Rehabilitation requires more than a short stay in a resort-style facility

Whether it's alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling or even food – people are battling more and deadly addictions.  But the real story is in the way that people, especially celebrities, are choosing to deal with said problems.  While rehab is now seen as the best way to "get better" it seems like nowadays more people are using the façade of rehab as a cop-out.   Contemporary society says once you go to rehab you are forgiven of all former trespasses and are "rehabilitated" but is that really what happens?

According to almost every website, book or source related to the question of whether rehab actually works; the answer relies on several factors, such as the type and length of addiction, the duration of the rehabilitation program, and what kinds of long-term support are provided to the recovering addicts.  Basically, it's a shot in the dark even with the best of intentions.

But as rehab grows in the minds of the masses as the answer to all problems, more addicts are seeing rehab as simply a way out.  Once one has gone to rehab it is fairly easy to simply go back to exactly what you were doing before and basically fool everyone.  Even if you have to go to rehab five or six times you are still viewed as having good intentions, which is apparently better than no intentions at all.

So when does rehab stop becoming a cure and start becoming a joke?  Surely the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Whitney Houston and Tiger Woods are not helping the case for rehabilitation as a serious matter.

Although it is true that many a person has gone through rehab and come out on the other side a completely different, more successful, and overall better person, free of the demons they once had.  Take for instance Drew Barrymore who was highly addicted to drugs and alcohol before the age of 13.  Barrymore entered rehab and has since turned her life around becoming an extremely successful actress and producer in Hollywood.

So while yes it is possible for rehab to change a person it is more plausible that the person has to want to change first.  Rehab will continue to be a joke as long as society establishes that rehabilitation is only the first step in a very long process to recovery.