Need to Find an Alcohol Detox/Recovery Center

[Kitiger]

I need to find a treatment center that my friend will accept. She would be willing to pay for an upscale center - one that would not "have a bunch of people who are there as an option, instead of jail". (Is there such a thing?) She has been to one of those, and refuses to go back to where "junkies try to set her up with drugs on the outside".

This is outside my experience; my husband & I are teetotalers. I can google for treatment centers, but I don't know how to ascertain which centers have which type of clients.

She said she had heard of one that allowed personal computers, so she could keep up at work. Is that possible?

[aflahe00]

Assuming your friend is a nurse ? Even if Shen isn't, I would recommend she look into parkdale center located in Chesterton Indiana. It's an inpatient treatment center designed for professionals. People with careers; jobs; have a degree/are educated.

[Kitiger, RN]

Assuming your friend is a nurse ? Even if Shen isn't, I would recommend she look into parkdale center located in Chesterton Indiana. It's an inpatient treatment center designed for professionals. People with careers; jobs; have a degree/are educated.

Friend is a professional, but not a nurse.

It seems to me that - as long as the person understood that she was an alcoholic, and that her own choices had brought her to this addiction - a rehab undertaken with peers might be the better way. My friend found it a little too easy to look down on the people who were sent by a judge to rehab instead of jail.

Am I looking at this in the wrong way?

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

Whatever works for your friend is great. Personally I think rehab is like a 3-4 week bubble. You can live in a very nice bubble or a horrible dingy hellhole. The thing they both have in common is that after a very short time the bubble bursts and the addict or alcoholic is sent right back to where they came from. They are faced with the same choices and if they choose to rationalize their behaviors and think that somehow they are more educated, smarter and just plain better than any other substance abuser in the world they will soon rationalize their preexisting behavior. If we accept that substance abuse is a disease does the treatment vary based on education or background? The bottom line is that with or without the bubble the person is in charge of their own life once they leave treatment and without a personal commitment to change all the 12 step platitudes and rehab BS won't help.

[3ringnursing, BSN]

I realize this is an old thread ... But my husband was dragged - kicking and screaming, and needless to say very unwilling - to a rehab facility at 16 y.o., and there he stayed for 6 wks (1982). He he 52 and has stayed clean and sober ever since. It was life changing for him.

[rn1965, ADN]

I have had two stays in a rehab. The first, 30k for 28 days in 2001. Country club setting, pro chefs, yoga, massages, pool, etc. Was drunk 10 days after I left. 2nd in in 2005. 90 days mandatory. Trashy place in a bad part of town. Dealers living right across the street. We had to cook our own meals, clean, paint the place, rake leaves, mandatory daily group counseling and 2 times per week one on one counseling. It was free. By this time, I had no job, no money, no self worth.

Have not had a drink or drug since then.

Point is, your friend has to want it and be willing to get it. Almost 13 years later, I still attend AA weekly.

I obviously wasn't ready the first time. I was so scared of the 2nd place because I thought I was better than those avoiding jail and people I always looked down on. But, I was wrong. In every rehab, including the upscale ones, are people just doing it to avoid jail, divorce, or whatever.

I am lucky that AA has worked for me. I hope your friend finds her peace and sobriety.

Happy New Year.

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

RN1965:

BRAVO!!!!

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

Having done time quite unwillingly and rather inappropriatly in one of the dingy gross hellholes that masquerade as "rehabs" my statements come more from observance than anything. This particular hellhole marketed themselves as different somehow because of thier "professionals program." In not so many words that means they sought out the doctors, nurse, lawyers etc because they had money and probably a whole lot more to lose than your average guy. They also had a steady stream of business courtesy of the state's "alternative to discipline" programs for docs, nurses, lawyers, Indian chiefs etc.

Between my observance there and what I've learned over the years, there's nothing different between docs, nurses, etc and the random dude on the street, except for the amount of $$$$ that might be there for them to be separated from. If you are not ready to be clean or stop drinking or what have you, no rehab, no matter how cushy or how trashy is going to do it for you.

I long ago concluded (among other things) that that trash pit I got bamboozled into was/is doing a disservice to the impaired professional by claiming that they somehow need some kind of different treatment then any other person.

Personally I happen to think that most rehabs are just a daily carpool to AA meetings, but that's an opinion and I could be wrong. Either way, no rehab or 3rd party is going to be able to beat recovery into your friend.