Advertisements show drug abuse treatment centers that are usually one of two extreme types; one looks like some kind of prison. Prison bed. Prison uniforms. Prison bars. Prison staff. The other type looks like a cross between a college campus and a sixties group encounter vacation with focus groups held on emerald green lawns by beautiful people in rainbow punctuated artsy-craftsy cotton.
Drug Abuse Treatment Centers vary widely
Neither is remotely close to the truth. Prisons would be too harsh an environment for complete healing, and encounter groups would be too self indulgent. Frankly, a drug abuse treatment center isn’t some advertisement cooked up by Quentin Tarantino in a multi-media boardroom; it’s a very real hospital facility engaged in the serious business of trying to save the lives of desperate people on the fast track to self destruction. The best facilities use a holistic approach of spiritualism, community support, behavior modification and medical detox treatment.
Medical treatment takes care of any biological imbalances, but it doesn’t teach you not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That kind of education comes from supports like behavior modification training which enforces healthy choices. If you weaken, spiritualism is all quite good to keep you on track; but sometime if the spirit is weak, community support can boost you back on track. One of the reasons a combination of approaches like this works so well is due to the effect of the overlapping styles– what one style of healing misses, another catches. Most drug abuse treatment centers use a variation of combinations of treatment to get the best possible results for their patients.
