Upon receiving an official substance use disorder diagnosis from a physician or mental health professional, it’s time to seek out proper benzodiazepine addiction treatment. This can come in a variety of forms, but the most suggested and effective route is by completing the full continuum of care.The full continuum of care is the process by which benzodiazepine addiction treatment is completed and conducted by completing different levels of care in a “stepped” format. You will start at a higher level of care, which consists of more hands-on clinical and medical intervention, and progress through lower levels of care, which contain fewer hands-on techniques.By completing the full continuum of care, you will receive the appropriate amount of clinical and medical intervention based on your progress in benzodiazepine addiction treatment. This can help increase the likelihood of long-term success in recovery and provides the proper amount of medical treatment that benzodiazepine addiction treatment specifically requires.The first, and arguably the most important part of the full continuum of care for benzo addiction is medical detox. This level contains the highest amount of clinical and medical supervision and its primary purpose is to provide medical stabilization following the cessation of benzodiazepine use.Since benzos have a notoriously dangerous withdrawal process, receiving proper medical care is crucial to avoid some of the nasty detox side effects that you may encounter.When you arrive at detox, you’ll undergo a full medical assessment by the medical staff made up of physicians, nurses, and medical support staff. They will take into consideration the severity of your addiction as well as your overall physical health.From there, they will create and implement a personalized detox plan tailored to fit your specific needs. Your detox plan will usually include a variety of different detox medications designed to help you safely, comfortably, and quickly detox off of benzos.A full clinical staff of therapists, case managers, and support staff will also be present to help you navigate the emotionally challenging time that detox often is for patients. Since not all withdrawal symptoms are physical, having access to intense clinical support can make a huge difference in your experience.While the primary focus of detox may be the physical aspect of benzodiazepine addiction, you will begin having minor therapy sessions and groups at this stage to start looking at the underlying causes of your addiction as well.Following detox, it is recommended to continue your treatment process by going to inpatient/ residential treatment. This stage of care focuses more on the therapeutic aspect of treatment since you will be medically stabilized at this point.Each addiction treatment program is unique from the different addiction therapy methods employed to the amenities offered at the facility. It is important to ensure that the program meets your needs whether they are dual diagnosis treatment, PTSD therapy, etc.Regardless of the details surrounding the specifics of the program, the overall experience is generally the same.You will live full-time onsite at the facility and undergo a full-time curriculum of therapy sessions and groups geared toward getting to the underlying root causes of your addiction and other emotional issues.While at residential treatment/inpatient treatment, you’ll live with other recovering addicts and alcoholics in campus-style living. Here, you’ll learn different life skills, coping mechanisms, and relapse prevention techniques in a sequestered environment away from outside stressors and temptations. You will learn these new skills and techniques and be able to apply them to your daily life even long after treatment ends.Following inpatient/residential treatment, the next level of care in benzodiazepine addiction treatment is intensive outpatient (IOP). IOP is different from inpatient in that you will no longer live onsite at the facility. Instead, patients are required to find alternative housing whether it’s returning to your home or finding a sober living facility/halfway house. These halfway houses provide further structured living geared towards creating an environment of recovery.Regardless of your living arrangements, you will commute to your IOP sessions each week. IOP will typically occur several days a week for multiple hours at a time. IOP provides intensive clinical intervention while you acclimate to having more free time and subsequent responsibility for maintaining your sobriety on your off-hours.This can be a big transition that many people may struggle with. This is what makes IOP such an important facet of the full continuum of care. By continuing on in your therapy sessions and being subjected to random drug testing, it can help keep you on track in your recovery and your program.After IOP comes routine outpatient programs. These programs are similar to IOP in that you still must find alternative housing and commute to sessions, but the number of hours spent in therapy each week greatly diminishes. In fact, outpatient usually only occurs for a single one-hour session per week.The idea behind outpatient is to make the final transition from the safety of an inpatient drug/alcohol rehab program into society at large as a sober person. By this point in benzodiazepine addiction treatment, you should be fairly stable and capable of handling the majority of the responsibility for your recovery. However, having lingering support from your outpatient program and drug testing may help you stay on track.Many people utilize 12-step programs and alumni programs in tandem with outpatient programs. This compounds the amount of support you’ll have during your recovery as you re-emerge into the world as a newly sober individual.Since outpatient lasts far longer than IOP (IOP only six to eight weeks; outpatient several months), it provides long-lasting support well into your recovery when you can successfully handle all of the responsibility to your program.