Two advantages (I guess that’s the right word) to long-term drug rehab: more time to focus on treatment and recovery AFTER withdrawal, and length of time that one remains sober. Withdrawal causes some MAJOR physical reactions: sweating, nausea, inability to eat, extreme nervousness, just to name a few. It sometimes takes a week to go through and get over the withdrawal phase.
This means that in a 21-day stay (the average length of time for drug treatment), seven of those days have been taken up with a part of the program that does not focus whatsoever on treatment directly related to the drug/alcohol addiction or the means necessary to remain sober and drug-free. The surface has barely been scratched, when you think about it.
In a long-term drug rehab facility, actual treatment probably does not begin until the patient is fully recovered from the effects of withdrawal. Once treatment does start, the patient is probably going to be a lot more receptive to it.
Also, the longer one remains sober and drug-free, the easier it becomes. And, when one is in a facility for an extended length of time, he or she is not going to be able (or should not be able) to get whatever it is that put them there in the first place. That, along with everything else that is done in and through the program, practically guarantees that there is going to be SOME improvement and changes.
OK, so the improvements and/or changes came about because there was no choice. So what? Hey, isn’t that what a drug treatment program is all about anyway? Thought so.
It may be harder to go through long-term drug rehab than a shorter program. But, when one really thinks about it, which is more important—one’s time or one’s life?