The team at BrainStim Centers, Inc. provides safe and effective addiction treatment at their offices in Encino and Valencia, California.
The team offers comprehensive care that includes medications to help you safely detox, counseling for long-term recovery, and innovative therapies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation to restore optimal brain functioning.
To take the first step toward your new life, call the nearest office or schedule an appointment online today.
Contact our New Patient Coordinator for a Free Consultation
CALL:(310) 895-7122
TMS: New Personalized, Drug-Free Treatment for Addiction
What causes addiction?
Addiction begins in your brain when drugs, alcohol, and other addictive substances activate the brain’s reward system. This triggers the release of biochemicals that boost your mood, relieve pain, and produce a pleasurable or high feeling.
As you continue to use the substance, physical changes occur in your brain that cause uncontrollable cravings. It isn’t long before your brain builds up a tolerance and you need to use larger amounts to satisfy your cravings and get the same pleasurable feelings.
At this stage, you’ll experience withdrawal symptoms if you try to stop using the substance. That’s when you have an addiction.
What symptoms indicate I have an addiction?
Whether you use drugs or struggle with alcoholism, the primary symptoms of addiction are uncontrollable cravings, needing to take more to get the same effect, and withdrawal symptoms.
Other signs of addiction include:
- Giving up activities and hobbies you used to enjoy so you can get high
- Failing to fulfill your responsibilities at work, home, or school
- Continuing to drink or take drugs despite memory blackouts or health problems
- Using alcohol or drugs when it’s not safe, such as while driving
Drug abuse and alcoholism also share many of the same withdrawal symptoms, like restlessness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and a rapid heartbeat.
How can I overcome my addiction?
When you want to break the habit, the first step is to detox from the substance you use. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is one of the most successful approaches to recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.
MAT combines medication with counseling. When you start MAT, the team at BrainStim Centers, Inc. prescribes medications that stop your cravings, prevent withdrawal symptoms, and help restore your brain chemistry.
After you finish detoxing and the drugs or alcohol clear out of your system, you continue taking the medication until your provider determines you’re ready to taper down. You also begin counseling.
Counseling helps you learn why you turn to drugs or alcohol. During therapy, you learn ways to change your behaviors so you’re equipped to avoid using drugs or alcohol in the future.
Does TMS help with addiction?
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive treatment that uses magnetic pulses to safely stimulate nerves in your brain. The stimulation restores normal nerve activity and increases neurotransmitters.
While relaxing in the Nexstim chair, a tracker will be placed on your forehead, without the use of adhesives. The tracker engages with the system so the equipment and computer can pinpoint the exact location for sending the pulsations.
The device will be placed near your head and will send out the magnetic pulses.
Each session time varies. However, the first session typically takes 45 minutes to load the MRI and conduct brain navigation. This data will be saved on the computer for future reference. Subsequent visits typically take 20 minutes from start to finish. Since TMS doesn’t negatively impact your cognitive abilities, you can leave as soon as the session is over and go back to your daily routine.
The best results are seen when having 5 sessions per week for a six-week period. Throughout your treatment process, you will have periodic assessments with your TMS Technician to evaluate your overall mood, energy, and progress.
If you need help with an addiction, call BrainStim Centers, Inc. or book an appointment online today.
*** Treatments including but not limited to TMS treatment for addiction are designed to help improve cognitive function. Individual results may vary.
You don’t have to decide right away
Take the easy Steps to Determine if MeRT is the Right Treatment
We understand that you may not feel certain whether MeRT is the right treatment for you or your loved one. MeRT is a relatively new, cutting-edge treatment and you may not have heard as much about it yet. But this is not a decision that you need to make. There are multiple steps to take to determine if MeRT is the correct treatment.
First, you should talk with our New Patient Coordinator. She is here to help, to listen, explain and answer any questions you have. You can discuss your symptoms and history. She can explain the protocols, details of treatment, and fees. You can ask her all the questions you want.
At this point, if you would like to take the next step in seeing if MeRT treatment is right for you, we can set up an appointment for an EEG (a simple, painless, and non-invasive brain scan), right here in our clinic.
A few days after this is done, once your test results are in and have been analyzed, Dr. Mark Liker, Neurosurgeon and our Medical Director, will call you for a consultation to discuss your EEG results and possible treatment protocols.
If between you and the doctor, you both determine that MeRT may be the right treatment for you, the next step is a short Assessment Period. This entails a short period of treatment, followed by a new EEG to see if you are responding to the treatment. This is determined by comparing the new EEG results to the first EEG that was done before treatment started. Symptom improvements are also thoroughly assessed.
If there is a positive response to treatment during the assessment period, you will have likely noticed some improvements starting to take place, and we can then schedule for the additional treatment duration.
So, as you can see, there are many steps involved in ensuring that you receive only treatment that will benefit you.
You may also be interested in the many RESEARCH STUDIES that have been done.
It doesn’t cost anything to talk to us…
It doesn’t cost anything to talk to us…Would you like a Consultation with our New Patient Coordinator?
Our New Patient Coordinator is here for you. She has helped many individuals and can understand a lot of what you may be going through. And there are no obligations to move forward. She can explain our process, the costs involved, scheduling of treatment, possible insurance benefits, and any other details you want to know. She can answer any questions you have. She’ll take the time you need to know whether or not you should take the next steps.