Is Rehab a Bad Word?
As an admissions counselor for Foundations Recovery Network, I get the opportunity to speak with individuals and their families in the midst of active addiction. Every day I get asked, “Is there anything we can do for our loved one besides sending them to rehab?” Sometimes they almost whisper the word. The negative inflection in their tone suggests that they believe that rehab is a highly undesirable option that it is in the same league with jail, prison, or the psych wards depicted in movies— that “rehab” is a bad word. Why does the word “rehab” have this negative connotation?
My surmise is that it is not actually the rehab centers themselves that have earned this connotation, nor what happens at the rehab centers. It is the individuals who end up going to treatment that we associate the word “rehab” with. Who hasn’t heard or even said something like, “Have you seen so-and-so recently? They looked really messed up. I think they have some mental issues. I heard they went to rehab.” With a simple statement like that, the lasting association in our minds is that rehab is some type of penal depository for drug addicts or social derelicts – not much different than the perception many people have of prison.
What we hear less often is, “My goodness, have you seen so-and-so recently? He looked amazing; he’s in a new relationship, and I heard he got promoted at work. I bet it’s because he went to rehab.” For many of us who spend much of our lives in communities of recovering people, however, we know this is what most people look like after completing rehab. We know that for most people, rehab is a positive new starting point in their lives.
Yet somehow, the negative connotation persists. Too often, people associate rehab with the person before they enter treatment instead of associating it with the person who comes out of treatment. So I guess the question I pose is this: What if we were able to replace that association in people’s minds so that when they hear “rehab” they have a positive association with someone in recovery? What if we could share enough stories so that everyone felt like they knew someone who was in recovery? So that people could start thinking of rehab as a place of new beginnings, not a place of dead ends?
Just ask the millions of people who have awe-inspiring lives because of rehab. Rehab doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t have to be beneath anyone. It doesn’t have to be whispered about. We can change the connotation of words like “rehab,” “drug addict,” and “alcoholic” one person at a time. Start talking. Start sharing your story. If we do, “rehab” will no longer have to be a bad word.