Addiction Treatment Close to Home – Do’s and Don’ts

The very first question I get asked when someone calls me for help is, “Do you have a treatment program close to my home?” Sometimes the parent or wife of the addict is asking this question and sometimes it is the drug addict him/herself.

I completely understand the question. It is one that makes total sense from the perspective of the person asking. The drug addict feels secure in the area and wants to stay close to familiar things; the parents or wife want easy access so they can come and visit to keep their loved one from feeling lonely or abandoned. But from a rehab point of view, the perspective is very different.

The whole concept of rehab includes removing the person from the area where they are doing drugs.

There are many triggers that can cause a person to want to use again. The first six weeks of treatment are the toughest because the person is still struggling with cravings and the emotional effects of the drugs leaving the body. There is a balance that has to be achieved physically and emotionally and that process takes time. Triggers interrupt the process and take the addict back to the beginning – a drug addict on drugs.

As an example, I had a kid arrive in detox just a few weeks ago. The detox was about two hours from his home. He completed the five days in the medical detox center and then he was to go to the rehab program to complete his rehabilitation. After the first five days in the detox, he considered himself “done” and left. Just walked out. Someone he knew picked him up and off he went on a two week binge. His mom had no idea where he was, she was sick with worry and we were on the phone talking almost every day.

The story continues. He shows up two weeks later and says he is ready this time. He goes back to the same detox. He walks out of detox three days later only to get picked up by the police that same day for probation violation. He is now in jail awaiting sentencing.

The point is that he was willing to go to rehab, he was there and ready to get started. But the addiction was so strong and had such a pull on him, he just could not overcome it. Being so close to his drug source was too much of a trigger and made the decision to walk out a lot easier.

If he were in a different state, in a facility that was not in an urban area and without easy access to transportation, the story would have ended up differently – he would have overcome his cravings and he would have continued on to a drug-free life – because he really did want that for himself.

So when you are looking for addiction treatment remember that there may be many reasons you could have for wanting the drug addict close to home but few are actually reasonable. One example would be a legal enforcement by a court that the would prevent a person from going out of state or even a county. But most anything else is just an excuse and a detriment to the person’s progress. As a rule of thumb, treatment needs to be at least a state or two away from the location of drug use.

Will the drug addict feel lonely at first? Maybe. Will the family miss him while he is gone? Possibly. Will the drug addict be drug-free and on his way to a happy and productive life? Definitely!