There tends to be a belief that anyone who needs a type of treatment for alcoholism or any other type of addiction needs to enter a residential rehab in order to get better and get the help they need to either stop drinking or using the substance that is causing them so much grief.
It is certainly true, that a rehab is quite often seen as the first port of call for anyone who has a problem with alcohol or drugs and needs help or treatment.
However there are many other sources of help available, either through voluntary 12-step organisations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, or through a variety of daycare and even care type treatment programs that are non-residential.
It is important to recognise that a stay in a residential rehab can have some advantages for people, but there are also disadvantages.
The main advantage and disadvantage actually tends to be the same thing, the fact that a residential rehab is in effect a bubble that can take people out of their normal life for a period of time, normally a month or so, whilst their treatment programs begins and moves forward.
Rehab and Treatment
The advantage of a rehab being a bit of a bubble is that it can isolate the individual from the pressures that are external that are part of the life, and give them a space that should be safe, that should allow them and opportunity to begin to process the underlying emotional drives that will have fuelled their drinking and their addiction.
There is no doubt that for many people the idea of a residential rehab can seem an attractive option, although the reality camp I’d often be a different experience in terms of a sense of rigidity and tight time and people management.
The significant disadvantage of a rehab is also the fact that it is a bit of a bubble, potentially.
This means that when the recovery period in a rehab or treatment center has finished, then the individual asked to return to a normal life, and integrate the experience that they have had in a rehab or treatment center back into their normal life.
This can obviously be a challenge, although in reality using meetings and the organisations of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous can effectively bridge that gap back into so-called normal life.