How Much Does Rehab Suck?
Let’s face it – rehab is not a pleasant experience. You have just had either an intervention (in which you have to go through the humiliating experience of every person that’s important to you basically telling you to shape up or ship out), and then you get to this place. It may be a really comfortable place, but there’s still the discomfort of the unfamiliarity with it all. You’ve gotten used to being in a particular place (or being no place in particular, if you drift a lot), and now you’re a prisoner in everything but name. It’s definitely a different kind of experience, just from the outside.
But then there’s the actual detox process itself. If you’ve gone very long without your drug of choice in the past, you know what to expect. While there are the physical symptoms they talk about in books – tremors, sweating, pain – that stuff can combine with your whole reality getting all twisted up. After all, if you’re been looking at the world through junk colored glasses for half your life, seeing things as they “really” are (because reality is a weird, pliable thing) can be the biggest trip ever. The staff may understand, but it doesn’t seem like it at the time.
It’s true that a lot of people go through all that hurt, and then just get right back into their junkie ways once they hit the street again. And you’re always free to do that, if you really want to. But think about it – they won’t let you out of rehab until they think you’re clean enough and thinking straight enough that you might be able to keep it together out there. Not only do the people you really care about believe that you’re worth saving, the staff at wherever your rehab occurs think you have a shot at making it.
The real question is, do you really want to make it? Rehab sucks for awhile, but it can get a lot better afterward.
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