MovieChat Forums > Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (2008) Discussion > Celebrity Rehab Glamorizes The Treatment...

Celebrity Rehab Glamorizes The Treatment Center Industry


Most treatment centers do not allow what Celebrity Rehab does.

For starters, either patients (or their insurance carriers) pay to go to drug/alcohol rehab. Patients aren't paid by rehabs.
The average rehab minimum stay is 28 days, not three weeks.
Usually a patient is on ''black out'' for the first week, meaning they cannot make or receive any phone calls during that time. After that, phone calls are limited to maybe ten minutes a week. Patients are not allowed to keep their cell phones in rehab.
Inappropriate clothing is not allowed - this includes short shorts, spaghetti straps, low-cut tops, crop tops, anything too revealing, or see-through.
Fraternization between males and females is usually not allowed, except in group therapy. Male dorms are separate from female dorms.
Perfume, cologne, mouthwash, nail polish and nail polish remover are usually not allowed.
Musical instruments, music players, valuables, playing cards are usually not allowed.
Visitation, if allowed, is extremely limited.

These are just a few examples.

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Im not shocked by the rest of your list, but they don't even allow music players?

Any idea for what reason?

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QwertyKeys - most rehabs discourage radios, iPODs and the like because they want their patients to concentrate on getting well. And some forms of music can be a trigger to some folks. Usually reading material is not allowed either, unless it's recovery-related. Each rehab has it's own ''what to bring/what not to bring'' packing list.

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That's harsh, no listening to music or reading. What the hell is a person suppose to do when they're not in group?

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That's one of the reasons I wrote that CR ''glamorizes" the treatment center industry (and it has become an industry) because the episodes seem to show the patients having a lot of free time on their hands. Not true with the average drug & alcohol rehab - there is very little "free" time. Granted each place is different, so the following is approximate: Wake up at 6:30, start the day, shower, etc., breakfast, group or one-on-one therapeutic sessions until lunch. Maybe a half hour of free time following. Most of the afternoon is taken up by therapy of some sort. Then dinner, followed by more therapy of some nature. Bedtime is usually around 9:30, lights out by 10:00.

Some places offer work out rooms, some have swimming pools, depending on the place and the program a patient is assigned to. Some places offer yoga, massage, etc., art therapy, drum therapy, and a variety of physical activities to help keep a patient going. Then there are the places that don't allow their patients outside for fresh air, or outdoor activities, and keep the doors locked at all times.

Google rehabs such as Hazelden, Betty Ford, Passages to see what they offer - these would be considered upscale. Then google Conifer Park and van Dyke in NY state.

Some places allow cigarette smoking, some don't. Some places offer real coffee, others are decaf only. Some places have real sugar, others only supply artificial sweetener. Some places allow patients to go off-site to outside meetings/activities, others don't. Some places advertise themselves as top notch, when they're really a dump, and offer nothing in the way of recovery because in reality, they're only about the almighty dollar.

One really needs to do their homework when prospecting for a drug/alcohol rehab.

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Massages, Art Therapy, Drum Therapy sound badass.

I hate places that don't allow patients to go outside for fresh air. I was in a lock-down facility a few times where they locked all the doors and wouldn't let us outside at all. It was stuffy as hell and drove me nuts. Why do they do that? It's not expensive to have like a little patio.

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Oh Gadz - your place wasn't Deer Park in NJ by any chance? A friend of mine said they're rough, almost like boot camp.

There are other components to recovery from booze and drugs besides the mental obsession, the physical craving, and the Spiritual lack - the other parts being having fun, enjoying ones self, including getting outdoors, and getting adjusted to a new and healthier way of living.

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no, it was just a crappy county facility. I didn't have much in the way of withdrawals from Fentanyl (hardcore opiate) for some reason (I'm in NO way complaining). I was just bored out of my mind and walked and circles and got yelled at by doctors (they obviously hated their job) for trying to talk to the staff. So yeah, be careful choosing a clinic.

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Glad to hear your withdrawal wasn't so bad. Did they put you on Subs?

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No, just klonopin tapered slowly over the course of 6 months. I had already dangerously stopped cold turkey after I was too out of it to refill my prescription, so there was no real reason to tapper me down with subs.

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You are amazingly lucky. Coming off Actiq was awful

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I'm quickly finding that out after talking to other addicts at my work.

I developed epilepsy, which was getting dangerous by itself, so controlling the chemicals in my body became very important. That might have helped, I don't really know.

Sorry to hear about your experience with Actiq, glad that it's over for you. I'll never look at a lolipop the same way ever again, that's for sure.

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I saw the movie 28 Days, which was about living in rehab, a while back. Any idea if that was accurate?

"Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in my Armpit One Midsummer Morning." Douglas Adams

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I saw that movie too. There were some semi-accurate comparisons that I recall.

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Most treatment centers also are trying to help people. In no way shape or form is this show trying to help these washed up celebrities, and Dr. Drew himself as he pretends to be a doctor so they bank on it.

We are so close folks, so close to actually seeing people die on national T.V. and it sold as entertainment. It's the American way to exploit and profit off anything possible, so why not? That's the whole point of this. People actually do die in a lot of rehabs, and I wouldn't be shocked if someone died in this guy's.

If they were really wanting to help them, they would turn the cameras off and sit down with them. It's all about making money, and Dr. Drew himself is the worst. For a while I didn't know who this guy was, and I have no clue how people can even stand him. He gets on all these media shows and talks about people. For a psychiatrist he judges people, insults them, and runs his opinion on it, without ever sitting down with these people while he's sucking up to Nancy Grace and the other media presstitutes on TV. Never once have I ever got the impression he really wants to help these people. Also it's celebrities, who get more help than they truly need. Anytime they are in a problem, it becomes a non-factor how rich these people are,ecause "their just like us!" yeah right. More than anything, Dr. Drew is exploiting this and profiting from it, the same way he does sitting down with pregnant teenagers that shouldn't even be on T.V. to begin with to earn a paycheck and become celebrities. It's all about making this into entertainment, anyone that knows how real rehab facilities work will tell you that it's not like this at all. The opening of this topic gives you a good brief explanation with what is not allowed at one.

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I've seen the ads for Passages. It looks like a resort. My friend is an alumnus of Conifer Park. She was too busy feeling crappy while she was detoxing from various drugs; she wrote me a couple of cards from there. She's still sober 20 years later but attributes her sobriety to AA.

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