Another assumption is that the patient is ready to outpatient treatment. Keeping those assumptions in mind, here are some tools for treating these patients. Why stimulant users seek treatment. Unlike opiate users, who go to treatment because they have run out of money for drugs and are terrified of withdrawal, stimulant users are not motivated by fear of withdrawal. They have a variety of reasons for seeking treatment.
Some stimulant users seek treatment because they are afraid of what their lives have become.
Paranoia is not uncommon, and along with it significant cognitive impairment. And most stimulant users enter treatment because they feel their lives are out of control, partly because of excessive behaviors caused by the methamphetamine or cocaine user. There is also a general emotional turmoil in these stimulant users' lives, and their own feelings, as well as their lives, are out of control. Many patients who come into treatment are ambivalent at best about it. Treatment counselors who are new to helping stimulant abusers are often frustrated by this lack of motivation in patients who are actually seeking treatment.