Rehab- Is it effective?

[Tommyboy]

One thing you can do is hit up a rehab far away from whre you live. It will be beneficial and you can avoid that. My IOP was like an hour form where I lived so I didnt make any friends that I chilled with or anything.. but I guess if I was goin in my hometown it could have been a bad situation, you meet the wrong epople, get like a ballin connect that your like damn i cant not buy this dope, its so cheap and fire !!!

I always recommend that people going to an inpatient rehab go to one a few states away from their home. It's worth the extra money if it means that you are less likely to relapse since you won't be around a bunch of people from your area that are talking about the cheap fire dope in the area.

Yeah I've been kicked out of one inpatient, and about 4 IOP's because I'd always gravitated towards those who were like me, not into it and forced to go. This lead to me being an IV user, and I was also arrested for buying crack for this one fellow patient. I feel like forcing someone into rehab is a real bad idea, unless they've already mastered the dark arts of hardcore drug use. I've seen a lot of people go in for minor percocet habits, and then I'd meet them a year later at a cop spot, strung out and shooting heroin. It is a difficult position though, for the family's and friends of someone with a drug problem, because of course you don't want them to have to totally bottom out before they decide to change their lifestyle, but at the same time, you don't want to send them to a place that can potentially lead to even riskier behavior, even if that institution's purpose is to provide treatment

I wonder what the sucess rate is for people forced into rehab as opposed to people that check themselves in. I know that some states have a document that family members can sign to force a family member to goto rehab, or they get locked up. I think I saw it first on a special about heroin in Boston, and then I just saw it on an episode of Intervention for a girl from Florida. She ended up leaving rehab after 10 days, and then never seeing her family again.

 

[DooMMooD]

If you guys wanna talk relapse %s here, none of the "rehab options" in reality have low relapse %. They all have high ones (or low % of people who stay clean). So to shit on NA and say "oh the # speak for themselves" isnt really fair, considering addiction is one of the hardest cycles to break.

The path with the proven lowest relapse % is a combination of all of the options: medication therapy, 12 step programs AND individual counseling/therapy. Flat out statistically this is your best shot at staying clean, and if you really are trying to do whatever it takes than you'll do this, because 1) it IS everything that it takes 2) it gives you the best shot from a probability standpoint and 3) will give you the most tools long term even if you stop attending the group/individual/etc b/c you've learned different strokes from diff folks, so to speak.

If you truly want the best shot at staying clean you will do all 3 and not knock on NA because of religion or whatever. Just because you dont agree with everything said there does not mean that it is any less helpful.

I was also watching a documentary recently regarding addiction, and one of the docs on there was saying that inpatient (NOT detox, in patient as in a 28 day program for example) was kinda pointless, because after inpatient you have to go to outpatient anyway and learn how to live in the real world regardless. They were saying that locking yourself away for 28 days long term doesnt usually help because instead of learning how to deal with problems as they appear in real life, you become accustomed to being cut off from the world and not even having to DEAL with those problems (eg someone offering you drugs, family doing fucked up shit, etc) since youre basically cut off from the real world.

Obviously theres exceptions: if you're a person who gets like 50 calls a day from dealers and friends looking to pick up, or 20 people showing up at your house with heroin, or you literally live in a shooting gallery, then going away for 28 days and being cut off from all that shit may help. But what they were saying was that long term outpatient is just as successful, if not more so, than inpatient, since you end up in outpatient regardless of whether or not you do inpatient first.

Now, is just overall rehabilitation itself effective? It is if you want it to be. If you truly want to get clean, and truly seize all options/opportunities regardless of whether you agree with them or not, then yes, it'll work.

Its really about taking suggestions, trying other peoples advice and NOT doing what you WANT to do, but what you NEED to do. And life sucks but we as addicts never did that before: what we NEED to do. We always did what we WANTED to do, and sometimes, well, sometimes you gotta do shit you dont wanna do, but thats life. i'm learning this now.

eg: I didnt WANT to go to NA, but for the first 90 days i did because it is what i NEEDED. Despite me not totally agreeing with some of what they talk about, it definitely helps, despite your religious opinions. I no longer go with any regularity, but I learned quite a bit there and it IS very helpful to have somewhere you can go and unburden yourself and your conscious.

 

[brutus]

I've gone to one of the top 5 rehabs in the world and it was pure bullshit and brainwashing.

 

[Znegative]

Haha, me too man, or at least one of the top in the US (I even got a "scholarship"). I got to give some of these places credit though, for their devious and genius business strategies that allow them to continually make money off the same patient through a never ending cycle of 30 day programs, extended care, halfway house (kick backs), IOP'S, step down out patient, and finally relapse prevention, which can go on for the rest of someone's life if they don't "take their will back".

That being said, I go to a lovely outpatient currently. I don't buy into everything, but the counselors are much more willing to listen and they don't claim there to be "one true way".

 

[LOGan1314]

it's very sad if you look at the actual statistics of relapse after treatment....

HOWEVER, in my opinon...it can only help Also it depends on what institution my friend went to one where literally they watched t.v., ate junk food and played video games like 80 percent of the time...plus there were people using and dealing in the rehab Truly FUCKED up for people who actually want to get sober....

Ive heard the betty ford institute has one of the lowest rates of relapse...very expensive though....

 

[laCster]

yeah i have to agree, i am doing outpatient right now and it's fucking pointless

 

[el8one]

Haha, me too man, or at least one of the top in the US (I even got a "scholarship"). I got to give some of these places credit though, for their devious and genius business strategies that allow them to continually make money off the same patient through a never ending cycle of 30 day programs, extended care, halfway house (kick backs), IOP'S, step down out patient, and finally relapse prevention, which can go on for the rest of someone's life if they don't "take their will back".

Same here. I was appalled by the level of pseudo-science and brainwashing that went on that are accepted unchallenged out of lack of alternatives.

Interestingly, I read an article in Time a few days ago titled "10% of the U.S. Population Has Overcome Drugs or Alcohol" that I felt was quite compelling in supporting my original post. Key quotes:

"Contrary to popular perception, most people who quit addictions do so without treatment or participation in self-help groups, and many are able to cut back to non-problematic levels of use, rather than abstaining entirely.

For example, one study of 4,422 people with alcoholism found that one year later, only 25% still met diagnostic criteria for the disorder. Only 25% of participants had received treatment, however, and of those who quit drinking entirely, only half had received help. About one-fifth of the group had quit, while another fifth had successfully moderated their drinking. The rest had some reductions in drinking and were considered only in partial remission or at high risk for relapse. Other studies looking at people with alcoholism and other addictions over longer periods have revealed similar outcomes.
"

These next several paragraphs are what I find most interesting. Bold faced is purely mine:

But an apparent paradox emerges when people with addictions are studied in different settings. Those who seek treatment or are convicted of drug-related crimes tend to have chronic, relapsing disorders, while surveys of people who have not been incarcerated or treated report short periods of drug misuse that never recur. Most of the difference between these groups is probably due to the fact that the people with the most severe problems are both more likely to get caught and more likely to seek help, while those who can quit on their own simply do so.

While I have no doubt that what the author concludes is true, I would take this one step further to its most logical conclusion based on what I learned in observing treatment. Those who seek treatment or are convicted of drug related crimes become far more susceptible to relapse due to the heavy indoctrination of harmful propaganda that brainwashes them into believing they are powerless to change (unless they give themselves up to the "higher power"), which ends up reinforcing a cyclical relapse-recovery in many who are unwilling or unable to form lasting bonds with the right people in their local recovery group while poisoning the minds of everyone involved including those that have yet to decide to quit into feeling so dis-empowered that they adopt a fatalistic attitude that becomes self reinforcing.

In many instances those that end up in rehab end up there coincidentally and not necessarily because they have decided it is truly time to quit. Even those incarcerated are obviously there against their will and in many cases especially involving buying and selling their getting caught up in the system can be coincidental rather than representing "worst case" individuals. How is it that this subset also falls into such a high probability being prone to relapse? Further study is obviously warranted, but given what you've been exposed to in many of these rehabs can there really be much doubt that what they teach you contributes to this behavior?

The contrary findings from this and other studies that have reaffirmed this data has even provoked debate in the medical field:

However, research has found that even heroin addicts can and often do recover without assistance. This can be seen in studies of Vietnam veterans: half of vets used opium or heroin at least once and 20% became physically dependent, but only 1% stayed addicted long term, even though most did not receive treatment.

The conflicting results seen in studies of people in treatment versus those in the general population even led the leading journal in the field, Addiction, to devote five articles in its January issue to a debate over whether alcoholism should in fact be classified as a chronic, relapsing disease.

It's characterized as a "disease" for the purpose of funding. Even a cursory look into how the field of addiction has evolved would reveal this truth. Whether it truly meets criteria to be classified a "disease" is highly controversial.

At any rate, I believe you're absolutely on the right track with your belief in treatment programs that emphasize a more cognitive-behavioral approach emphasizing the downsides of short term thinking, exercise, diet, and other natural ways to induce increased endorphin levels and improve general well being. Those types of recovery groups are out there although sadly, much more rare. A friend of mine mentioned how much more beneficial it was to attend one of these types of groups. Next time I'll have to ask him what it's called and pass it along.

The complete article is here: http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/07/quitting-drugs-or-alcohol-10-of-the-u-s-population-has-done-it/

 

[Znegative]

While I have no doubt that what the author concludes is true, I would take this one step further to its most logical conclusion based on what I learned in observing treatment. Those who seek treatment or are convicted of drug related crimes become far more susceptible to relapse due to the heavy indoctrination of harmful propaganda that brainwashes them into believing they are powerless to change (unless they give themselves up to the "higher power"), which ends up reinforcing a cyclical relapse-recovery in many who are unwilling or unable to form lasting bonds with the right people in their local recovery group while poisoning the minds of everyone involved including those that have yet to decide to quit into feeling so dis-empowered that they adopt a fatalistic attitude that becomes self reinforcing.

That was brilliantly put, and what I've been trying to say, though I feel I fell a little short on some points. Thanks a lot for the article, fantastic man.

 

[NomNomNom]

Hey everybody,
I'm kind of interested in everyone's take on drug treatment centers.

I myself have been to about 7 Treatment Center's (including outpatient program's) over the last five years, and have offten felt very skeptical as to there effectiveness. With most of my experiences in inpatient program's, halfway houses and outpatient's, I found that I usually left a worse (or better you could argue) addict than I had been when I was enrolled.

I've never been in treatment, but have been going to NA meetings for 6 months, 73 days clean - woop woop! I've only used 6 times in the last 6 months. I can understand your cynicism from your personal experience. I've seen a few times already where a guy in a recovery house decides to up and use and more or less takes the whole house down with him. I'm strongly suspicious that some of the kids who come to my home group are doing blasts of crack in the bathroom.

But i wanted to kind of pick on what you said about being "Skeptical to their effectiveness". This sounds like a normal comment/critique of programs in general, but to the addict who does not have an honest desire to stay clean, there IS no effective treatment. Reading between the lines that comment seems to be saying "I don't believe that detoxes/programs/sober houses are effective, because they did not provide me with a magic pill of insight and wisdom into the nature of addiction that would prevent me from ever using again" The way you phrase that makes it sound like a treatment program exists independent from the addict, and that it's a 1 way street from the program to the addict and if the program is 'effective' then the addict will not use.

Maybe i'm being too hard but...for me it's easy to break it down on paper. When you are in the grips of active addiction, your whole life and thinking centered on drugs, you need the next one to avoid feeling like shit etc. etc. Drug use is to the point that it is not really a choice. The consequences of NOT using are too dire, let alone the fact that you don't know another way. This is essentially out of your control, you must perpetuate the cycle.

Once you break the cycle, the decision to put a drug in your body or not IS a choice. It's your decision. If you want to put a drug in your body, and go back to the cycle of absolute misery that you just left, then do that. If you want a shot a better way of life, then don't. For me what works is that I need to be able to manage my life, and i don't believe i have a shot at doing that if i put a drug in my body.

Total abstinence...i could manage my life and drink 3 beers a night, sure. But as soon as i start leaving work early, half assing other things in my life because i'm looking forward to those 3 beers then i'm in line to start being depressed that my life isn't going as well as i want (boss/girlfriend upset, whatever), i'm not fulfilled like i would have been if i had been controlling the things that are in my control instead of looking forward to the 3 beers. So now i have 4 beers because i deserve 4 beers because woe is me everything sucks (lying to myself instead of realizing that i'm neglecting things that are in my control, that i chose not to control, that are now making me feel like shit).

So that cycle goes and i have 6 beers 1 night...maybe this is 3 years after i decided that it was ok to have 3 beers a night or even just now and again. So i have 6 beers, i wake up, i have a hangover, i use opiates. I didn't turn into a zombie, i did most of the things i had to do today, success...i can use opiates and booze and manage my life, it's not like it used to be - i got this. So i carry on like this until it becomes apparent that i was lying to myself from the first day that i told myself it was ok to leave work early or not clean my place or blow off a friend or whatever it was that i neglected in order to go have those first 3 beers.

That's the way i see me having 1 drink going.

Like i say it's a choice, however it will not feel like it if i am doing one of the following 2 things.

1.) Not handling things that are within my power to handle that are making me miserable.

2.) I'm letting myself feel miserable because of things that are not within my power to change.

 

[Znegative]

I fully understand that there is no "magic pill" that would cure drug addiction. My point is that I feel skeptical of some of the ideas these programs fill your head with like : being an addict is a chronic condition, that all drugs are the same, and that once an addict, it becomes impossible to use any drug (regardless of wether it's your DOC) without falling back into a self destructive pattern of using or returning to the substance that initially brought you to your knees. I even wonder if this philosophy can be damaging. Say someone has been clean off heroin for a year, and then they somehow or another decide one night to drink a beer, breaking there abstinence.. I've heard a lot of relapse story's start off like this in 12 step programs, and then they always end with "and in a few days I was back to smoking crack".

It could be that yes, any substance triggers some kind of allergic reaction in the brain of an addict that then takes hold of a person, driving them to go back to smoking crack or whatever it is they became addicted too, but it could also be that this hypothetical individual has this idea so engrained into his/her brain, that on a subconscious level, they feel the need to carry out the role, to prove the program right.

I bring this up because I know people who have been hard core heroin addicts and then quit, and still drink and smoke pot and live successful lives. A lot of treatment centers and 12 steps will say that it's either "impossible", or that an individual who can do this, is still somehow destroying themselves.

 

[Tommyboy]

While I have no doubt that what the author concludes is true, I would take this one step further to its most logical conclusion based on what I learned in observing treatment. Those who seek treatment or are convicted of drug related crimes become far more susceptible to relapse due to the heavy indoctrination of harmful propaganda that brainwashes them into believing they are powerless to change (unless they give themselves up to the "higher power"), which ends up reinforcing a cyclical relapse-recovery in many who are unwilling or unable to form lasting bonds with the right people in their local recovery group while poisoning the minds of everyone involved including those that have yet to decide to quit into feeling so dis-empowered that they adopt a fatalistic attitude that becomes self reinforcing.

Yea, I think that rehab can interrupt the 'natural order of things,' if you will, which then contributes to the relapse cycle. People need to learn on their own, but unfortunately some don't survive in the process. I don't think that rehab really helps in that case, and actually may hurt. I think that everybody that I know that has overdosed, has done so after going to rehab, being clean for a bit of time, and then doing their regular dose without taking into account their tolerance drop, subsequently causing them to perish. Many people never get to reach their 'rock bottom' before ending up in rehab, so when they get out they figure if they relapse, they can always just go back to rehab in the future.

In reality, I think that the recovery process goes more like this:

1. Occasional drug use turns into daily drug use
2. Drug user become more isolated from friends
3. They may lose their job, but not necessarily
4. After a while of spending every last dime on drugs, they get sick of living that way
5. They decide to change, and break their physical dependence to the drug
6. They quit, or use in a more managable way

If any of you have seen the movie Get Him to the Greek, I think that the scene at the end in which he falls backwards into the pool from the roof depicts what I am saying. When he says "this as a lifestyle choice is not working for me," I think that is what most people have to come to realize on their own. That pool scene followed by when he is about to go on stage both really apply to how addicts come to break the cycle, and take control over their lives again.

Just as addiction is a process, so is quitting. Though some might be able to quit and never really look back, I think that most begin to use less frequently, and either end up using occasionallly, or quitting altogether. Rehab (more particularly, involuntary rehab) interrupts this process, which is why, in my opinion, the relapse/recovery cycle continues.

 

[Lady Codone]

Everyone is going to have varying/strong opinions on this subject, obviously. Mine is that it can work but is not the only way to sobriety. More important than the treatment program is the patient's desire to stop using...for themselves, not their families, parole officer, children, significant other, etc. You can have all the professional help in the world, but it's 100% worthless if the addict isn't willing to do the work.

While rehab has helped millions, the power of drug counselors/detox specialists can also be abused, resulting in dire consequences. The idea that costly inpatient treatment is the only road to salvation from a drug-addled life is not only false but also harmful to those who respond negatively to group therapy and the other treatment methods applied therein. (For example, sitting around listening to other addicts talk in great detail about their drug-fueled binges can actually TRIGGER the desire to use in some people. New drug manufacturing/abuse methods can also be learned in group treatment centers, much like in prison).

Until we learn more about the mechanisms involved in addiction and develop better treatment options, rehab is the best option we have in most cases. Anything that forces sobriety, introspection and self-assessment is going to be beneficial for people suffering from addiction, mental illness and negative behavior patterns.

 

[Tommyboy]

Until we learn more about the mechanisms involved in addiction and develop better treatment options, rehab is the best option we have in most cases. Anything that forces sobriety, introspection and self-assessment is going to be beneficial for people suffering from addiction, mental illness and negative behavior patterns.

We know about a lot more treatment options, but they are not all available everywhere. Ibogaine treatment (and other hallucinogenic options) are a prime example of this. Many say that it is not allowed in the US because it would result in less revenue in treatment services as a whole. This includes pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and sell drugs like methadone and buprenorphine drugs (suboxone, subutex, etc), treatment facilities (both inpatient and outpatient), hospitals (overdose treatments, detoxes, injuries sustained from people under the influence), lawyers, police, the courts, and other areas that profit from drugs (state money from confiscated property seized by illegal drug activity).

So it's not so much that we have to learn more about other treatment options, but instead that we have to allow for them to be made available. Even something like diacetylmorphine (heroin) maintenance which has been proven effective, is still not available in most countries, and that would be a compromise that would allow many of these places to still make some money, yet be more efficient at treating addicts. I hope to see these made available nationwide in the near future, but I know that it is unlikely.

 

[kronedog]

To the OP, I'm glad you made this thread, and everyone has posted a lot of good information so far. I'll just throw in my two cents on rehab since I've been to a total of 4.

The first time I experienced "treatment" was when I was 16 and I had no say in the matter. I was drug tested, and came up positive for heroin and pot, not to mention my arms were banged up bad. I went to a 60 day program and I was told over and over it's just the 60 days and I'll be out. Of course it was a lie as I was sent to an extended treatment facility where I stayed sober for a year.

They pushed the 12 step program really hard on us at the halfway house, and because of my ignorance I stayed stuck on the first step for about half a year I learned a lot about sobriety during that year but I just can't go through with something completely unless I'm with it in mind and body. I felt forced to be sober the rest of my life, felt pressured by my counselors, and to top it all off, guilt. My parents were paying way too much for treatment at the halfway house Still being young, and immature, when I turned 18 I flew back home to Detroit and was blowing coke, smoking and drinking the night I got home. That must've really showed them huh?

I'm not saying rehab doesn't work because it definitely can. I met many addicts in treatment and a handful of them managed to stay completely abstinent since then which was about 5 years, so props to them. As for myself, the one thing that helped me the most was the fact that being sent out across the country into a sober environment, I was able to stop bangin H and haven't since then. So with that, rehab did help me out, to an extent. Overall, it's the individuals choice to stay sober or not and I don't think it shouldn't be looked so down upon to relapse. It happens. I guess I'm just really bittersweet when it comes to rehab.

 

[LuGoJ]

You get out of it what you put in. There are many valuable lessons that can be learned in rehab, especially when it comes to personal responsibility and relationships. I learned a lot of really good tools to deal with family relationships and life in general. It also taught me to stay honest, especially with myself.

Will appearing and living there keep you sober? No. Will they teach you tools and ways to deal with problems that might make you want to use? Absolutely, if you are receptive, can shut your mouth and listen without getting defensive.

 

[el8one]

They pushed the 12 step program really hard on us at the halfway house, and because of my ignorance I stayed stuck on the first step for about half a year. I learned a lot about sobriety during that year

That sounds horrible. Yeah I'm sure you learned a lot about how much it sucks to be sober in a miserable environment like a 12 step halfway house where you're subjected to constant propaganda in attempts to break you down psychologically and brainwashing you into believing you were powerless to change unless you stayed in their expensive as fuck halfway house. That's a really shitty thing to being forced to learn when you later unlearn it.

but I just can't go through with something completely unless I'm with it in mind and body.

I say keep up the healthy skepticism. Your intellect can be harnessed to far greater effect in pursuit of sobriety than slavish devotion to bullshit despite what these programs would have you believe.

I felt forced to be sober the rest of my life, felt pressured by my counselors, and to top it all off, guilt. My parents were paying way too much for treatment at the halfway house Still being young, and immature, when I turned 18 I flew back home to Detroit and was blowing coke, smoking and drinking the night I got home. That must've really showed them huh?

Don't you hate that? Guilt sucks and having parents that spend these exorbitant amounts on ripoff rehabs and recovery houses that don't work lets them really lay the guilt on thick, and what better way to avoid dealing with it than getting more fucked up?

I'm not saying rehab doesn't work because it definitely can. I met many addicts in treatment and a handful of them managed to stay completely abstinent since then which was about 5 years, so props to them.

I agree it can work for some, but even in these cases it's hard not to ask at what cost? At the cost of destroying their sense of self control and self worth and forcing them to surrender themselves to the group and its quasi-moralistic principles in order to achieve their goal of sobriety and peace of mind? Seriously? I'm sure joining a doomsday cult brings fantastic peace of mind for every committed member. Some of these cults forbid drug and alcohol use so sobriety is a nice, healthy byproduct of membership. So is that good reason to identify one of these sober living doomsday cults and surrender yourself to their doomsday "truths" espoused by their cult leader, aka their "higher power"? There are some members who will live blissfully ignorant lives and die before the apocalypse, leading lives of lasting sobriety.

The price?

The fictional doomsday event and its adopted mythology must be swallowed whole to achieve its accompanying sobriety and peace of mind. As should be clear, that's hardly a compelling reason to join a doomsday cult. The apocalypse can be all too real for many former members coming to terms with their wasted potential. Some may even successfully rationalize and justify the experience by convincing themselves it was a learning experience, and that they've adopted some, but not all, of the principles they'd been taught that are accepted as more universal truths. Recognizing these truths could have been learned without joining a doomsday cult is simply far too overwhelming to consider.

As for myself, the one thing that helped me the most was the fact that being sent out across the country into a sober environment, I was able to stop bangin H and haven't since then. So with that, rehab did help me out, to an extent. Overall, it's the individuals choice to stay sober or not and I don't think it shouldn't be looked so down upon to relapse. It happens. I guess I'm just really bittersweet when it comes to rehab.

Precisely. Rehab is great for getting out of one's immediately destructive environment and it gives proper time for clear headed reflection and action that isn't possible while going through the throes. It's just too bad that their practices end up destroying the benefit of a precious timeout by dis-empowering people to be far less capable in dealing with their issues when they get out.

Anytime you make people think that there is only one option available to succeed, you are vastly limiting the options of most people and therefore greatly reducing their chance of success. When you're told the only option is what they're selling, the conflict of interest should be obvious. In wider society such conflicts of interest are generally understood to be self evidently discrediting.

You get out of it what you put in. There are many valuable lessons that can be learned in rehab, especially when it comes to personal responsibility and relationships. I learned a lot of really good tools to deal with family relationships and life in general. It also taught me to stay honest, especially with myself.

Will appearing and living there keep you sober? No. Will they teach you tools and ways to deal with problems that might make you want to use? Absolutely, if you are receptive, can shut your mouth and listen without getting defensive.

AND, if you're intelligent and mature enough to have an effective bullshit filter that allows you distinguish the harmful propaganda from the effective tools that can benefit your life. This can be a precarious exercise for the uninitiated and wreck a lot of unintended havoc.

Will they teach you tools and ways to deal with problems that might make you want to use? Absolutely

Will that be accompanied by constant exposure to stories of using and people who use that might make you want to use and gratuitously increase your risk to relapse? Without a doubt.

Until we learn more about the mechanisms involved in addiction and develop better treatment options, rehab is the best option we have in most cases.

I disagree. Based on the empirical evidence from studies cited in my previous post, rehab is clearly NOT the best option except in the most extreme cases. Especially those that haven't given a real effort to quitting yet have a far better chance at success trying on their own than checking into treatment.

 

[freddy47]

I was sent to rehab once in High school because I got caught smoking weed. My parents freaked out and since I went to a private Christian school I was forced to go.

I remember going into the office to meet this (almost) morbidly obese lady who ran the place and I thought "This lady is supposed to stop my addiction to pot and she can't even learn to put down her fork?" So that was strike one for me. Strike two came for me when she started in with the bullshit. I said I didn't think that marijuana was addictive. She "corrected" me and said that marijuana is just as addictive as many other drugs. To my complete and utter amazement she listed cocaine as one of them. I had to close my eyes so she wouldn't see me roll them. Third strike came when they told my parents how much it would cost them. At that point I just kept thinking to myself this is a fucking joke and a racket.

Luckily when they gave me a piss test I tested negative and as a result I managed to convince my parents and the school that I did not inhale That was my brush with rehab.

But as far as it being effective or not I don't think so, at least not for everybody. I am a little over 10 months clean from a heroin addiction now and I didn't go to rehab. I drink from time to time but that hasn't led me back to heroin. If I could find pot I would smoke it and still I don't think I would go back to heroin.

I think the no substances at all rule is needed for some people. Because some people truly need to stay completely sober. But IMO it is not a one size fits all type of thing. I've known people who have quit meth and still smoke pot and drink but don't ever wanna go back to doing meth. On the other hand a friend of mine just recently ODed from heroin after being clean for 6 months and what triggered it for him was (supposedly) alcohol. I dunno the specifics of what happened but apparently he was at some party drinking (after not doing anything for that entire 6 month period) and then I guess he felt like one one shot wouldn't be a problem. Next thing you know he was unconscious and in an ambulance on his way to the ER.

 

[laCster]

there are some really fun rehabs out there that actually aren't that bad...

the one i go to helps me stay sober for 90% of the day so i can function and get what needs to be done. it's so fucking weird saying this especially coming from me, but some days i can be sober and be happy at the same time

OMFG LMAO! I completely disagree with what I said, that was only the 2nd rehab I was in and I had just got out of wilderness program.

Help me guys, I'm in a halfway house right now. I have been to a total of 5 inpatient rehabs, and this is my 3rd halfway house . This has all been in the past 3 yrs.

I really hate the place I'm at right now and I'm really unsatisfied with my life at the moment. I feel like I'm in a really limited environment and i feel as if the halfway house is doing more harm than good by putting me around relapse prone people and because I'm fucking depressed there. I just really have no where else to go. What should I do?

 

[dirzted]

I feel like the 12 step programs get the worst rap in this because the contain the most people, and people typically fuck things up.

Yes there are many problems in the "Big Book" of AA, but what's most important about it is that it contains pretty ingenious Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques that should be looked into more, instead of just dismissing the entire thing as a "religious cult" or something.

The reason for this view is justified because many people in AA tout it (stupidly) as like the ONLY or/and BEST way to get sober, which is very untrue. However, if the 12-steps are done in a more reasonable manner, for instance not forcibly imposed or promoted as propaganda, than they are a perfectly legitimate way of getting sober since they use Evidence Based Treatment practices (CBT for example) and have definitely helped a lot of people get sober.

However, obviously, lots of people either are taught or misinterpret the whole "higher power" thing wrong. And for an addict, in lots of instances it my just be better for them to simply switch to a different form of treatment, but, again, instead of dismissing it as a "religious cult," you could think about it more and begin to see it as something entirely different from religion and have the whole concept really work in your life, for example I am a "militant atheist" as they say, yet (after a lot of thought into it) i have been able to realize that i can still be an atheist and work that step (although if someone is presenting it in a cult kind of manner than it is completely justified to leave AA, i just feel that there's no way this happens at EVERY AA meeting).

So anyway I feel like there's problems on both sides of the spectrum but what's most important is to NEVER tout ANY treatment as the ONLY way to get sober, and instead treat it as a medication, if a medicine has shown to work for others, but than it doesn't work for you, you simply try another medicine, and the doctor giving you the medicine isn't going to just THROW AWAY the medicine because it didn't work for you. Know what I'm sayin'?

 

[ohshea]

OMFG LMAO! I completely disagree with what I said, that was only the 2nd rehab I was in and I had just got out of wilderness program.

Help me guys, I'm in a halfway house right now. I have been to a total of 5 inpatient rehabs, and this is my 3rd halfway house . This has all been in the past 3 yrs.

I really hate the place I'm at right now and I'm really unsatisfied with my life at the moment. I feel like I'm in a really limited environment and i feel as if the halfway house is doing more harm than good by putting me around relapse prone people and because I'm fucking depressed there. I just really have no where else to go. What should I do?

Wow laC that seems rough, how old are you why you gotta be in so many rehabs?

Ot- I agree with what tommyboy said up there, rehab interferes with the natural process of things. For me, I just got exhausted with the lifestyle and decided it was time for a change. Waking up in the morning and spending over an hour just to hit a vein was not how I liked waking up anymore. It was pitiful. So I slowly started weaning myself off, from 5 down to 3 and then one shot in the morning then one in the pm. Then I got on methadone and was down to only one shot in the night, and now im on weekly takehomes of methadone and only shoot once in the night when the mood is right.

At one point in 2009 my mother wanted to send me to rehab and Im happy she didnt because it wouldve been a waste of energy, money and hope. I needed to get all that I did out of my system and realize on my own that that lifestyle is not one I wanted to live forever. Yeah, I learned the hard way but at least there is no doubt in my mind that I know I dont want to go back to the life of a junkie.