Detox rehab programs vary greatly. They vary in method, quality of service, price and many other ways.
An important way they vary is in length of treatment. Some programs are 28 day programs. Some centers are detox only centers that last from 3 to 10 days and there are some programs that require the addict to stay for no less than one year.
If all addictions were exactly the same, this might make some sense. If every addict could learn at the same pace and all drugs could be eradicated from the body in the same amount of time, putting a time limit on drug detox treatment might be workable.
But there is no set time; you cannot say how long it will take any individual to finish drug rehab.
Some addicts will be ready to face life again in three months; some require twice that long. Others will need the support of a drug-free environment for as much as a year before they can go it on their own without relapsing to drugs.
There are also differences in specific drugs of abuse. The degree of addiction possible with heroin requires much more than a 28 day stay in treatment. Marijuana usually is less. Heavy alcohol and some prescribed drugs take whatever they take.
If a treatment center promises to deal effectively with drug addiction on a set schedule, it probably means that when the scheduled finish date arrives, you are out on your ear, ready or not. Or, get out your checkbook, sign up for another stay.
To be done right, treatment takes as long as it takes. Whether that is a short or long stay depends on the individual, not on a schedule laid out in a board room. There should be no difference in price, and the recovery can progress at its own pace.
When the addict and the councilors feel the program is complete and all requirements are finished, at the addict’s own pace, then it is time for graduations and goodbyes.
To do otherwise is to either short-change the individual or, sometimes even worse, to continue to force treatment on someone who is ready to go out and face life again, this time without drugs.
Tags: councilors, drug addiction, drug detox, drug rehab, drugs of abuse, goodbyes, long stay, own pace, prescribed drugs, rehab programs