Rehab

We often hear about famous people — athletes, actors, musicians, etc — who go to “rehab.” Names like Michael Phelps, Johnny Manziel, and Robert Downey Jr. may come to mind.

Sometimes there is a kind of stigma attached to rehab.

The frustration is understandable. But there is no redemptive value in labeling addicts as losers or casting them in other pejorative terms. The complex issue of addiction has more to do with neuroscience than ideas about morality.

Addiction and rehab cannot be reduced to oversimplifications. It’s convenient to make moral assertions about people stuck in addiction but the real issue has to do with the effects of drugs and alcohol on brain chemistry and this is a much more complex issue than simple caricatures can define.

To make judgments on the moral character of an addict is either an underestimation of the power of substances or an overestimation of the moral superiority of the one who makes such judgments.

This isn’t to zing judgmentalism. That’s easy enough. We’d rather shine some light on some pretty pervasive misinformation out there and to explain the more complicated reality of addiction and provide a way out of it.

Here are 3 links for people who want to gain a deeper understanding of addiction and the effects of substances on brain chemistry…

Neurobiologic Processes in Drug Reward and Addiction

Brain regions and neuronal pathways

Neural Pathway Explains Why Addicts Become Addicts

Rehab is a place that people come to confront their addiction — a “treatment” experience that’s a transforming event — with hopes of finding a life of freedom from addiction and a lifestyle of lifelong recovery.

Right Turn-IMPACT is a rehab. We’re a place where people get their lives back. Once a liability to themselves, their families and society, they go on to assets to all these social circles, as they go on to live amazing lives of success and happiness.