Rehab is just soooo fashionable!

A few years ago I watched an interview with musician (and genius, in my esteem) Lou Reed in which he frankly spoke of his battle with drugs, notably heroin, many years earlier.

Reed has been clean and sober for many years, by the way, and he said that he has devoted some of his time to speaking with young people in colleges and schools about the scourge of drugs and how they messed up his life. A young guy came up to him after one session and said: “Oh sure, you had your fun, and now you’re telling us not to do what you did. That’s hardly fair.” Reed attempted to point out how he was one of the lucky ones as a survivor, and he cited the members of his trade, like Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison, who hadn’t been so fortunate. He conceded his admonitions fell on deaf ears.

And, it’s those deaf ears that’ll kill you, I have found, in my work in the field.

I’ve noticed that it has become ever so trendy for entertainers especially, when they screw up, to immediately book themselves into rehab. Their handlers, of course, immediately issue releases stating that Britney, Mel, Lindsay, or whoever else that might be prominent, and who has done something dumb that might be connected to substance abuse, has gone into rehab. That is so their adoring public can say: “Phew, Britney will be OK, now. She’s gone into rehab. Rehab will cure her.”

My point would be -- having been both an addictions counsellor and rehab administrator – that rehab doesn’t ‘cure’ anybody. Rehab and treatment for addiction are no more effective in thwarting addiction than dancing nude in the town square at high noon.

Not if the rehab resident doesn’t have the attitude in place.

It’s attitude that either brings about change, or defeats it.

We would regularly get clients who would say, in effect: “OK, I’m here. I screwed up. Now cure me.” Such a view of the reality would only mean one thing. And that one thing is, “save your money and go back to your lifestyle, because we can offer no such thing.” Neither can Betty Ford, nor Promises, nor Hazelden, nor any of the big bucks places, and they would be the first to admit it.

The needle, or the bottle, or the crack pipe, and all the damage they bring about can only be put aside if the client possesses the right attitude. The fairly astute A&E series Intervention is honest about this. It pulls no punches in showing which clients don’t make it. I can generally tell the moment the client has agreed to go to rehab, which ones will or will not succeed. And again, it’s all about attitude, determination, humility and preparedness to accept change. Complete change. Utter change. Change not only in lifestyle, but also in friends, in behaviors and in attitude.

Substance is seductive or the client wouldn’t be there in the first place. Substance (it doesn’t matter which one) gives us comfort, love, a sense of well-being. We don’t chuck those things readily. Ask someone who has unsuccessfully tried to quit smoking. People smoke because they really, really like to smoke. It gives them comfort. It makes them happy. And you can throw every health caveat in the world, and every tobacco warning in the world at them, and they will not quit. They will not quit until they and they alone develop the determination to say goodbye to that old friend. An old friend that might also be a full bottle of scotch, a heroin rig, or a crack pipe.

Any good counsellor recognizes that the addict is grieving over the loss of a friend, and that counsellor must encourage the client to learn how to say goodbye to that destructive ‘friend.’

So, I am glad that people are going into rehab. But they should also recognize that rehab is a teeny-weeny first step in a lifelong process. But, there are those who make it. Just ask Eric Clapton or Anthony Hopkins.