Rehab: Is this right?

[SkullKing]

This shit really happened and the bitch actually threatened another family member. .

What exactly did she do? what threat did she use?

[Rageaholic]

What exactly did she do? what threat did she use?

She said she'll 'hold it over his head' to gain compliance. Not really a threat, but it did confirm that she's a controlling bitch.

And I love this false dichotomy that if I'm against the rehab place, I'm 'enabling' him. As if I can't be against the blackmailing rehab yet still want to see him stop drinking (and maybe find a better rehab facility).

[Kuari]

What you are failing to understand is that pretty much all rehab facilities are not that different. Plus, there is the fact that your relative is NOT ABIDING BY THE RESTRICTIONS SET ON HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I get that addictions are a bitch to beat - I've been there, done that, got the rehab t-shirt. I was lucky enough that I was not on probation or anything like that, but I know a great many people that have been. And they knew full well that if they ran a hot piss test EVER while on probation that they'd have their asses carted back to jail. They had it happen too and learned the hard way, just as your relative will.

Why are rehab workers hard assed? Because it is their job to be a hard ass, and if it includes holding the possibility of informing a person's probation officer over the head of that person then that is what they do. Put the fear of $DEITY into the addict/offender so that they get it through their head that they need to stop lying to themselves and everybody else about their addiction. And they are hard assed because so many times family and friends WILL NOT be hard assed when it's needed. They are not there to be nice, and when they are dealing with somebody near the end of their probation who is not complying with the conditions of that probation they have very little to lose by threatening to inform the probation officer. Technically, your relative is damn lucky that his probation officer has not been told because that is something that a licensed rehab is supposed to report.

By taking the attitude that the rehab worker is a raging bitch IS enabling your relative to not have to put in the hard work to make this rehab stint actually work.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

His family member went to the rehab facility of his OWN choice. He knew he needed help. They tested him as he entered and he tested positive (which he very well might, if he has just realized that he needs more help than he thought he did.)

She is using his failure to pass the test when he is applying for the rehab over him.

Is it REALLY that hard to understand?

Should we do this to recovering cocaine/meth addicts as well? They realize they need professional help, they go and apply for professional help of their own choice, during the application they test positive and so the rehab facility threatens to kick them out right then and there?

Awesome, that will help so many people. Rehab centers should only accept people who have already kicked the habit, that way their success rates will be higher and they can brag to everyone about how often their patients kick their habits!

I get that people who are addicted lie, but the fact that he tried to get rehabilitation OF HIS OWN CHOICE THAT WAS NOT COURT ORDERED is a massive point in his favor for me personally. My boyfriend's cousin had a problem like this, he was under house arrest for a myriad of reasons, and he was doing his best to recover and turn his life around.

Every place he turned to looked down on him, never believed him, and the police harassed him despite him not doing anything wrong since the event that put him on house arrest because of attitudes I'm seeing in this thread. They would drag him into the station at the drop of a hat even though he was within his allotted hours to be outside the house (you know, so he could go to freaking WORK.)

His lawyer had a field day ripping into them every time they pulled that crap, but they kept doing it. He got the help he needed from friends and room mates rather than a professional rehab place (they would make sure there was no alcohol in the house, drive him to and from work, and he constantly thanked them for helping him make better decisions for himself and his family.)

So I'm sorry if I'm not going to jump onto the "HE'S A LIAR AND HE DESERVES TO BE PUNISHED AND HARASSED" bandwagon.

tl;dr If someone tests positive on an abusive substance as they are applying for rehab of their own choice, it means they've accepted they DO have a problem and want to change. We shouldn't be HARASSING and THREATENING these people, because that will just make them less likely to be successful in kicking the habit.

[Kuari]

They do the exact same thing to recovering drug addicts. Usually they give a free pass to that initial failed hot piss test when the addict is going into rehab at the START of their probation. At the end? They don't have to give the addict a free pass. It's not like the offender was put on probation yesterday - they were put on probation some time ago so they knew what the conditions they had on them. Good on him for going to rehab, but I have no sympathy otherwise for him. Whining about the mean rehab lady? Yeah, get over it and carry on. If a person wants to be coddled then they aren't going to work at getting clean. I've seen it too many damn times and I have no patience for it.

Oh, and how do I know how they handle drug addicts? Guess what I was in rehab for? It sure as hell wasn't due to having a food addiction. 17+ years clean of cocaine.

[SkullKing]

She said she'll 'hold it over his head' to gain compliance. Not really a threat, but it did confirm that she's a controlling bitch.

I don´t see how this is "threatening another family member". He is on probation and failed a test.

From what panacea said it is her obligation to report it. which means she might actually have problems if she does not report it.

Yet since he voluntarily went to rehab she is giving him a chance, and using this as a tool for compliance, which she may feel she needs in order to have him take rehab seriously.

If what Panacea said is true (and I am inclined to believe her, specially considering previous posts on CS where she helped alot of people better understand health and the health system related situations). Than she is actually being lenient.

[s_stabeler]

Ok, I think we need to get some clarification here:
1) when was the failed test?
2) is the rehab a condition of the probation?
3) if not, how did the rehab facility even know he was on probation?

the first question is important, since it affects how ethical this is. if the failed test was on admission- or close enough to admission that the failed test could conceivably have been from drugs/alcohol taken prior to admission- then it sounds scarcely ethical to hold it against him- as has been pointed out, everyone would fail such a test, and it's hardly going to help an addict if the therapist is saying "do everything I tell you to do or I'll report you to your probation officer for violating your probation. IF, however, the failed test could only have come from a relapse, then panacea is right- they actually should report him for violating his parole.

[Rageaholic]

1. It was on his second day, so yeah, it was pretty close to admission. This is the main reason I think the rehab place sounds shady.
2. No, it wasn't part of a condition of probation. He went voluntarily because he wanted to kick the habit.
3. My guess is that they got him to sign something. I don't know why he would do it or why they would have him sign it, but I can't imagine any other way they would know.

[BlaqueKatt]

if the failed test was on admission- or close enough to admission that the failed test could conceivably have been from drugs/alcohol taken prior to admission

alcohol urine tests can be 12 hour or 80 hour from what I've found, the type of test makes a difference. The metabolite from alcohol can remain in urine from 12-72 hours depending on metabolism and amount consumed. So a 12 hour test given on day 3 would indicate noncompliance, while an 80 hour test might not(and I would presume lead to a 12 hour test for confirmation). Also there are two different cutoffs for positive 100ng/ml and 500ng/ml. I will comment that the 80 hour is almost 2x the cost of the 12 hour so make of that what you will.

source

[Rageaholic]

^

I think it was one of those tests. From what I hear, it was a lot more detailed.

(The first day was some kind of orientation and the second was when he was test just so there's no confusion there.)

[s_stabeler]

it really depends on which test they did, to be honest, but (assuming that the test really was on the second day, since Panacea is right, addicts DO lie) it does sound sketchy to me. At a minimum, I can't see how, if the rehab isn't a condition of the probation, it's any of their business top notify the probation officer- UNLESS the test is a regular one to ensure he's staying off alcohol.

Oh, and one point Panacea made is correct- regardless, he needs to stay off alcohol. If he was truly addicted, that means completely.

Unfortunately, there isn't a hell of a lot you can do- you said your friend has switched therapists a number of times before, and it makes it look like he's searching for one that will get him out of trouble without him needing to change his behaviour. Yes, he might juts suck at picking a therapist- but that is what it looks like.