Alcohol Rehab Myths

Don’t waste time waiting for willingness

Waiting until you are “ready” could be wasting valuable time.  

It is quite often believed that an alcoholic must be entirely willing and self-motivated for treatment to work. This is untrue.

The reality is that most people enter alcohol rehab under some form of external pressure. Often patients in alcohol rehab have been pushed by family members or forced via intervention or court order.

This type of pressure can actually help ensure a positive treatment outcome. So the old myth that they have to ‘want it for themselves’ is entirely untrue.

How long is long enough?

Most alcohol rehab programs will begin with an intensive primary care period, including the all important detoxification – as detoxing alone, without medical supervision can be dangerous – thereafter this can be followed up by a secondary care and aftercare or tertiary care program.

The length of treatment, for severe dependencies, should ideally be around 90 days. This is not to say that patients who suffer from less severe dependencies or who cannot afford this length of treatment would not benefit from a shorter treatment program.

There is a direct link between the length of alcohol rehab and better outcomes for those with severe addictions.

Call us in confidence UK: 0800 955 4357 – South Africa: 081 444 7000.

Relapse is not failure

Overcoming alcoholism is more often that not achieved after repeated attempts, it should not be assumed that if a person suffers a relapse after treatment that the treatment was unsuccessful or somehow ineffective.

Addiction is an illness and like any other illness relapse is a possibility, this, however, does not mean that time spent in alcohol rehab was wasted as any time spent in treatment will contribute towards achieving long term recovery from alcoholism.  

In fact, addiction treatment is about as effective as treatment of other disorders like diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma and is absolutley cost effective!