Are you wishing someone that you love would address their addiction and go into addiction treatment? If so, here are some key pointers that will determine whether or not the treatment is likely to be successful (and if you yourself are looking for addiction treatment, ask yourself these simple questions to see if you are ready).
Did they want to go or did someone else persuade them go to addiction rehab?
Addiction eventually takes people to a level where they finally have to ask for help and are desperate to change things. Alternatively people who love and care about the addict force them, by an intervention or whatever means, to go into residential addiction treatment in an addictions rehab unit or detox clinic. There is an immediate difference here as those forced or cajoled into treatment find the experience far more challenging than those who realise that they need help and who are willing to get it. So, a person’s mindset is very important because, if they truly do not want to be in treatment, they will find excuses why it is not for them and try and convince family and friends they are able to change on their own. They will mentally fight against the process and will want to leave early.
Will they see it through once they feel physically better / are detoxed?
Just being admitted into a residential addictions unit and having a prescribed medicated detox from alcohol or heroin or other drug is not the simple answer to getting well but after a few days most people will be feeling physically much better. Usually the medication will have taken away most of the feelings of withdrawal and some people will start to believe that they are now all right to go home. They will think that they know what to do on a daily basis to not let alcohol or drugs affect their lives again. Young people in particular will feel that they can control their drinking and using and, now that they are physically and mentally feeling better, that they can use willpower to drink or use normally. Even if they say they understand that they have to remain abstinent, they will think they do not need a full rehab experience to stay well. In fact, they have a very serious medical condition or disorder that is not now going to be controlled by their willpower.
Did they have preconceived ideas about the 12 Step Programme, that it is not for them?
95% of all residential addiction rehabs are based around the philosophy of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This has subsequently been adopted by other support groups due to its success. It is also the basis of many of the treatment programmes provided in addiction rehabs – because it offers the best chance of long term abstinence and recovery – and even happiness and fulfilment. Rehabs offer structured daily therapy based around the 12 Step Programme. This enables people to change their thinking and behaviour in a way that that they can get well and stay well when they are discharged from treatment. Many people will have already made personal assumptions and have deep routed unfounded preconceptions around the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step programme. It is a challenge to get those people to have more of an open mind and give the programme a chance. Likewise, many people will have tried support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous, before they come into treatment and the usual remark is “they don’t work for me.” This may be because their addiction has not got painful enough for them to be open to the help offered. The individual needs to have a medicated detox and gain an understanding of these groups and how they can help. This will be achieved in residential addiction treatment.
Are they open to getting honest, being challenged and seeing the truth?
Addictions therapists within a residential addiction rehab unit or detox clinic are generally all in personal recovery from their own addiction and they will facilitate the daily group or one to one therapy. Group therapy can take many forms. In rehab, the residents will be asked to complete written work describing their own experiences and relating them to the 12 Step Programme. This should lead to an honest change within them, as seen and recognised by the therapists. It can also involve their thoughts and behaviour being challenged by the therapists who, from their own experience, will be able to detect those individuals who are honest and genuinely changing, and those who are not – even if they think that they are. Having their attitude and understanding questioned by a therapist and sometimes being asked to rewrite their written work is possibly the biggest mental challenge that individuals may have to face in treatment.
Are they willing to follow the simple instructions of the 12 Step Programme as a life long commitment?
Having changed their thinking and behaviour while in treatment, the key to staying well and free from their old addictive behaviour is to maintain that change. The 12 Step programme has often been described as a simple programme for complicated people. The challenge is to accept it as it is, to stick to it and the simple instructions it provides and not to try and alter it. It is particularly important to continue to attend fellowship meetings, to have a sponsor and to carry out the simple daily instructions provided by the programme.