You or your loved one has finally agreed to get help for his or her drug addiction. Congratulations! This is the first step on a journey that is well worth the ride because, in the end, the person who has been controlled for so long by a substance abuse problem is going to be able to surface, and you will recognize him or her as an “old friend.”
Whether he agreed on his own or you had a professional counselor come in to do an intervention, your next decision will deal with the drug rehab center. How far away should the drug rehab be? This is a very good question as it can have two opposite answers that will positively affect you or the loved one in question who has the addiction.
It would be positive to have it close by so that family could visit. This would be wonderful for the morale and support of the patient and help improve relationships during family counseling. Making appointments and getting there on visitation days could be easier if drug rehab is closer to home. A nearby drug rehab center would sound perfect for the comfort and convenience of having family close by.
Maybe not. Okay, yes, you want to see your family. Yes, you want to ensure your loved one is doing well in drug rehab. However, the bottom line is that you want a successful recovery, right? Then it is perhaps best to have the drug rehab in an addiction treatment center that is a bit far from home. Why? There is a very good reason.
A person’s environment contributes to keeping his addiction going. No, the drug rehab center would not be that type of environment. Still, if it is close by and the person seeking help is thinking about how his dealer is just a few blocks away, the temptation could override him on a particularly rough day of withdrawal.
If a person is in a drug rehab program far enough away from home that he does not know the neighborhood, he is not as tempted to walk out the door and get over to his dealer. He can concentrate on the tools he is learning to ward off temptation and beat the addiction because he does not look out the window and think, “If I go down the block, turn right, go two blocks, turn left, then I can see if Jesse has some crack just this once and maybe even get back before anyone knows I’m gone.” No, Jesse will be too far away, so temptation will be out of reach. Besides, once that crack hits your system, you won’t be coming back, at least not that night.
How far away should a drug rehab be? Far enough away to remove the environment that stressed you out and tempted you to begin with. Then your family will have all of you back the way you were before, only with stronger armor to ward off the enemy of addiction.
