How to Get Someone Into Rehab

Learning that someone you love is struggling with an alcohol or drug addiction is awful. It’s difficult to know what to do or say when you see a loved one spiraling out of control. It can also be very frustrating to see someone you love continuously hurt himself/herself. You know your loved one needs help, but are unsure how to get someone into rehab.

Addiction is a chronic disease. Just like heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, addiction cannot be cured, but it can be treated. At Harmony Ridge Recovery Center, we combine evidence-based practices with traditionally proven addiction treatment methods.

As a nationally recognized substance abuse treatment center, Harmony Ridge Recovery Center believes that to fully recover from the disease of addiction, the patient must focus on his/her entire mind, body, and spirit. Our beautiful and serene treatment center provides the perfect setting for your loved one to focus 100% on themselves and their rehab.

There are plenty of signs and symptoms that someone needs help with substance abuse. If you can see these early enough, you’ll be more likely to determine how to get someone into rehab.

Signs of substance abuse include:

• Withdrawing from family and friends
• Avoiding responsibilities like work or school
• Ignoring the negative consequences of their drug use
• Secretive behavior, i.e. lying about using or how much time spent using.

Symptoms of substance abuse include:

• Poor hygiene
• Difficulty sleeping
• Abrupt weight change
• Change in appetite
• Bloodshot eyes

It can be hard to show your friend or family member any kind of empathy when they’re abusing substances. You’re likely to feel frustrated and upset. However, if your loved one sees that you’re showing empathy for their situation, they’re more likely to enter treatment.

No one wants to be forced to do anything. If they are, they’ll be more resistant. Show empathy by asking your loved one questions instead of making statements. Other things you can do include:

• Walking away from a conversation rather than arguing
• Keeping conversations general
• Showing concern
• Staying away from criticism

When you’re talking to loved ones about substance abuse, the point is to steer them toward a path to accepting that they have an issue with drugs or alcohol. You don’t want to be justifying yourself at this point. By keeping your conversations open-ended, your loved one will be more likely to see that he or she has a problem.

Enlist Help from Other

You don’t have to go through this alone, and you’re not responsible for getting your loved one into treatment. Let your friends and family know what you’re going through. You might be ashamed to talk about addiction with other people, but having more people on your side can be powerful.

Here are some ways you can get help:

• Attending Al-Anon or Nar-Anon, support groups for people with loved ones who struggle with substance abuse
• Talking to a therapist
• Contacting an addiction treatment specialist
• Speaking with a recovering addict

Tell Them to Take Responsibility

Your loved one needs to learn to take responsibility for their problems. If they don’t do this, it can be tough for them to seek help. When someone close to you has an addiction, you might naturally take the fall for their struggles, but this shouldn’t be the case.

When you encourage your loved one to take responsibility, you’re not excusing their bad behavior when under the influence. At the same, you’re also not easing their consequences. If your loved one misses work because they’re doing drugs or drinking, you shouldn’t call in sick or try to cover for them. In this way, you’re helping and not hindering.

Perform an Intervention

If none of the above strategies work, an intervention is a last resort. This is a meeting in which you, along with a small group of close friends and family members, sit down with your loved one and convince them to get treatment. Each of you will write an impact statement saying how your family member’s addiction has affected you, and you’ll read these out loud.

The goal of an intervention is to convince your loved one that they have a problem and need to seek help. If the substance abuse is severe, you might want to involve a professional interventionist. This person can diffuse any tension that might come up during the meeting. You’ll also want to have a treatment plan ready for the person you’re trying to help.

With careful planning, 90% of interventions successfully lead to treatment. However, there’s a chance that your loved one might still refuse help. In this case, you must issue an ultimatum during the intervention. He or she must know that there will be consequences for not going to a drug treatment program.

You don’t want to force someone to go to rehab, but in some cases it’s necessary. This is easier to do when someone is under 18 years old, but dealing with an adult is more difficult.

Forcing someone to go to rehab is called involuntary commitment. In West Virginia, you can force someone to go to rehab who is under 18 as long as they meet certain criteria:

• Evidence of a dependence on drugs or alcohol
• Proof that the person has harmed themselves or could harm someone else
• Can’t provide for basic need and no adult is willing to help

If you want to know how to get someone into rehab in West Virginia, you should know that you can involuntarily commit an adult. However, getting a court order for this in the Mountain State isn’t easy. You’ll want to hire a lawyer for a situation like this.

Another factor of rehab is that a resident of the facility can leave at any time. Staff cannot force them to stay.

We understand that accepting a substance abuse issue isn’t easy. You’ve wondered how to get someone into rehab, and you’ve finally succeeded. When your loved one decides to go to Harmony Ridge, know that they’re in the right hands. Below is a summary of the services we offer

Detox

The first and highest level of care your loved one will receive is known as detox. Detoxification is the process of removing all drugs, alcohol, and other toxins from the body. Should your loved one experience any temporary discomfort from withdrawal symptoms, you can rest assured that a compassionate team member will be by your loved one’s side.

Residential Treatment

The next level of care following detox is residential treatment. Also known as inpatient treatment, residential treatment provides a highly structured client-specific treatment plan that provides cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT includes private, couple, and group/family therapy sessions, counseling, coping tools, and relapse prevention under the supervision of our licensed medical professionals.

Partial Hospitalization

After completing rehab, your loved one might continue to our next level of care, known as a partial hospitalization program (PHP). CBT continues during PHP; however, patients reside in a home-like atmosphere that is less intense than residential treatment. This provides a healthy transition from a 24-hour intensive treatment program to an organized treatment plan where patients prepare themselves for the transition home.