Despite their popularity and convenience, a drug detox kit doesn’t always work and only provides a temporary solution to a substance abuse addiction.

There are many reasons why you might consider detoxing from drugs. You might need to take a drug test for work, school, or sports. You might be tired of how the drugs are making you feel and the effect they have on your body. You may be considering sobriety as a pathway to recovery from addiction.

Article at a Glance:

  • Detox drug kits are sold at many stores and come in the form of pills or liquids to cleanse the body.
  • Detox drug kits are the “easy way out” and a quick fix rather than a long-term solution.
  • Kits will not set you up for a life in recovery like a real medical detox.
  • For a permanent solution to addiction, choose a medical detox guided by professionals and not a detox kit.

Detoxification is the first step of ridding your body of harmful substances.

This cleansing of the body can also be the first part of rehabilitation. Different factors are important in considering how to detox. For example, you’ll want to safely manage withdrawal symptoms and the severity of these symptoms will depend on what type of drugs you’ve been using, how long you’ve been using, the severity of your use, and your personal health.

If you’re struggling with understanding the severity of your drug use, you might think that at-home detox is the best option for you. Quitting cold turkey and not properly researching detoxification for your specific substance can be a deadly combination.

The drug detox kit method is common for people who want to get drugs out of their system fast. But these drug detox kits might be more hurtful than they are helpful.

What Do Drug Detox Kits Consist Of?

What are drug detox kits? These detox kits are often marketed as cleanses, or total body detox packages. They are sold at stores like GNC, Walmart, CVS, and other health food stores. These kits are normally sold in pill form, a liquid you can drink, or a combination of the two.

The most common drug detox kit available online is for marijuana and THC. Different cleanses claim they take 7 days to permanently remove THC from the body, while other more expensive kits claim the drug is temporarily removed from the body for 5 hours with the kit only taking 90 minutes to ingest.

There are some websites, that claim their products can help you pass any drug test, but they fail to explain exactly how. These drug detox kits do not aim to manage withdrawal symptoms. Some detox kits have also been associated with side effects such as psychosis, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Simply put, drug detox kits are the easy way out. They are for people who are looking for a quick fix, or to cheat the drug test system altogether. Their success rates aren’t proven and therefore, it’s hard to tell if their benefits outweigh the risks.

Some kits are even made up of chemical compounds that could show up on a drug screen as suspicious. Additionally, if you detox using a kit, you might go right back to using hours or days later.

What’s the Difference Between a Detox Kit and Medical Detox?

How do drug detox kits and medical detox compare? Detox kits are done at home without supervision, while medical detox is done under medical care in a hospital, rehab center, or detox location.

Medical detox not only includes ridding the body of harmful substances, but it also entails counseling for physical and psychological dependence on drugs.

Medical professionals will keep you comfortable, manage withdrawal symptoms, and have the capability to use medically assisted detoxification if necessary.

Depending on your personal needs, you may receive fluids, medications, or nutritional supplements. You will be monitored by a nurse who will test you at regular intervals for withdrawal symptoms and any side effects from the medications. Detoxification addresses the physical components of withdrawal and removing substances from your body. The safest way to complete this step is to look into medical detox and not leave it up to a kit you can find on the internet.

Related Topic: Starting Treatment with Online Rehab

Which Detox Method is Right For Me?

The most notable difference between a drug detox kit and other types of detoxification is that a kit will not set you up for a life in recovery.

The toxins can be flushed from your system, but there is much work that will need to be done after that. Detox does not treat any underlying psychological issues that could be at play in your drinking and drug use. That’s where addiction recovery comes in. Following detox, an addiction treatment center can provide a combination of group therapy, individual therapy, 12-step programming, and counseling to treat your addiction. Recovery is a completely new way of life and should be treated as such.

Recovery operates under the theory that addiction is a spiritual, mental, and physical disease and all of these areas must be addressed in order to get well.

A drug detox kit is only a temporary solution. What you need is a permanent solution that will help you look at why you use drugs and how you can stop. A proper treatment facility will help you every step of the way from detoxification, through rehab, and aftercare. The goal is to help you live a happy and fulfilling life free from the shackles of addiction. This is possible, but it has several moving parts and will not be completed by taking a dangerous drug detox kit to begin it.

Your recovery is worth it. Forget about the detox kit and put the time and effort into your recovery today.

Medical Disclaimer

The Recovery Village aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content about the nature of behavioral health conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers.