When reading about different alcohol and drug rehab programs sometimes even for someone who is in the field, it can get confusing. Then sometimes it gets past confusing and just gets to the point where it makes no sense. There is no one way to sobriety in a drug rehab center. There is no one perfect peogram for every person of every age group. Sometimes when reading about a drug rehab program it seems they are trying to be too many things to too many people. There are 12 step rehab programs. There are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) drug and alcohol rehab programs. Both have been around for a reasonable amount of time. Both have demonstrated some varying degree of success in the past.

However I was reading about a drug rehab program that decsribed itself as a core 12 step program that was CBT. When reading about it seems doing both might be a good idea, a cover all bases kind of approach. The foundation of both types are opposite of eachother. In 12 step you admit you are powerless over your addiction and turn it over to a higher power. In CBT distorted patterns of thinking lead to repetitive mistakes in behavior that do not serve the person. One requires admission of being an “addict”. The other goes down the road of you are the cause of your behavior and you are the solution.

So when being presented to clients, in a program that says you can do both, the question arises, are you powerless against your addiction, or are you not? Are you making mistakes in your patterns of thinking, or do you have the “disease” of addiction? You either believe in the disease model or you do not. You either believe addiciton can be cured or you do not. Saying you do both with clients may make great marketing. However at those critical moments when a client needs a core belief to turn to, in order to stay safe and sober, doing both will just confuse someone when they need clarity. Offering clients choices in drug and alcohol rehab is a good thing. Pretending you can be all things to all people is not.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 5th, 2006 at 11:31 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.