I know the following topic is really far off the beaten path of the stuff I usually write/blog about, but this article by Brian Palmer for Slate.com really fascinated me:

The Oscar-Nominated Amy Winehouse Film’s Useful Lesson About Rehab

Neither I nor anyone (that I’m aware of!) in my immediate family is a drug/alcohol abuser.  Certainly none of them have struck me as needing to go in for some kind of rehab.

However, following reading the above article I have to admit to being surprised by the author’s conclusions regarding the validity -and truly, lack thereof- of Rehab Centers.

In my past life I studied and earned a degree in Psychology and one of the things that bothered me about the profession was that some of the theories regarding psychological treatment lacked rigorous scientific proof of its validity when used on clients.

Everyone knows of the “Freudian”-type clinician who sees symbolic elements to people’s actions.  This is an intriguing concept but Freudian analysis/treatment -if memory serves- haven’t proved to be particularly effective to people suffering from various psychological ailments.

In fact -again, if memory serves- behavioral techniques have proven to be the most effective in curbing bad behaviors.  In these cases, clients are “rewarded” for doing good while “punished” (this doesn’t mean they are physically harmed!) or given a “negative reinforcement” for doing bad.

The idea is that the individual will pursue the rewards and mitigate/eliminate the punishment/negative reinforcement.

While the field of Psychology, to its credit, has pursued a more scientific/result oriented basis for treatment, I’m rather surprised that the same may not be the case with Rehab Centers and this saddens me all the more.

People who decide they need to clean their lives up should walk into a Rehab Center, any Rehab Center, thinking the people there will help them in the long and at times painful process of cleaning themselves up.

But if, in the end, we’re dealing with something that doesn’t have that scientific backing and results, then how many of these poor people are simply throwing their money away on treatment that, at best, is only theoretically good?

And what of those, like Amy Winehouse, who went to Rehab according to the article not once but twice, yet still wound up dying because of their addictions?  It is easy to blame the addict and say “they should have stuck with the rehab”, but if they went to it and it did nothing to curb their vice, could we also not at least to some degree point the finger at the rehab centers as well?

I know, I know…heavy stuff.

I’ll do better next time.