Substance Abuse / Addiction Treatment

"Drugs are a carnival in hell" - Edith Piaf

Substance Abuse In Our Community

Substance Abuse Treatment | Addiction Treatment | Long Island | Hewlett Substance abuse is as widespread in our community as it is in the economically-stricken inner-cities, it is just less recognized and less obvious. In our community, the sufferers of substance abuse disorders can often hide the extent of their addiction even from their close family and friends. It results in additional barriers to seeking treatment: fear of exposure, shame and embarrassment. Substance misuse has many faces: teenagers overexposed to recreational drugs, individuals using powerful prescription pain killers not just for pain alone, individuals overusing anti-anxiety medicines, individuals losing control over alcohol intake, individuals smoking marijuana daily 'to relax'. Frequently, substance use starts in an innocuous and socially acceptable way: taking a drink to handle social anxiety, taking a prescription pain killer for severe pain, smoking a joint with friends, taking a pill for feeling nervous. For some people, ease of access to substances and social acceptance of occasional use creates a growing problem of substance misuse. Daily stress, anxiety, chronic pain, unresolved psychological problems and insomnia can exacerbate substance misuse to a level that causes a problem.

Who should seek help?

If you think that your use of substances is causing a problem in your life, South Shore Neuropsychiatric can help.

The following questions may help you decide:

Does substance use cause family discord?
Do you think you can go for a week without using?
Do you feel guilty or bad about your use of alcohol/drugs?
Did you ever try to quit or cut down your use of alcohol/drugs?
Do you get annoyed or angry when someone suggests that you should cut down your use of alcohol/drugs?
Did you ever start your day with drinking or using drugs?
Did you ever experience withdrawal symptoms?
Does your substance use interfere with your job, school or other responsibilities?
Did your substance use ever result in social embarrassment or problems with the law?
Does your substance use cause health problems or undesired changes in your appearance?

Our Treatment Model

South Shore Neuropsychiatric Center provides discrete, confidential, non-judgmental and compassionate treatment of substance abuse problems. We believe that the most difficult step that our patients will have to take is admitting to themselves that they have a problem and coming to us for help. We begin by a thoughtful and global clinical evaluation with a goal of identifying all treatable psychiatric conditions that may have caused or exacerbated substance use. We understand that our patients frequently start misusing substances to address unmet psychological needs. Our treatment starts by treating underlying Anxiety/Depression while providing medical relief from the unpleasant withdrawal and craving symptoms. For patients who need it, Buprenorphine/Suboxone treatment is available. Our treatment philosophy is Harm Reduction: we accept that we are not going to be able to prevent all of our patients from harming themselves with substance misuse behavior following our first evaluation. Substance abuse disorders are known for incomplete remissions and recurrences. Relapse is part of the disease process, but recognition of relapse is part of the cure. In a non-judgmental and therapeutic way, we engage our patients in the treatment process when they want to be helped. We work collaboratively with other health care/substance abuse professionals and we make appropriate recommendations and referrals. However, we accommodate requests for absolute privacy and confidentiality and can provide substance abuse treatment in a discrete outpatient setting of our office without any outside involvement.