Chemical Treatment Centers

Granted, chemical dependency treatment centers were not designed, built, and established for celebrities and well-knowns, but the leaking of reports about stars getting recovery help inform us regular folk about the availability and accessibility of chemical treatment centers the world over.

Rush Limbaugh, Robert Downey Jr., and many other high profile men and women might prefer to keep their diseases of addiction quiet, but might not realize, either, that exposure to their fall and rise educates those of us who have (or had) no clue about where to begin searching for help. Of course, this writer is no celebrity, but instead is one who first learned about recovery by reading about Betty Ford, the Betty Ford Clinic, and about stars like Elizabeth Taylor attending a similar facility (and meeting Larry Fortensky—remember?).

Then, a friend who cared introduced us to a twelve-step program. There, at meetings and clean and sober events, fellows in recovery shared experiences with various programs and chemical dependency treatment centers. Again, these sources were not the higher-end glitzy facilities necessarily, but were (and are) cultivated according to serious protocol and varied and varying methods that help anyone walking through their doors. For example, one of the strictest of methods used in chemical dependency treatment centers is what is known as confrontational therapy. This hard-nosed, no-nonsense truth-seeking method calls one to take responsibility, teaches one to find and have integrity, and helps one to follow disciplined regimes until one can help oneself, have self-discipline and self-respect.

Another way we have been exposed to information we might not otherwise get is through such shows as “Intervention”. For one hour each week, we watch one or two individuals in the throes of addiction, witness how the families and friends and trained and licensed professionals intervene, and see, hopefully, the subject agree to getting treatment. If he or she gives a yes, we then get the results: a treatment facility that focuses on tough love, works with a kid-glove approach, or using methods tried and true which are based on any number of psychiatric/therapeutic disciplines—Freudian, Skinnerian, et. al..

And, of course, the most prolific of resources is the internet. Here we can look into such chemical dependency treatment centers as Walden House in San Francisco, California, Cumberland Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Brooklyn, NY, and Broadway Lodge in Weston-super-Mare, England. The blogs inform us of personal trials with and tribulations over addiction; and the news services expose us, again, to the big stars and their plights and fights to heal from the disease. But remember, recovery is not just for stars who can “afford” it. It is for all of us, rich or poor, educated or incarcerated. For as Elizabeth Taylor said of alcohol (and which is applicable to any chemical)…”[it] is the great equalizer.”