To Drug Rehab or Not Drug Rehab

I happen to have been someone who went to drug rehab before ever going to a 12-step meeting.  I’ll be honest with you – I had this belief that drug rehab would be a substitute for AA. I remember being very disconcerted when one of the first things they handed me in rehab was a Big Book. “Hey! I’m going to rehab so I don’t have to go to AA!”  Fortunately, the survivor in me said, “Drop it. Just go with it and see if it works.”  I feel pretty lucky that I had that response because I really felt like I’d had the wool pulled over my eyes by the therapist who referred me.  I’m sure some people would have walked out the door, and I am happy that in that moment I decided not to do that.

I’m a firm believer in rehab because it really worked for me.  I spent August of 2006 in this very protected, safe environment with fellow travelers who wanted what I wanted: freedom from the compulsion to drink. I have been fortunate in that the day I walked into rehab, August 1 2006, still remains my anniversary of sobriety.   Nowadays it’s a lot harder to get treatment. Even as we learn more about the genetic and biological components of alcoholism, insurance companies lower coverage every year.  I don’t remember having to spend anything out of pocket for treatment. I’m quite sure that isn’t the case today. I suppose if insurance companies are finding ways to drop people with cancer and other diseases, it only follows that they would go for easy targets like drug addiction and alcoholism. There are still a lot of people who mistakenly believe these issues are moral issues, not health issues.  The biggest barrier to treatment is ignorance about the true nature of addiction.  To an active addict, drugs are like food and water – the drive to attain drugs feels like a drive to survive.  Only an addict truly knows the truth of this statment.

So can you get clean and sober without 30 days in this protected environment? Of course. People do it every day.  But I believe it really gives you extra ammunition in the fight. You get some time without temptation and without easy access should something trigger a craving.  Cravings don’t go away for everyone, but for many they do diminish or go away in time, and having those 30 protected days does seem like a good idea if you can do it.

Addiction is a serious, life-threatening disease.  I was reading today about the four prescriptions Corey Haim’s doc wrote him a few days before his death – a prescription of Valium to someone who once admitted he took up to 85 Valium a day.  It’s not clear yet if the drugs killed him or he had an underlying health issue, but certainly if you have an underlying lung or heart problem, taking drugs that suppress your respiratory system are not a terribly good idea.  My point is that we need to take our addiction as serious as a heart attack. People might say, you got yourself into this situation by taking drugs in the first place, but we can say that about a good percentage of heart attack victims: they ate too many bowls of ice cream and sat on the couch a few too many hours.  Treatment should not be based on a subjective moral outrage over past behavior. If someone wants to live, why wouldn’t we want to give them every opportunity to change their life for the better?

Back to the main point…should you go to drug rehab or go straight to 12 step meetings or other support groups?  It’s really a personal decision. You have to weight just how motivated you are, just how risky your home environment is, and how many times you’ve tried and relapsed in the past.  It is a well-known fact that most addicts do have to go for help a number of times before it sticks.   That’s not a moral failing – that’s the disease.  People have multiple heart attacks often before they stabilize, and treatment becomes more aggressive as successive incidents occur.  Why should addiction be treated the same way?