Choosing Betty Ford for rehab?
January 31, 2011 5:53 PM Subscribe
Is Betty Ford excellent rehab for anyone?
I have the opportunity to have 30 day residential rehab help at The Betty Ford Center. Is it the place for me? Do you have experience with it? Can you recommend it over other places? What's it like? Would you go there if you could? Is there a lot of help other than AA there? I hear it is heavily AA based. If I go in with a lot of familiarity with AA will my time there will be too much review?
There's a waiting list, so I have to wait a few weeks to be admitted, but I am approved to enter. It's so expensive, but I don't mind the investment in myself and my future... I am trying to decide if it is the place for me.
My life is once again reaching a point of unmanageability. There's alcohol, depression, obsession, a little drugs. It doesn't even matter what "substances" I'm using... I just know I need help.
I wish I could pay someone to just be with me everyday for a month at home, so I'm not alone, and I can have companionship instead and do the recovery work here. I wish I knew how to find/hire someone like that.
I have the opportunity to have 30 day residential rehab help at The Betty Ford Center. Is it the place for me? Do you have experience with it? Can you recommend it over other places? What's it like? Would you go there if you could? Is there a lot of help other than AA there? I hear it is heavily AA based. If I go in with a lot of familiarity with AA will my time there will be too much review?
There's a waiting list, so I have to wait a few weeks to be admitted, but I am approved to enter. It's so expensive, but I don't mind the investment in myself and my future... I am trying to decide if it is the place for me.
My life is once again reaching a point of unmanageability. There's alcohol, depression, obsession, a little drugs. It doesn't even matter what "substances" I'm using... I just know I need help.
I wish I could pay someone to just be with me everyday for a month at home, so I'm not alone, and I can have companionship instead and do the recovery work here. I wish I knew how to find/hire someone like that.
If you're ready to change your life, rehab is rehab is rehab. I'm sure Betty Ford is very good, but so are many other facilities. Most approach recovery in very similar ways.
I have recovering addicts in my life, and according to them one of the main benefits of an inpatient treatment is to simply get a break, to have the opportunity to step back and see what your habits have done to your life. I know it sounds nice to stay at home, but the break from your environment is a really key part of the whole experience. If you have the opportunity and the means and the motivation, go for it! I can't imagine you would regret it.
posted by something something at 6:04 PM on January 31, 2011
I have recovering addicts in my life, and according to them one of the main benefits of an inpatient treatment is to simply get a break, to have the opportunity to step back and see what your habits have done to your life. I know it sounds nice to stay at home, but the break from your environment is a really key part of the whole experience. If you have the opportunity and the means and the motivation, go for it! I can't imagine you would regret it.
posted by something something at 6:04 PM on January 31, 2011
Betty Ford is heavily AA-focused. And I don't trust them ever since they opposed California's Prop. 36, which gave people 3 chances at rehab before jail was an option: if you care about your patients, how do you oppose that? They argued that jail was needed: but how can they claim that when it's not true for their original clients, alcoholics?
If you want an alternative approach and do not like the 12-steps or find them useful—don't go there. There are "recovery coaches" who work with people outpatient, but they, too, tend to be heavily 12-step oriented.
It's not true that rehab is rehab is rehab: it is hard to find alternatives that are not 12-step based, but they do exist, particularly if you have money. here's some non-12-step programs suggested by Tom Horvath, who also runs a non-12-step only program:
St. Gregory and St. Jude (neither hi class, but both definitely non-12 and
non-disease)
Mid to hi price: Alternative Treatment International (Clearwater, FL),
Assisted Recovery (they may have several locations; not sure of luxury
aspect at each one) and Practical Recovery (that's my program, definitely
non-12 and non-disease, and range of prices and accommodations)
Hi price residential: Passages, Malibu, Prominence (fixed lengths of stay,
and some other inflexibilities because residential, each with strengths
and weaknesses).
Email him and tell him I sent you if these are of interest: Tom.Horvath@practicalrecovery.com
Btw, there's nothing magical about inpatient— more expensive doesn't equal better necessarily. It's sometimes nice to get a break— but you are eventually going to have to deal with temptation and if you do outpatient, you're in the comfort of home and get to deal with it right away without an artificial environment that gives you a false sense of security.
Inpt only makes sense if you are really rundown, homeless, long-term addicted, living with active users or have some other reason that home isn't safe or doesn't make sense. The research doesn't find any advantage for it except in the most severe cases.
Also, it's a good idea to get complete psychiatric evaluation from someone not in addictions— addictions people may be clueless about psychiatric issues like depression even if they claim not to be. This varies, of course. But a psychiatric eval from someone who doesn't profit from putting you in rehab can be very useful.
posted by Maias at 6:25 PM on January 31, 2011 [3 favorites]
If you want an alternative approach and do not like the 12-steps or find them useful—don't go there. There are "recovery coaches" who work with people outpatient, but they, too, tend to be heavily 12-step oriented.
It's not true that rehab is rehab is rehab: it is hard to find alternatives that are not 12-step based, but they do exist, particularly if you have money. here's some non-12-step programs suggested by Tom Horvath, who also runs a non-12-step only program:
St. Gregory and St. Jude (neither hi class, but both definitely non-12 and
non-disease)
Mid to hi price: Alternative Treatment International (Clearwater, FL),
Assisted Recovery (they may have several locations; not sure of luxury
aspect at each one) and Practical Recovery (that's my program, definitely
non-12 and non-disease, and range of prices and accommodations)
Hi price residential: Passages, Malibu, Prominence (fixed lengths of stay,
and some other inflexibilities because residential, each with strengths
and weaknesses).
Email him and tell him I sent you if these are of interest: Tom.Horvath@practicalrecovery.com
Btw, there's nothing magical about inpatient— more expensive doesn't equal better necessarily. It's sometimes nice to get a break— but you are eventually going to have to deal with temptation and if you do outpatient, you're in the comfort of home and get to deal with it right away without an artificial environment that gives you a false sense of security.
Inpt only makes sense if you are really rundown, homeless, long-term addicted, living with active users or have some other reason that home isn't safe or doesn't make sense. The research doesn't find any advantage for it except in the most severe cases.
Also, it's a good idea to get complete psychiatric evaluation from someone not in addictions— addictions people may be clueless about psychiatric issues like depression even if they claim not to be. This varies, of course. But a psychiatric eval from someone who doesn't profit from putting you in rehab can be very useful.
posted by Maias at 6:25 PM on January 31, 2011 [3 favorites]
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Nobody you would want to do that would do that. Someone who is professional and appropriately respectful of client boundaries would also want to give their client the best possible environment for recovery, which doesn't include mushing up the boundaries between therapy and companionship. Yes, you can find people who will do that, but the results don't seem to be very good. ::koff:: Brian Wilson! ::koff:: Britney Spears!
(Unless what you mean is "I want to see a therapist on an out-patient basis, but want someone to live in as a caregiver" in which case home health staffing agencies are many in number.)
Please think about The Meadows as another option. They are great for cross-addictions and for addressing underlying depression and anxiety.
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:58 PM on January 31, 2011 [1 favorite]