Five Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Drug Rehab

If you suffer from drug or alcohol abuse, taking the step to acknowledge that you have a problem and seeking help for it is a very brave action. Your drug or alcohol abuse treatment journey might entail a tough and long road ahead of you, but you are making steps in the right direction. If you are trying to decide which of the drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers is best for you, we’ve put together a list of things that you should consider before choosing one.

Questions to Ask While Reviewing Drug or Alcohol Addiction Treatment Centers

1. What does the program use to measure successful results?

   Every drug or alcohol addiction treatment centers have different metrics for gauging success, and expects different results from their patients. Some centers consider the percent of patients who successful underwent and graduated from their program as a metric for success. Some drug or alcohol addiction treatment centers consider the number of patients to stay abstinent from their addiction after they leave the center as a success factor. Other metrics, such as life success, gainful employment, and faithfulness to meetings after graduating the program are used to gauge the success of a program.

   You should review your own circumstances with your family (or support network) through this journey and decide what program is will give you the best long-term results.

2. What is the length of the program, and there any long ongoing care provided afterwards?
   
   Most drug or alcohol addiction treatment centers have a 28 day program. Depending on the subject and extent of your dependency, this may not be enough time for you to get the substance out of your system, and gain the emotional and physical skills to maintain sobriety outside of the program. If you feel that 28 days is not going to give you the support you need, look for drug or alcohol treatment centers that offer ongoing support (at whatever extent you need it) after the initial program has concluded.
3. Does the treatment program that you’re considering use a secondary substance to help you recover?
   Some drug treatment rehabs use substances like methadone to replace the dependency that the patient has to a more harmful substances, like heroin or crystal meth. The focus of this type of program is not to reach complete sobriety, but to help the patient transition their dependency to something that hurts them, their bodies, and the people around them less. In some cases, the substance used to help alleviate your drug dependency can create a new source of addiction itself. If you’re long-term hope is to be completely sober, this type of program may not be what you’re looking for.
4. How does the program support physical cravings for the substance abuse after recovery?
   Even after a person who struggles with substance abuse reaches sobriety, they often experience overwhelming cravings for it, which is why relapses are a common part of the recovery journey. Many rehabs offer ongoing support to help the patient cope with and resist the cravings, such as medication, daily support groups, as well as drug counseling. If the drug or alcohol rehab does not have any such method of support to help a recovered addict deal with their cravings, the frequency of relapses is heightened.
5. Does the rehab you are considering claim to have a magical cure?
   There are variety of treatment programs out there, and some of them might seem too good to be true. There are drug rehabs in South America that use a hallucinogenic substance to remove the physical withdrawal symptoms of substance abuse. Hypnotherapy or aversion therapy claim to reverse the inner desire that you have for the drug in less than 10 days. Some programs use other drugs, such as LSD, to remove the substance abusers natural inclination during recovery, but do not address their need to change their mindset and way of life.

   While there may be some benefits to these unconventional treatments that claim an instant results, none of them address the health, emotional state, and mindset of the user, and typically patients only find success while they are actually in the program. Recovering from an addiction is a lifelong journey, a magic pill won’t fix it.