Drug rehab is a fraud; here’s a prime example:
Las Vegas Recovery Center, LVRC, is a sad, deplorable joke, but it's not funny. Most patients, including chronic pain ones would benefit more from a good detox center at a hospital, then pain management from a qualified physical therapist. The staff are all NA/AA "true believers" and don't mention other recovery programs that are non-12 step such as SMART Recovery, MFS, WFS, and the Buddhist Recovery network. NA/AA is a cult-like program that intensifies shame and guilt, and is completely ineffectual. Near suicidal patients are made more depressed by the staff's constant message of: "you're going to die if you don't accept AA/NA as your religion!" Its all just propaganda nonsense and faith healing; NA and AA don’t work.
Addiction is a genetic, neurotransmitter condition, not a moral and spiritual disease, as they would have you believe. LVRC’s amateur staff cultivates this shame and guilt in order to get a person to believe in their "program", which has counselors yelling and screaming at you for every little infraction and indoctrinating you into the harmful cult of Narcotics Anonymous and AA. They smoke constantly, and tobacco is the #1 killer drug in America. Tobacco effects the brain just like every other drug that's abused, flooding the reward center with dopamine.
Addicts are better off learning Transcendental Meditation on their own, and getting acupuncture, massage, Tai Chi, and yoga as a better way to recover. Non-12 step help groups can help if you need them. Save yourself the $30-$130,000.00 for a one to three-month stay, which they will twist your arm and your family's to agree to. It's a fraudulent business like any other and they need to make money, profit or non-profit. They overbill insurance companies as a routine and that’s bad for everyone’s insurance rates. Health allegations are rampant, the food is marginal, and the doctors are frighteningly mentally abusive at times. LVRC also will convince you while you are in detox to give your psychologist or therapist permission to talk to them about you. This is a criminal act, against the First Amendment of the Constitution, and a violation of the HIPPA laws. They don't care. The owner drives a $350,000.00, blue, 612 Ferrari, so that should tell you something; it's a scam, although a fancy one at that. Its widely known in the medical community that drug treatment centers are a huge fraud, and provide only a placebo effect at best.
If you want to be forced into a dogmatic, superstitious, religious cult by threats of impending death then this is the program for you. Otherwise just buy Dr. Pohl’s pain book and go to non-12 step SMART meetings where you will find rational human beings. I'm a well-known Las Vegas surgeon, I went to LVRC of my own free will, paid my own way, and they treated me and my fellow patients like children, liars, deviants, and criminals. My pain got better, but it was the detoxing off the drugs and physical therapy, not them or their superstitious nonsense and worthless family program. It's called Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia, and its caused by being on opiates too long. The brain short-circuits at the Limbic system. The pain meds make the pain worse over time; detoxing off them will make you much better with good physical therapy. Don’t be conned by interventionists and the fraudulent rehab clinics they front for; its all a huge scam.