Each day, thousands of people fly miles from their homes to enter a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. The men and women literally give up everything they value to deal with this devastating disease that is currently affecting their lives. Why is that – read more? Why would the parents send their children to Grandma for up to 90 or 60 days, while they travel 3,000 miles for treatment? They would have to take an entire semester off of college in order to do this. They would take medical leave to go on a trip like this.
You may not have experienced addiction in yourself or someone you love, but it is important to understand the severity and extent of addiction. There is no other illness (or whatever you choose to call it) that affects an individual and their family in such a holistic, comprehensive way. This includes physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. There are no other diseases that encompass so many aspects of the life of a sufferer.
To truly resolve the issues that are driving a person’s addiction/alcohol behaviors, it is best to completely separate from current life. To save all the important things in a person’s lives, such as their spouse, children, families, friends, financial status, career, reputation in the community, etc., the individual must literally put these elements on hold during the residential treatment. In the addiction and alcoholism world, there’s an old saying that goes: “You will lose whatever you put before your recovery.” Your recovery has to come first, before anything else. These elements will not keep a real addict/alcoholic clean and sober for the long term.