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What to expect at rehab?

BeatTheSickness said:
@cj, agreed, and I may be wrong but do you feel that it might hinder ones ability to learn how to live without something to use? I guess in that sense they might as well restrict sugar and caffeine as well (FUCK no coffee) next thing you know people are smuggling insta coffee packs in lol. what are your thoughts?
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they restricted coffee at one of the rehabs i went to. they allowed some in the morning that was incredibly weak and then only decaf all day. on a pass i bought tons of starbucks via packs and would add those into my coffee throughout the day.




OP, just stay away form the ladies until the heat dies off. has anything else in regards to that been brought up? theres always highschool drama at rehab, people are bored and over emotional.
How yo holding up otherwise? you like the staff?
 
In syracuse, they did not allow tobacco or caffeine. Also you could only have sugar free candee...(I call it candee instead of candy because it really isn't candy, or better for you without sugar.)
 
I cant believe what im hearing. No smoking, coffee, and sugerless candy. Thats just crazy. At my rehab everything was allowed cause the staff smoked too. We were restricted to the fenced in deck or anywhere outside. First time i went you could smoke in the coffee room where you could hang out. Some non smokers complained cause we did our morning devotionals in there. I guess it took cause 2nd time no smoking. Man, kicking addiction is hardest thing to do so i dont believe they should have no smoking. Restrict it to certain areas and everybody happy. I smoked like a chimney in there man.

My overall experience was great the first time. Wed have 3 hr long lectures and 3 videos, usually outdated silly shit but i liked Father Martin a lot. Some of youbmay know of him. Rest was free time just couldnt lay down in you bed during the day. It retaught me self dicipline by making my bed and doing chores. They would take us for haircuts and there were cigs and soda and candy for sale. Always had fresh iced tea made and as much coffee and you wanted

There was a bigvstream in the back with a big "spiritual rock." Called that bc it overhung the stream and it was the most peaceful place there. We had a tv room and everything. It wasnt coed so no drama about whos fucking who. The girls from their place would come for a speaker meetings Sat nights in our lecture hall. We werent allowed to look at them much less talk to them. I guess rhere were problems back in day. Weekends you could leave with family. All together pretty loose but they took their recovery very seriously. I learned a lot and stayed sober a long time after that.

Second time, totally different. New director and she was never there. No dicipline and staff didnnt give a shit. We went into town for local group speaker meeting every week and one of our staff spoke. Young dude. Sober a year. He got up there and talked about bath salths the whole time and mentiond alcohol maybe once. Thats not an AA talk. The thing that got to me the most was out of 20 guys 17 were in there for court. Look man, everybody had the right to recover but i really thinkbthey should have seperate facilities for court appointed dudes. Couple of them wanted it but most just farted on eachother and constant war stories. I had my friend who had been there before like me and he was my savior. We both ended up leaving early bc of the bullshit butbif i had to go back to rehab, i would go there. I couldnt focus on recovery if i had chicks in there. Its in the mountains and its beautifui. So it all depend on where ya go. I wouldnt mind working there if i werent moving out west to my daughter. I think i got lucky cause ive heard some horror stories in AA about their experiences. Anyway, hope yall are well. Take care
 
Withlove, they called several people into some of the offices to question us about it but nothing much after that aside from a comment here or there. Some other stupid high school drama involving other people though. I would've thought that being a group of adults, this kind of drama would have been left at the playground.

Everything else is great. Staff is pretty friendly and a few of them were addicts themselves. All the coffee you can drink, all the food and candy you'd ever want available whenever. Pretty much all day is filled with group therapy but we get some time to do fun activities. Like this Friday we went laser tagging, we go to the YMCA on Monday's. Yoga, art therapy, etc. Just hoping I get all that I can out of it. I feel like I still have a small reservation that I can't seem to shake. This Wednesday marks my halfway point through rehab and today marks 2 weeks sober so I'm hoping that light will click on soon because who knows, if I go out again I don't know if I'll be able to come back.

This is one hell of a disease lol.
 
Yes it is Arrested Develpment!!! I went thru same thing half way thru. Lots of doubt and drunk dreams. The worst was when i was ready to go my last day and i was really nervous. I did fine but still. Anyway, vicious disease!!!
 
I don't smoke but I can't imagine not letting people smoke in rehab. I drank coffee all day and night because the detox meds kept me so tired.
We were mostly only allowed hard candy like jolly ranchers and such, at least as far as having family send packages. I guess because you can't inject anything into hard candy. We could also send out for it weekly when the staff would go out and pick up things you needed like toothpaste, etc including cigarettes. They encouraged the hard candy because most alcoholics crave the sugar they used to get from alcohol.
We had "snack bags" they passed out twice a week but they were mostly chips and granola bars and Oreos if you got lucky. Not much chocolate around except if their was a dessert with dinner.
 
I'm new here, but I have been in methadone maintenance for 14 years now, but where I attend they understand it takes time get your normal life back! It took me @10 years to get stable in life, dosage, support, etc. They do however strive to give positive enforcing ideas(Not Rules) to help you quit smoking! I have more respect for their system; a support system, rather than a system that holds possibility of being punished and possibly causing problems if not stress alone in our struggle! I have managed to cut my smoking from 1-1/2+ packs a day to now 5-7 cigs a day! Someone where I attend said" If you cut your smoking down to 1/3 you gain yourself 2/3 of lost life longevity! Now, go gain the rest!" Support don't punish! Better the Carrot than the stick!
 
I agree with toothpastedog. Great post sqeeq. And great job on the smoking!!! Toughest thing to kick but you know people underestimate how hard it is cause it doesnt have god awful withdrawl like opiates (although close) Thats a big decrease. I quit last year for surgery and had like 7 months and got frusrated with my vape and smoked. Now due to stress in my life im at about pack and half. I dont need to be smoking due to medical issues. You provide inspiration. Thanks!!!
 
Yeah, that is such a wise tidbit right there :) I'm so grateful I can see it as such <3

...and closeau, please call me tpd/TPD my friend ;) too may letters make the fingers all crampy like, ya know? 8)
 
That would be a really cool added program for rehabs, trying to help people quit smoking, voluntarily of course.
But then again rehab clinics have so much going on as it is.
Although a really good program should be addressing addictive habits in general which could range from anything from smoking to sex or shopping.
 
Yeah, well given the current state of them, IMHO they could always be doing more. If they're not hurting they're helping. The good ones today will have found some middle way, but those are few and far between. So yeah, hurting, helping or something in between. I'd rather it be helping > hurting ;)
 
From my own experience, the best advice I could give to anyone going to rehab for the first time is this:

If you really want to recover than give it your all, stay open minded and use every little bit of help and support that you think will help your recovery, but just ignore the bits that you don't think will help you.

Stay very honest and be prepared for some difficult experiences, it is not an easy ride and at times might prove painful.

But just remember, when the surgeon is cutting out a cancer from a patient, it is a very painful experience but also a life-saving one. A bit of pain might be helpful in rehab, don't just reject it because it feels bad, it could be the doorway to healing.

If you think the program there is not helping you then leave and find another one that you think will work better. Hardly anyone gets it right the first time and leaves fully recovered, totally sober for the rest of their lives, so don't let that stop you from continuing to try.

Never give up on your recovery and you WILL succeed.
 
Mazzy in Europe said:
But just remember, when the surgeon is cutting out a cancer from a patient, it is a very painful experience but also a life-saving one. A bit of pain might be helpful in rehab, don't just reject it because it feels bad, it could be the doorway to healing.
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Nothing in life is free, but I have to emphatically disagree with this. Treatment for addiction is not like surgery, and frankly surgery should be as pain free as possible - I've had a number of surgeries and they were much, much less painful than any of the handful of experiences I had in inpatient treatment were. Pain, whether physical or emotional, should not be the outcome or even really characterize addiction treatment, only bad addiction treatment. Sadly most rehabs employ little true addiction medicine, and those that do employ very bad medicine for the most part.
 
toothpastedog said:
Nothing in life is free, but I have to emphatically disagree with this. Treatment for addiction is not like surgery, and frankly surgery should be as pain free as possible - I've had a number of surgeries and they were much, much less painful than any of the handful of experiences I had in inpatient treatment were. Pain, whether physical or emotional, should not be the outcome or even really characterize addiction treatment, only bad addiction treatment. Sadly most rehabs employ little true addiction medicine, and those that do employ very bad medicine for the most part.
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good post
 
toothpastedog said:
Nothing in life is free, but I have to emphatically disagree with this. Treatment for addiction is not like surgery, and frankly surgery should be as pain free as possible - I've had a number of surgeries and they were much, much less painful than any of the handful of experiences I had in inpatient treatment were. Pain, whether physical or emotional, should not be the outcome or even really characterize addiction treatment, only bad addiction treatment. Sadly most rehabs employ little true addiction medicine, and those that do employ very bad medicine for the most part.
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Perhaps I made a poor choice with a clumsy metaphor, for which I truly apologise.

If I may clarify:

All I am really trying to convey is that parts of rehab can sometimes involve facing uncomfortable personal issues or previous difficult life experiences and that this might sometimes be necessary for healing and recovery. Of course such things should be handled with the utmost delicacy by the professionals who are there to help you.

Nobody should mistreat you in rehab, compassionately is how addicts should be handled, and I would never want to unwittingly give the impression that it is ever OK for rehab staff to cause pain to those in their care. It is absolutely not OK!

I would never want to say anything that might discourage anyone from seeking help.

I do hope I have made myself clearer, I left my words too open to misinterpretation and again, I apologise for any offence.
 
Yup, I figured that is what you meant Mazzy. Thanks for clarifying though, because you really hit on the heart of my reply. What makes a good treatment center is compassion. Without the people who work there being both professional and compassionate, you have a recipe for disaster.
 
Good posts guys. I was astonished at the change in my treatment center from 2006 to 2014. Change is inevitable and cause i had already been there and worked the steps with a sponser 3 times between visits, i worked very hard on remaining teachable. I really needed help one day and my counceler was out. They all were which never would have happened before so i went to one of the staff and everybody who worked there is in recovery so i told him i needed to talk and he totally blew me off like i was a pain in his ass. Thats when i inew coming there was a mistake so called my ride to leave and we got slammed with a blizzard. Good thing i had my buddy in there who knew cause he was there in 2006 too.

My point is there is emotional pain in treatment. Doesnt matter if its your first of 5th time. I know every good sponser i had made sure the process of self examination wasnt too bad then i had some bad sponsers who wanted it to be painful. I think a little pain is good in recovery. It gives you something to look back on and say, i dont wanna go thru that shit again. My buddy whos a recovering heroin addict admits the thing that motivates him the most to stay clean is to never be dopesick again. Mine is my surgery which didnt feel a thing till next day when the pain was enourmous and the drs never said alcohol caused my diverticulitis but i think it did. So pain is a reminder so i never go back. I agree with both yalls posts and not sure if i have a point but i agree good treatment for addiction should not be a painful experience. It should be motivating and should find positives in the addicts life cause most who hit bottom like me are bankrupt of all positivity. I just really wish the medical field would catch up with the times and find meds and skilled councelers to help addiction of every seperate drug cause they all require different stuff. Yet we still have 12 step programs from 1939. A testament to how good it works is its still around but i often wonder how many alcoholics and addicts stay in active addiction and perhaps die cause they dont want group therapy. Idk. Treatment centers need to change in my oppinion and become a little more modern. All i know is i aint going back ever, lol. Exuse my pointless rambling
 
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