1-877-872-0540

National Drug Abuse Hotline and Treatment Locator Service

Higher Ed Center is dedicated to helping those individuals who are struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. We provide a free treatment locator service with over 10,000 facilities broken down by state and city to help those in search of treatment. Higher Ed Center also provides free and confidential services for those individuals who would like to speak with a counselor about treatment options.



You can call to speak with a certified counselor who will guide you through finding a good treatment center that meets your needs.
Get Help Now

National Drug Abuse Hotline and Treatment Locator Service

Higher Ed Center is dedicated to helping those individuals who are struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. We provide a free treatment locator service with over 10,000 facilities broken down by state and city to help those in search of treatment. Higher Ed Center also provides free and confidential services for those individuals who would like to speak with a counselor about treatment options. You can call 1-877-872-0540 to speak with a certified counselor who will guide you through finding a good treatment center that meets your needs.

Effective Strategies for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention

Research studies show that there is no single universal approach that can be used to prevent all cases of drug and alcohol abuse. However, there are some effective strategies for drug and alcohol abuse prevention that you can use.

Most of these strategies are based on research. However, you need to understand that the best approach to take for a particular segment of the population would require that you select the best form of intervention based on their protective and risk factors.

Importance of Addiction Prevention

Unfortunately, most of the highly marketed family and school prevention strategies do not lead to the best outcomes. A better approach would be to start early so that you can reduce all emerging emotional and behavioral problems among the youth.

You should also focus on long lasting effects by tailoring the drug and alcohol abuse prevention strategies on changing family, community, and school environment conditions. By so doing, you will be able to reduce the risk factors that promote and/or maintain substance abuse problems among the youth.

Effective Prevention Strategies


While it might not always be possible to prevent someone from taking these substances, there are some things that you can do to reduce the risk factors. These include but are not limited to:

Treat Mental Illness


Research studies show that you might have a high risk of abusing drugs and drinking alcohol if you have a mental health disorder. This is because substance abuse and mental illness tend to go hand in hand.


In particular, having a mental illness could compel you to turn to alcohol and drugs in a bid to self-medicate the symptoms of your condition. This is because of the pleasurable effects of these substances on the brain.


If you suspect that you might have a disorder like post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, or sleep disorder, it is recommended that you seek help for it. By getting this condition treated, you may be able to reduce your risk of getting involved with addictive substances.

Reduce Risk Factors


Another effective drug and alcohol abuse prevention strategy would be to ensure that your lifestyle is well balanced. This is because many people who abuse drugs do so when things are not going well in their personal lives, when they encounter certain daily challenges, or when they feel unhappy about how their lives are turning out.


To this end, you can reduce your risk of substance abuse and addiction by ensuring that you have a well-balanced life. This means that you should plan for the future, keep your priorities in order, and work hard to achieve your goals. Doing so could distract you from thinking that your life is disorganized, or that you need drugs to feel better about yourself.

Reduce Risk Factors


Addiction treatment professionals now understand that there are certain risk factors that could increase your susceptibility to substance abuse and addiction. You might want to talk to one of these professionals so that they can examine and uncover all your physical, environmental, and biological risk factors.


Examples of these risk factors include:

  • Living in social settings that glorify the use of drugs and alcohol
  • Having experimented with drugs and alcohol earlier on in your life
  • Having a close member of your family who has a substance abuse problem
  • Coming from a family where people were abusing these substances


By understanding your risk factors, you will be able to come up with new ways to counter their effects in your life. In the long run, this could reduce your risk of getting involved with addictive substances.

Manage Peer Pressure


Many people start abusing drugs and drinking alcohol because of the pressure they feel from their friends and the people they spend most of their time with. However, this risk factor mostly applies to teenagers and young people.


The power of peer pressure is particularly strong because human beings are social animals. To this end, you might not want to be left out of the activities that your friends engage in - even if these activities are harmful, such as drug abuse.


You may also feel an incredible need to try and fit in. this could compel you to start doing the things that the people you look up to are doing. Sooner or later, you will soon come to regret this decision especially if it involves drugs and alcohol.


To this end, it is important that you learn to manage peer pressure. Understanding that it could cause you to start abusing addiction substances is a good way to have a plan in mind for when you find yourself in a compromised position.


For instance, you need to have a good plan or excuse ahead of time. This way, when your friends try to influence you to drink alcohol or take drugs, you will know the exact steps that you need to take to avoid doing so.

Treat Mental Illness


Living in the modern world can feel overwhelming. This is why you may want to have a reward or a break from time to time. However, you need to understand that life is a struggle that it often comes with pressure and stress from time to time.


Although you might want to manage it with alcohol and drugs, you should keep in mind that these substances will only come with stresses of their own. For instance, you may end up losing your friends and family, health, finances, and even your source of income if you become addicted.


IInstead, you should look for other ways to manage your stress and unwind after a tough day. You can, for instance, start exercising, find good books to read, use your time to volunteer for the less fortunate, learn how to create anything, and so much more.


As long as your activities are relaxing and positive - and they are able to take your mind off alcohol and drugs - you should be able to manage just fine. Eventually, you will find that you don't even need the thrill of addictive substances to make yourself feel better after a stressful day.

Additionally effective strategies for drug and alcohol abuse prevention that you can use today include:

Strengthen your self-esteem

Resist all pressure to engage in drug taking or alcohol drinking

Learn to manage your anxiety

Improve your decision-making skills

Improve your communication skills

Treatment Categories

You can choose to use cash or self-payment to offset the cost of your addiction treatment and mental health care. This is one of the most commonly accepted forms of payment, and most addiction treatment programs will allow you to use.

If you have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder and earn a low income - or are from a low income background - you might be qualified to use the Access to Recovery (ATR) Voucher to help you pay for the cost of your addiction treatment and rehabilitation.

Community Services Block Grants, also known as CSBG, can help you access treatment from a professional and accredited addiction treatment and rehabilitation facility so that you can work on overcome your substance use disorder and any other co-occurring medical and mental health disorders that you may also have been diagnosed with.

If you have been struggling with a substance use disorder or a mental illness and you qualify for Medicaid, you might be able to use it to offset part or all of your addiction and mental health treatment services and programs.

You can use Medicare to offset the cost of addiction treatment. as long as you are eligible and qualified, you should be able to use this federally and state funded type of health insurance to pay for your treatment in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.

If you are a member of the military - either as a veteran or as one in active military duty - you can use military insurance (e.g., TRICARE) to pay for the cost of your treatment and rehabilitation at a drug and alcohol recovery center.

Some addiction treatment facilities will offer payment assistance. This means that they will take care of some of the costs of your recovery services, so that you only have to pay for a part of your treatment.

Through your private health insurance, you might be able to cover the treatment of your substance abuse and mental health disorders. This is thanks to the Affordable Care Act that now compels health care insurance providers to cover the treatment of these disorders.

Some addiction treatment and rehabilitation facilities offer sliding fee scale programs. Through these programs, you can potentially pay less for your addiction treatment services if you meet certain eligibility requirements.

There are many different types of state financed health insurance plans. The goal of these plans is to ensure that you can receive the health care services that you need without worrying about how much it is going to cost.

The goal of state welfare or child and family services funds is to help children and teenagers form troubled backgrounds access the assistance that they need to overcome various problems in their lives.

Run by the Department of Veteran Affairs, U.S. Department of VA Funds are available for use by veterans - as well as their families, dependents, and loved ones - in offsetting the cost of health care.

According to research studies, a growing number of seniors or older adults has been struggling with substance abuse and addiction issues. Today, there are some specialized addiction treatment and rehabilitation programs that are focused on helping people in this population overcome their addiction related problems.

Drug and alcohol rehab programs for adults are specific in their treatment offerings. They often focus on the needs of adults as well as the issues that they struggle with, which sometimes cause them to abuse drugs and drink alcohol.

Addiction treatment for children/adolescents is focused on the needs of people in this age group - which might be different from those faced by other people above the age of 18 years.

Addiction treatment programs for young adults focus on the needs and requirements of people within this age group. They offer recovery services that are targeting at meeting these needs while guiding the clients on the road to recovery.

If you are addicted to intoxicating substances, you are going to need professional drug and alcohol treatment services to guide you on the road to recovery. This means that you need to acknowledge the fact that you have been struggling with substance dependence and abuse before seeking out these services.

Although Adderall comes with many benefits, it could also because substance abuse and addiction. If this happens to you, you are going to need the help provided by Adderall rehabilitation programs to get started on the road to recovery.

If you have an alcohol use disorder and you are trying to overcome it, the first step would be to get rid of it from your system and body. This process is commonly referred to as alcohol detoxification.

Ambien treatment centers offer a wide variety of rehabilitation and recovery services that can help you stop abusing this drug, overcome your dependence on it, and turn your life around to productive and healthy living.

Benzodiazepine detoxification is an important first step in the path to recovery after a period of abusing benzodiazepine medications and drugs. it is often accompanied by withdrawal, which can be an intensely painful experience lasting anywhere from a couple of days to a few months.

Buprenorphine is typically prescribed for use in treating opioid use disorders, or addictions to opioid drugs like heroin, prescription pain relief medications, fentanyl, among other opioids.

Buprenorphine maintenance is a common practice today. This is because the drug is quite effective in the treatment of opioid use disorders, or opioid addiction. As such, it is effective at helping people overcome their abuse of heroin and other opioid drugs.

If you are addicted to codeine, you are going to need the help of codeine treatment centers to be able to overcome your substance use disorder as well as manage any other co-occurring medical and mental health disorders that you may also struggling with.

If you have been abusing crack cocaine, you are going to need professional crack treatment centers to enable you overcome your growing chemical dependence and substance use disorder.

If you have been abusing ecstasy and you are addicted to it, you will need the help of professional ecstasy rehab programs to be able to achieve a state of recovery, sobriety, and abstinence from this drug.

Fentanyl is one of the most addictive substances available today. If you have been abusing it, you are going to need help from fentanyl rehab programs to get started on the road to long term recovery.

Heroin is one of the most problematic drug problems in the United States. It is often linked to opioid drug abuse and addiction involving other prescription pain relief medications. If you are addicted to it, you will need professional help from an addiction treatment and rehabilitation program.

If you are addicted to hydrocodone, you might need the help of hydrocodone rehab centers to guide you on the road to recovery. These centers also offer a wide variety of treatment options.

Methamphetamines are commonly abused in the United States. They cause various pleasurable effects, which keep users addicted. Eventually, this class of drugs can lead to the development of tolerance and dependence. Once this happens, you will have to undergo methamphetamines detoxification to overcome your abuse of this class of substances.

Dedicated morphine rehab centers offer addiction treatment and rehabilitation services. at these centers, you can get the help that you need to overcome your chemical dependence on this opioid drug.

If you have developed an opioid use disorder as a result of abusing this class of medications, you might get to a point where you require the help of opioid rehab facilities to be able to achieve complete recovery from your addiction.

Opioids detoxification is an important first step on the road to recovery. Through this process, you can get rid of all the opioids that you were abusing out of your system in a safe and successful way.

OxyContin rehab programs offer a wide variety of recovery options for people who have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder involving this drug. At one of these programs, you can get the help that you need to stop abusing OxyContin as well as turn your life around to health and wellness.

Percocet is one of the most addictive drugs available on the market today. If you have been abusing this drug, you are going to need the help of Percocet rehab facilities to get started on the road to recovery.

Although prescription drugs are effective at managing certain physical and psychological health problems and disorders, they can also prove problematic and lead to the development of substance use disorders. When this happens, you will require the help of prescription drug rehab programs to be able to achieve full recovery.

If you have been abusing Ritalin and have developed chemical dependence, tolerance, and addiction as a result, you will have to rely on Ritalin treatment programs to guide you towards recovery and abstinence.

If you have been abusing Roxycodone to such an extent that you are addicted to it, you will have to seek the help of Roxycodone treatment centers to be able to overcome your substance abuse and addiction.

If you have been abusing Vicodin and developed a substance use disorder as a result, you might need the help provided by Vicodin treatment centers to be able to stop taking this drug.

Xanax rehab programs are designed to help you overcome your abuse of, dependence on, and addiction to Xanax. Through these programs, you may be able to realize that abusing this drug is not good for your health and wellness, as well as manage any other co-occurring disorders that you may also have been struggling with.

Detoxification is an important first stage in the process of recovering from substance abuse and addiction. Without this process, you might be able to overcome your drug and alcohol taking.

If you have been struggling with both a substance use disorder as well as co-occurring medical and mental health disorders, you are going to need dual diagnosis drug rehab to be able to recover from all these conditions.

Hospital inpatient addiction treatment is essential in some situations. This is because substance use disorders often do create urgent and significant medical issues. As a result, you might find that you need in-depth and targeted medical care to deal with these issues.

Hospital inpatient detoxification is one of the services that might prove useful if you have a severe substance use disorder. It could also be recommended if your addiction involves drugs that cause severe withdrawal symptoms, which would have to be managed in a hospital inpatient setting.

In addiction recovery, hospital inpatient treatment is a common form of rehabilitation. It might be best suited for you if you have been diagnosed with a severe form of substance abuse and addiction or with co-occurring mental and behavioral health disorders that require hospitalization.

In an inpatient detoxification program, you will get a safe place in which to go through the detoxification process. Since some medical complications might arise during this process, it is recommended that you check into a facility that can provide round the clock medical care and supervision. This is why inpatient detox might be the right way to get started on the road to recovery.

Inpatient drug rehab is considered to be one of the most intensive forms of addiction treatment and recovery. It offers a wide variety of rehabilitation services on a residential basis, meaning that you will be living at the treatment center for a given period of time.

Long term drug rehab is effective at the management of chronic or severe substance use disorders. It might also prove useful if you have been diagnosed with a co-occurring mental health disorder over and above your addiction.

Outpatient day treatment or partial hospitalization is sometimes recommended for some substance use disorders, either as a standalone form of addiction treatment or as a step down from another type of treatment program.

Outpatient drug rehab is one of the least intensive forms of addiction treatment. it can prove useful if you have been diagnosed with a mild or short lasting substance use disorder without any other co-occurring mental health disorders. These programs can also give you enough freedom to continue meeting your various obligations outside the treatment setting even while you are in recovery.

Partial hospitalization/day treatment is a form of outpatient addiction treatment. Through this form of treatment, you can get intensive care for your substance abuse and addiction at an outpatient facility.

Residential treatment centers for children are designed to offer addiction treatment and mental and behavioral health services for clients who are below the age of 18 years. This focus ensures that the facility it able to take care of the needs and requirements that are specific to this population.

It can be difficult to battle your substance abuse and addiction. You might also not be willing to attend an addiction treatment program. This is why short term drug rehab centers exist. They can get you started on the recovery journey, as well as give you the opportunity to learn what to expect from addiction treatment.

Also known as adult inpatient treatment centers, inpatient treatment centers for adults are a form of residential substance abuse and addiction treatment programs that mostly focus on adult residents above the age of 18 years.

Intensive outpatient treatment programs, also known as intensive outpatient programs (or IOPs), are effective at addressing substance use disorders as well as mental health disorders. It might be useful if you do not require round the clock medical supervision or detoxification services.

Addiction treatment for adolescents is designed to help teenagers who have substance use disorders and any other co-occurring mental or behavioral health concerns so that they can get started on the road to recovery.

Addiction treatment for adult men is different from that provided for women and teenage boys. It is also focused on providing gender-specific recovery programs in safe and secure environments.

Addiction treatment for adult women tends to be different from that provided for adult men or teenage girls and young female children. This is because there are some needs that this population has which have to be met in the course of drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Even after you have been through a professional addiction treatment and rehabilitation program, you might still need aftercare/continuing care to ensure that you do not relapse once you leave the facility or program.

Also known as alcohol screening and testing, breath analyzer or blood alcohol testing is an important process that has to be conducted to determine if you have drunk alcohol, and the amount of alcohol you consumed.

When you first check into an addiction treatment center, you will have to undergo comprehensive substance abuse assessment. This process is designed to determine the extent and severity of your addiction.

The goal of drug or alcohol urine screening would be to detect the presence of alcohol and drugs in your system. It involves testing urine to check if you have abused these substances.

Some addiction treatment programs offer family counseling and therapy as part of the recovery process. This is because substance abuse and addiction often affect families in negative ways, and these effects have to be dealt with to ensure long term recovery.

Through federal or any government funding for substance abuse programs, you can get the help that you need to overcome your substance use disorder as well as manage any other co-occurring medical and mental health disorders that you also have.

Also known as group therapy, group counseling is one of the processes that is offered as part of the addiction treatment and recovery process. Its efficacy has been shown to work in helping people overcome their substance use disorders.

Individual counseling or individual therapy is one of the cornerstones of inpatient and outpatient treatment programs that offer care to people struggling with substance use disorders and mental health issues.

Research studies have shown that addiction treatment for persons with HIV or AIDS needs to be focused on helping these people overcome their substance use disorders as well as manage their diagnosis. This form of treatment is often highly specialized and individualized to meet the particular needs that this population has.

Some pregnant/postpartum women struggle with the issues of substance abuse and addiction. Since their needs for recovery services are different from others in the general population, there are addiction treatment programs that are focused on helping these women achieve recovery and sobriety.

Did you know that you can take your children into an addiction treatment and rehabilitation program with you? As long as you are enrolled in a recovery center that offers residential beds for client's children, this should be a possibility for you.

It is important that you undergo screening for substance abuse especially at the start of your recovery journey. This process will help you understand your drug use patterns, the severity of your addiction, and the treatment plan that would be most ideal for you.

Also known as self-help support groups, self-help groups embrace the mindfulness based approach to addiction treatment and recovery. While enrolled in such a program, you will be encouraged to participate in the group so that you can continue making progress towards full recovery, abstinence, and sobriety.

Addiction treatment and rehabilitation programs for DUI/DWI clients are highly specific in their service offerings. They can help you reduce your risk of driving while drunk or intoxicated on drugs by ensuring that you do not abuse these substances again in the future.

Drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs for Spanish speaking clients are focused on offering addiction treatment services to people who speak Spanish either as a first or as a second language.

Addiction treatment and rehabilitation programs often offer services for the hearing-impaired. These services allow addicts who are also hearing impaired to get help to overcome their substance use disorders and maintain sobriety in the long term.

Getting Help

If these drug and alcohol abuse prevention strategies do not work and you find yourself struggling with a substance use disorder, the best thing you can do is check into a drug rehab program. This way, you will get the help that you need to overcome your addiction and stop taking intoxicating substances in the long term.

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