subject: The Effectiveness Of Mandatory Drug Rehabilitation [print this page] Given the level of patient involvement required for a successful recovery, it may seem futile to try to force drug addicts into treatment. Unwilling rehab patients may even disengage from their treatment programs and isolate themselves mentally and emotionally, making matters worse for them and their loved ones. However, many drug users are still forced into rehabilitation programs by court order often as a way of avoiding jail time or other legal penalties. Medical professionals and other experts who deal with matters of addiction have varied opinions on such punishments effectiveness at producing long-term recoveries. Overall, a better understanding of forced rehab is crucial for addicts, their families, and society at large to learn effective methods for treating drug addiction.
To people who disagree with forced addiction treatment, an addicts choice to seek help is an irreplaceable first step in any successful recovery. They claim that because these addicts addictions began with their conscious decisions to use drugs, they must make choices to seek therapy and combine it with their personal efforts to get better.
Other people shun this kind of idealistic thinking and claim that it isnt practical to expect most repeat drug offenders to seek addiction therapy. Rather than focus on the matter of choice in successful recoveries, these people argue that a period of four weeks without using drugs is most essential for lasting sobriety. They believe that unwilling patients lack of say in their treatments is a non-issue up until this point and that afterwards, they are likely to willingly and productively engage their therapies, anyway.
Mandatory drug rehabilitation programs have a few components which are different from those which addicts attend by choice. These components are meant to incentivize active participation and mitigate the negative effects of forced attendance on patients long-term recoveries. For instance, an addict who is forced into an outpatient program might have someone monitoring his drug use and other activities outside the rehab clinic. Or, unwilling inpatients might be monitored for active participation with the condition that they could face jail time for not going along with their clinicians orders. Measures such as these are intended to create extra consequences for addicts who dont engage their treatments, as opposed to simply sending them to prison.
Aside from cases of court-order drug rehabilitation, many addicts choices to seek treatment are hardly choices at all. They often face consequences so severe such as crumbling marriages, split families, destroyed careers, and lost friends that checking into inpatients programs is their only real option. According to many addiction specialists, mandatory rehab can be just as effective for convicted drug users as volitional treatment can be for these people.
If you, a friend, or a loved one is struggling with addiction, you need to seek help now. Drug addiction is often fatal, but it doesnt have to be. Follow the links below for a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our addiction specialists. We are standing by day and night to help you embark on the road to recovery.