occurrence of relapse in recovering individuals (and also to reduce the severity of relapse).
Vivitrol is most often taken in tablet form that is swallowed orally once a day. The medication is considered safe and effective if the client participates in a program of recovery. Much like the above-referenced stories of success and failure with Suboxone, our staff strongly feels that Vivitrol is an effective complement to a treatment plan that addresses the individual’s mind, body, and spirit. Our staff of addiction experts is of the opinion that the man who uses Vivitrol alone and does not participate in a therapeutic program of recovery will only stay sober for a brief period of time until he relapses and then stops taking the Vivitrol prescription.
