Drug Rehabilitation

Drug rehabilitation is typically a 30-day program that requires clients to stay in either a home, hospital or rehab setting, attending group and individual therapy throughout the day. The types of drug rehabilitation vary greatly.

• There are free programs and programs that cost over six figures for a month of treatment
• Some programs are less than a week and those that last for over a year.
• Programs that are extremely strict and don’t allow clients to have outside contact, technology, reading material, caffeine, sugar or cigarettes.
• Lastly, programs that allow clients to come and go as they please with all the privileges of home.

Some rehabilitation’s provide regular individual therapy, which can mean meetings with psychiatrists, therapists, counselors or rehab techs. Because of the belief that many addicts suffer from dual diagnosis (i.e., a mental illness such as depression in addition to alcoholism or addiction), many rehabs will have clients meet with psychiatrists who can prescribe SSRIs, mood stabilizers or other medications. Psychiatrists often applied detox to heavily addicted clients. It lasts from a few days to a week. Detox stabilizes the patients through a combination of medication and medical care before the treatment begins.

While the majority of rehabs used to subscribe to the AA philosophy—that treatment depends upon the belief in a Higher Power—this system of belief is considered controversial and an increasing number of rehabs now offer more evidence-based treatment. Another shift in thinking is around treatment time. Until recently, recovery experts believed that 30 days of inpatient treatment was enough to put clients on the road to recovery but a more recent school of thought supports the notion that 90 days is far more effective and that inpatient treatment should be followed by a stay in a sober living home along with outpatient treatment.