When someone wants to leave a drug and alcohol rehab program, before they are finished, what can be done? Most times, it is best to keep talking. Work with the person to look forward towards their goals. If they say they have none, ask them to imagine they had goals, what would they be. Ask what are they afraid of? Ask what can they do so they can stay and try one more day?

The difficult part of all of this is when the family is insisting we push harder to keep the person. While everyone understands the dangers of someone who is still actively addicted leaving a rehab program early, most times there is little a rehab can do but talk, talk and talk. We have no power, to force an adult to stay. When someone demands to leave, we have to accomodate them. We cannot withhold phones, or “lock” someone in a room til they come to their senses. Yet many times family and friends ask us to do this. People are free. Unfortunately theat means they are free to make bad choices. No rehab wants anyone to leave before they are ready. No rehab wants people to go back to unsafe drug and alcohol activities. We must however allow people to leave if that is their wish, no matter how upsetting it is to all involved.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 24th, 2006 at 10:47 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.