Anyone looking for a Christian drug rehab program should be aware that the main focus of the rehab or the unit is likely to be on the term Christian rather than a specific drug addiction treatment program.
Rehabs that refer to themselves as Christian rehabs are in the main a different type of treatment center or rehab to what could commonly be referred to as a mainstream rehab. This is because the focus of a Christian rehab, including Christian drug rehabs, offer a different approach to dealing with drug addiction and alcoholism and other types of addiction.
Christian drug rehabs are very often part of a much wider church community, of a Christian variety that could easily be referred to as that of born-again Christians. This type of Christianity is very fundamentalist. That is not a judgement, but simply pointing out that anyone entering a so-called Christian drug rehab program should be aware that the rehab is likely to be linked to an part of a much wider and bigger church community.
The programs offered by Christian drug rehabs are invariably Bible based, sometimes referred to as faith-based programs. In practice this means that the daily regimen for people who are in such a rehab is likely to be intense sessions of Bible study, worship services, personal prayer and meditation, focused exclusively on Christianity.
It is also very unlikely that a Christian drug rehab will embrace or promote commonly accepted forms of treatment such as those pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
Christian Drug Rehab Programs – 12-Step Programs
The traditional model used in drug and alcohol rehab programs is that of an adaptation of the 12 step process used in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Whilst rehabs tend to adapt the principles involved in this 12 step model and promote them as their own addiction treatment programs a Christian drug rehab is unlikely to do this.
Quite often such a rehab will see 12-step programs as effectively a dilution of what they perceived to be a pure faith-based approach to addiction.
A Christian drug rehab programme is likely to appeal to someone who considers themselves to be a Christian in the context of how a born-again Christian would define themselves.
Such Christian drug rehab programs may or may not be effective depending on the rehab and their level of clinical staffing. In any event it is crucial important that a Christian drug rehab is able to offer a medical detox and be able to supervise such a detox safely from a clinical point of view if it is required by the individual.