After working in the field of addiction and recovery treatment for almost 20 years
there are definitely some not so pretty truths about the behind the scenes of the addiction
treatment industry and I want to help you understand what those are so that you're
better equipped to pick the right kinds of help for you or a loved one
for those of you who are new here welcome to put the shovel down I'm Amber Hollingsworth
and this YouTube channel all about helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction
so you can get your family and your life back on track
get back out there and live the life that you wanna live
I want you to know you are not powerless you do not have to hit rock bottom and there are
many things you can do to an addicted loved one if you want to be back in control of your life
subscribe to this channel and I'll make sure you are always five steps ahead of addiction
one of the first things I want you to know is that there are all different types of addiction
treatment from counseling to psychiatry to intensive outpatient programs partial
hospitalization programs sober living detox recovery communities non-for-profit programs
there is so much out there and let me tell you what it is not all created equal so the first
thing you really need to do is educate yourself about what kind of options are out there a lot
of times when people are ready to get help they just jump at whatever option is right there and
they don't make a smart strategic decision which can wind up costing you a lot of time and money
and to be honest you only get so many shots at this thing there are pros and cons to every single
option I actually wrote an insider's guide on this to help you understand all the different options
um free paid insurance what cost what what helps with what what not to do and I'm going to put the
link in the description so you can make heads or tails of all the different options you have
now the next thing that I want you to understand is that addiction professionals
don't have all the answers a lot of times people and families are coming to us with
huge problems not just addiction but addiction and mental health
and maybe there are housing issues and financial issues and all kinds of issues
and you're looking at the counselor or the doctor or the social worker or the nurse and you're
thinking oh they have all these resources and they can solve all these problems well
That's just not really the way that it works most addiction treatment centers or programs
can do a really good job of checking one or two or three of those boxes
but there's no one person or program out there that can solve all the issues
let me give you an example of what I mean a lot of times people will contact me and they'll say well
I have a daughter who has autism and addiction and she's ADHD and she really hates going to groups
what do I do as you can see that's a complicated case and I personally maybe there is but I don't
know of a program out there that can treat and handle all of those different things at one time
so a lot of times what you have to do is you have to look at the pieces that someone needs
and you have to sort of pull them together and create a plan that works specifically for you or
your loved one and it's okay if you can't get that all in some kind of one stop shop the next truth
I want to tell you is one of those kind of ugly truths that you're probably not gonna like hearing
it's the truth nonetheless and that truth is is that the one that pays for the treatment
makes the decisions let me tell you what I mean by that if the insurance is the one
paying for the treatment then the insurance decides how long of a treatment someone needs
and what they get treated for and what kind of programs they have access to
and when the person is ready to be released the insurance company will make those decisions
not the doctor and not the counselor it's the insurance company now the doctors and the
counselors and the nurses they can have input in on all that but at the end of the day when
the insurance company says this is what we're paying for we're not paying for anything else
then that's the way it's going to go
let's say you get treatment at a nonprofit place there are lots of organizations out there
that try to help people either on a sliding scale or for free of charge which is awesome
but there's still somebody paying for that if it's the state the state makes the decisions
if it's a religious organization the religious organization makes the decisions about what how
much and how long if you are private paying for your treatment meaning you're paying for
it yourself or your like loved one is paying for it then you have a lot more control over
what kind of help you get how long you get that help what kind of resources you have access to
I know that's difficult to hear and I'm not saying that you have to have like a ton of money
to be able to get good treatment that's really not what I'm saying I really just want you to
kind of understand the limitations but I don't want you to feel like there are not workarounds
like let's say for example you're dealing with somebody who has like a co-occurring disorder
that's like addiction and a mental health issue maybe there's like a a nonprofit place that they
can go and get residential treatment for the addiction but maybe there's the insurance or
a family member that's willing to pay for an individual therapist while they're there
that works on the co-occurring issue because they don't treat that at the nonprofit place
that's what I mean by you may have to pull together different pieces to make this thing
work and that leads me to the next thing I want you to understand about the ugly truth behind the
addiction treatment industry if it's an insurance driven organization or a nonprofit organization
that there's probably a lot of overwhelm going on
meaning that they probably have more people seeking help than they can really
effectively deal with and ultimately what that breaks down to is either you're going
to be in kinda like a waiting list you may have to wait to get into the program
that you're trying to get into or even if you're in the program you can expect that
you're probably not going to get like a super ton of individualized attention
but I don't want you to let that turn you off from the idea of getting help
there are ways to get it done you just need to know what you're working with
and another thing that I should probably tell you is that the
burnout rate for clinical professionals working in the addiction field is really high
in fact I heard a statistic once that most addiction counselors
only last about five years which honestly is really kinda scary when you think about
how much school you have to go to to be an addiction counselor like it literally
takes more years of school than most addiction counselors are in the field
now of course you have to get paid something to be able to make a living and continue to do it
you're not really doing it necessarily for any money reason you're doing it for a heart reason
mostly however I do want you to know that addiction counselors
they don't make very much money but that's not even the big issue
the bigger issue is that most addiction counselors they work in these bigger
larger organizations that have to see a ton of people and so it becomes like a revolving door
and what happens is you start to see the same people coming in and out all the time
you start to see these very complicated cases that you can't make progress on
and so you end up not getting that really like fulfilled heart thing that you went into it for
and it can cause you to feel frustrated and burned out
not to mention all the families that are sort of calling you and they're
literally like putting all their hopes on top of you to save their loved one
it is a ton of pressure now I get it none of the things I'm telling you is
great news and it probably doesn't leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling
about the options that are out there but actually knowing these things will help you navigate
the system so much more effectively especially if you get that guide
so you know what kind of options you're looking at what you so that you don't end
up wasting a lot of time money and energy on all the wrong things I'll put that link
in the description below I kind of feel like I've given you some
bad news I kind of feel like I need to leave you on kind of a good note
so I will say this despite all of these challenges and problems most anytime I've ever had a patient
that was in an inpatient treatment center or even an intensive outpatient program
if you ask them about their experience nine times out of 10 they actually had
a really good experience even the ones that went kicking and screaming
come back and tell me that it was really helpful that they got connected to other helpful resources
so overall most people leave with a pretty good feeling about it now up next I want you
to watch this video because it's going to tell you exactly what good treatment centers do so you know
what questions ask and what you're looking for to know that you are getting the best possible help