Question by Jenny D AKA Rottweiler Azz ?: Drug Rehab Information?
I’m doing research for a story I’m writing; I’m just getting to the part where my two main characters end up in rehab together, but I want to present it accurately. Any insight would be helpful as far as average length of stay, how group works, how ppl are housed, etc. Anything u can tell me would be helpful. Thanks!

Best answer:

Answer by Schtupa
With the wide variety of treatment modalities it is difficult to tell you what is “average.” So here goes nothing.

Sandra Bullock was in a movie about drug rehab and the title of the film was, “28 days.” I suggest watching the movie, perhaps several times. Watch it with an addict that you know who has been through treatment, or at least is in recovery. When that addict laughs at the movie you may presume that he/she just saw something true, and perhaps painful or at least a bit embarrasing.

While the 4 weeks is a target for most of the inpatient treatment centers, it is by no means written in stone.

Some treatment centers work exclusively with “re-treads,” or chronic users who never seem to get much clean time accumulated in any one stretch. These places tend to think in terms of 3 – 6 months inpatient, with outpatient and follow-up to last for up to a couple of years total.

The topics for lectures/films/speakers are generally scheduled on a 28 day cycle.

The treatment regime normally has several factors. This was a typical day when I was a patient of one of these facitlities.

6:00 – 7:00 medical personel record vitals for each patient. Pulse, blood pressure, respiration. (This occurs every 2 – 4 hours until the patient is deemed to have gone through withdrawal, and then daily monitoring thereafter for the remaining course of treatment.)

7:30 – 8:30 breakfast.

9:00 – 10:30 morning group therapy session.

10:30 – 11:30 morning lecture or film.

12:00 – 13:00 lunch

14:00 – 15:30 afternoon group therapy session.

16:00 – 17:00 relaxation therapy, physical therapy, excercise, meditation, yoga, whatever.

17:00 – 18:00 dinner

18:00 – 19:00 evening lecture/film/speaker.
(I am differentiating between lectures, which are delivered by staff or counselors of the facility, and speakers who are normally recovering people who are not paid by the treatment center. Speakers are normally recovering persons who return to share their experience, strength, and hope. Frequently they are alumnus of the treatment center, but that is not a requirement.)

19:00 – 21:00 meeting or freetime.
Attendance at AA or NA meetings is required at least once a week while inpatient. More frequent attendance is strongly suggested. The meetings are generally only 1 hour long, but some start @ 7 PM, and others start @ 8 PM.

Housing depends entirely upon the facility. I was in primarily a hospital setting, and so I slept in what was essentially a hospital room, but without the expensive bed. Furniture reminiscent of hospital room / motel. Dresser, night stand, closet, private bath.

Some treatment centers are reclaimed apartment buildings in bombed-out, drug infested urban areas, and some are more like country club/retreats in rural settings.

While I will not suggest one treatment center over another, it may be easier to research those in the midwest. Oddly enough treatment centers seem to have been started there first, and then spread out to the coasts. (This is in direct opposition to the spread of drugs, which is from the coasts in to the center. The same is true for almost any cultural innovation-new ideas hit the coast first and then penetrate toward the “heartland.”)

One of the other reasons for researching treatment centers in the upper midwest-besides the fact that they have been around the longest-is that certain nationalities are more prone to alcoholism. While it may seem stereotypical it is none the less true that Scandanavian and Irish ancestors seem to provide a genetic pre-disposition to problem drinking. And Native American peoples did not learn how to brew or distill spirits, so they seem also particularly vulnerable to the disease of chemical dependancy.

Group functions pretty much as any other therapy group, but it might be a little more confrontational than average. Addicts need to hear the truth more often, and they need it to be sugar-coated less, if they are to recover. Other addicts in the group are less likely to believe the excuses and the rationalizations that “normal” or non-addicted people might buy. (And, believe me, there is nothing like a group of addicts to rip the sh*t out of an excuse. lol)

As a final note: Most treatment centers will separate couples who are either related, or in a relationship. The husband/wife or bf/gf will be placed in different groups with different counselors. There may be some additional counseling as a couple, but the primary treatment will be alone. (Sick people will “feed” off of each other, and perpetuate the disease and prevent the recovery. Frequently people who used together are bound in some sick relationship that will allow one person or the other to blame each other, rather than look at one’s own behavior and accept responsibility for what they did while actively practicing their addiction.) So you may want to have the primary characters of your book meet each other in treatment. (This leads to “treatment romances,” that almost invariably fail. Sometimes the loss of that relationship triggers a relapse into active addiction, so these romances are strongly discouraged.)

Good luck with the book.

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