What is Rehab Really Like?

If you are in this “Out of the Woods” stage of recovery it means you have been around for a while: fifteen or 20 or thirty years. That means you probably came into recovery before it was the practice to go to rehab or day treatment to begin your recovery journey. But these days…well, you know.

Or you don’t know. We hear from newcomers that they have just returned from rehab and we hear some of the good things—the wake up calls—that happened to them there. We also have an idea about celebrities –Lindsay, Tiger etc.—going to rehab and maybe we picture intense group therapy followed by oxygen facials. But what exactly happens in rehab? Is it helpful? And what did we miss?

In Anne Fletcher’s new book, “Inside Rehab” you can find out. Her subtitle is “The Surprising Truth about addiction treatment.” And there are some big surprises here. If you always felt a little bad that you missed something especially helpful because you didn’t go to rehab, you didn’t.

Anne is a health and medical writer, a superb researcher and the author of “Sober for Good.” In this new book she documents exactly what does and does not happen in rehab and who is delivering the services. She visited fifteen rehabs, did pre and post evaluations with clients, talked to staff at many more rehab centers. Its clear there are good and great and bad rehabs and Anne describes how to determine which is which.

This is a book for people in recovery and especially for people contemplating recovery and for families making a decision about how to help a family member.