Finding a Good Rehab Program--Why You Just Can't Get No Satisfaction

With so many drug rehab centers around, it may seem that finding help for an addict is like choosing the right dish at a Chinese restaurant. Maybe a little confusing--there are so many choices to consider. Maybe a little stressful--you don't know quite where to begin. But ultimately easy. No matter what you choose, in the end you'll be satisfied.

Selecting the right drug rehab center though is not the same as choosing from a menu. There are many places to serve you, but few who will serve you well. Most centers fail to satisfy, with fewer than 1 in 7 patients beating their addiction permanently.

With a bad meal, the fault often lies with the ingredients. A chef cannot work his magic if the vegetables are wilted and the meat rotten. Similarly, if a drug rehab center gets poor results, it may be less the fault of the personnel, than the program they use.

Most drug rehab in Georgia is based on the disease model of addiction. The user is ill. This simplistic diagnosis inevitably leads to a uniform handling: treat the user with drugs.

It's counter-intuitive to give drugs to a drug addict to cure him of his drug addiction and is, as well, counterproductive. The poor results speak for themselves.
Yet despite costly programs and lowly results, most drug rehab centers thrive. There are two possible explanations. Unschooled in drug treatment methods and their relative rates of success and desperate for help, people look at what is just the superficial veneer: the glossy marketing posters, the flower filled grounds, the imposing buildings, the doctors and nurses, maybe even the written summary of the program.If a Center looks good on the outside, and good on the inside, it looks good, period.

There's also little competition; most drug rehab centers treat patients with the same unworkable methods and achieve the same mediocre results.

Lost in the maze of choices, swayed by alluring marketing, drawn into pricey centers people in need often miss the successful programs delivered by a very few centers.
In choosing rehab, one must look beyond the superficial and ask the hard question: if I choose your Center, what's the chance my son or daughter will abuse drugs again?

Without a good answer to that question, don't expect any satisfaction.

Fritz Alders