FDA Approves First Addiction Recovery App

Can an addiction recovery app really help? The FDA seems to think so.

With an announcement in September 2017 however, the lack of a good digital tool has been addressed. The FDA has cleared an addiction recovery app that helps people get better once past detox. It brings cognitive-behavioral therapy to patients, the most effective and commonly used form of addiction therapy.

What is cognitive-behavioral therapy, and how does it help?

When you need help recovering from an addiction, medical detox is your first port of call. In detox, you receive medical treatment to counter the various painful and harmful symptoms that you experience as your brain attempts to adapt to internal chemical changes.

When detox concludes, you do experience freedom from withdrawal symptoms; for the most part, life also seems free of cravings — you don’t experience cravings every hour of every day, the way you would before detox. Many people are fooled at this point into believing that they’ve been completely cured; in truth, however, they aren’t cured.

Once you’re addicted, the condition stays in some form for life. Addiction involves the infliction of permanent injury to certain parts of the brain. The effects of such injury set in the permanent brain attachment to drug use. While the brain does attempt to function in a normal way, the attachment, once formed, never goes away and can set off cravings from time to time.

While there is no way to shut down these cravings completely, there are many effective psychological approaches that help move the mind away from thoughts and feelings about drugs. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the most important approaches in existence to help the mind with the psychological skills that it needs.

The app: reSET by Pear Therapeutics

In cognitive-behavioral therapy, a therapist engages in conversation with a participant to help them identify unproductive or harmful mental processes, analyze why they happen, and change them through behavioral modifications. While live help from an actual therapist is essential in cases that require intensive therapy, the sober tool app aims itself at mild to moderate afflictions.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy has already been available in the form of successful self-help books; apps put the therapeutic approach within easier reach.

The app isn’t a self-help method, however; it puts one in touch with a therapist who is able to offer treatment. One of the most convincing signs that reSET works: it is obtainable on prescription only.

Clinical studies have been conducted, FDA approval has been obtained, and the product is ready to go online.

Speak to a therapist

Since therapy is an important component of any plan to overcome addiction long-term, it is important that you get in touch with a therapist to talk about how drug addiction apps might be part of your recovery. It’s possible now to obtain a prescription for the reSET app. Such treatment can turn out to be more affordable, and it is supported by insurance companies, as well.

If you’d like to get in touch with a qualified rehab therapist in your town, all you need to do is to look up the website of Better Addiction Care to search its well-designed database for detailed information on the options available to you. Call (800) 429-7690 to speak to an addiction specialist who can answer all your questions and help you find a treatment program that is right for you.