Rehabilitation for a drug or alcohol habit takes many forms. The majority of drug and alcohol treatment is conducted on an outpatient basis; however, the “best documented drug-free treatments are the therapeutic community residential programs lasting 3 to 6 months,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Just over 3,000 of the 13,600 drug and alcohol treatment facilities in the United States offer residential treatment programs, when patients enter a drug-free environment and live there throughout the recovery process.

Inpatient treatment for drug addiction offers a number of advantages over outpatient programs. About 90% of all substance abusers are treated on an outpatient basis for reasons of cost or location, or because their addiction was mild enough to warrant it. A higher dropout rate is experienced by outpatient programs, however. According to a June 1993 study published in the medical journal Psychiatric Quarterly, outpatients were four times as likely as inpatients to be early treatment failures. It also showed that patients with more severe psychiatric conditions and/or a poor social support network were more likely to benefit from inpatient substance abuse programs.

For recovering addicts, juggling home, work, children, school, and the lingering cravings of their addiction is often too much. Outpatients often find means and excuses to avoid going to counseling: transportation difficulties, sick children, demands at work. People in inpatient treatment programs are there for the duration, separated from the daily stresses and demands that perhaps drove the escapist behavior to begin with. Many times, addicts have been so consumed with their obsession with drugs: finding drugs, achieving the rush, figuring out how to pay for more drugs, that they have forgotten how to live a normal life. Residential treatment programs allow a gradual reset of everyday life to something approaching “normal.”

The majority of inpatient rehabilitation programs are offered through private nonprofit and private for-profit facilities located across the United States. These are not as exclusive as they may sound. In every state, between 40% and 90% of all drug and alcohol treatment centers receive some type of public funding, whether federal, county, city, or state tax dollars provided to extend services to the state’s residents. Persons committed to treatment through the criminal justice system may still receive residential care as needed. Families who need or desire inpatient drug rehabilitation for a loved one may qualify for funding provided through the federal Access to Recovery Program begun in 2003.

For all patients and all addictions, the choice of a correct program is crucial to a satisfactory outcome. Nearly all of the over 13,000 “rehab” facilities in the U.S. offer drug screening and evaluation to determine the type and severity of the abuse problem. For some patients, inpatient care is simply the best way—often the only way—to overcome the debilitation and poor health caused by the abuse. Other people may regard referral to an inpatient treatment program as a stigma; they should instead view it as an opportunity.