The need for rehab – Is it even necessary?
My Mixed Feelings about Rehab and Addiction Treatment
I think rehab can help people break away from addiction, but it is certainly not something that is always necessary. I entered my first addiction treatment program at nineteen years of age, but I didn’t stop drinking until I was in my mid thirties. During my more cynical moments I can wonder if the main thing I gained from these facilities was instruction on how to behave like an addict. That’s not completely fair though – there are professionals working in these rehabs who are doing their best, and they do help people break away from addiction. I just worry that it is way too easy to get caught up in the culture of rehab, and the revolving door syndrome.
In order to completely break away from addiction I needed to not only give up alcohol but also being an alcoholic. I had to become someone who no longer needed rehab or any type of addiction treatment. I managed long stretches of sober living during the two decades between starting and stopping drinking, but I don’t think that I ever stopped being an alcoholic until my very last drink in 2006. I don’t regret anything that has happened to me, but if I’d been able to see the obvious reality of my situation sooner it would have saved me a great deal of suffering (perhaps this is as much practical value as saying, if my aunty was a man she would be my uncle).
Did I Need Rehab to Stop Drinking ?
I will always be grateful to the monks at Thamkrabok temple who helped me break away from alcoholism, but I do not believe that I needed to go there in order to be cured. It was more a case of the student being ready and the teacher appearing. My road to recovery began long before this temple in Thailand. On my first day there the monks told me that they would not be able to get me sober – this had to be something that I did myself. Thamkrabok provided me with some great tools, and the ideal environment for getting sober, but at the end of the day it was my determination that fueled my success. At least half the people who I met there in rehab later relapsed, so I’ve no delusions of it being a magical cure. I will always look back upon my time at Thamkrabok as magical, but it was my determination to change that made the real difference. I no longer believe that I needed rehab to quit drinking, but I’m grateful that it was there for me.
Importance of Rehab
I feel that rehab can be helpful for a number of reasons:
• I think one of the most important things that we do when we agree to go to rehab is that we make a firm commitment to becoming sober (unless of course we are just going there to get people off our case). When I arrived at Thamkrabok temple I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to stop drinking – I would have run naked around Thailand if the monks had asked me to.
• When we are in a residential program we can focus all of our attention on getting better. This is important because there are so many things that can distract us from our intention to quit when we go it alone. In rehab we will also be spared the everyday stresses and demands so there is nothing to distract us from our goal.
• I think the therapeutic environment of rehab can magnify our motivation. We can also get a boost from the other people who are trying to quit with us. One of the things I loved most about rehab was the humor – it made the process of giving up easier.
• We have more to lose by failing in rehab than we do when we fail to quit at home. After all, we have gone to all that trouble to go there and raised the hopes of family and friends.
• The therapists in these rehabs can point out things to us that we have completely missed. I’ll always feel indebted to a counselor that I met during my twenties, while staying in rehab in London, who pointed out that I needed to spend more time thinking about other people – I never would have guessed, and it turned out to be life changing advice.
I’m not so sure about the actual content offered by these rehabs – there can be a great deal of fluff. I think most of the educational elements of these programs is forgotten by people as soon as they check out, and it is only dealing with life while sober that leads to people growing and learning.
The Need for Rehab
The most important factor in ending an addiction is the determination to make it happen. If people are even slightly ambivalent it is likely to cause them to fail. Rehab may be helpful for the reasons listed above, but it is not vital. It is not a good idea to use “waiting for the right time to go to rehab or finding the right rehab” as an excuse to delay ending addiction. If people can stop destroying their life without the help of this type of program, so much the better.
