In the 1992 National Household Survey, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 63 percent of people 12 and older reported that they had never used an illicit drug of any sort. If all of those people chose to dabble in addictive drugs when the survey was through, it’s likely that at least some of them would need rehab right now. Addictive drugs can cause persistent changes in chemical levels inside the brain, and changes like this are hard to combat and overcome without help.

While some people might be able to get the help they’ll need in a state-run program or a low-cost program for addiction, there are some people who need the help that only a luxury drug treatment can provide. These people may have the same kinds of addictions as other people who succeed in other programs, but the special touches provided in luxury programs provide these people with the help they might find difficult to access, if they had utilized another treatment format.

Parsing the Numbers

People who enter treatment programs for addiction may do incredibly hard work in therapy, and they may achieve a degree of wellness and functioning that they never thought possible, but they might not be willing to share their experiences with everyone they meet. While addictions are relatively common, many people equate addiction with laziness or personal failure, and admitting to an addiction might frighten people, as they might worry that they’ll be judged for their disorder. Since addiction care is shrouded in secrecy, it’s sometimes hard to determine who uses different types of care. The facilities can’t disclose their clientele, due to legislation, and the clients won’t talk.

There are a few ways to parse existing data that may help to clarify the issue. For example, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration surveys treatment facilities each year and tallies the responses in a series of reports. In one of these reports, private, for-profit facilities represented 32 percent of the treatment options available to clients. It’s likely that these are the types of facilities that would provide luxury care, so it’s clear that this isn’t an option for the majority of addicted people. Only an elite few might utilize a service like this.

Common Characteristics

People who go to luxury drug treatment facilities might have very serious cases of addiction, but they might also have obligations to keep, including commitments regarding:

• Work
• Family
• Legal partnerships
• Financial contracts

Where a traditional treatment program for addiction might provide care that could help people to find a job and otherwise get on the road to financial success, people in a luxury program might have already achieved some measure of financial security, and they might need very different kinds of interventions as a result. They might also benefit from programs that allow them to keep working and keep managing their assets, and some luxury programs provide the kind of flexibility these people need in order to keep their positions.

A study profiled in the New York Times also suggests that people who are higher on the economic scale also have different measures for happiness. They don’t have to struggle to get food or pay for health care, but their day-to-day worries about career and family might still be as difficult to bear. Those who go to a luxury drug treatment program may not want to participate in discussions about upcoming incarcerations, housing projects or street crime. They have a different set of worries, and those should be respected. The peers they interact with in a luxury program can provide them with insight they may not find in a program filled with people of other income levels.

No matter the economic scale or the happiness quotient that applies to people in a luxury program, the fact remains that people in these programs do have one thing in common: They are all addicted to some kind of substance and they’d all like to find a way out. It’s what draws them together as a community, and it’s the help that a treatment program is designed to provide. Entering a program like this can be frightening, and people might worry about the gossip that their visit might engender, but they may emerge feeling stronger, centered and able to handle their lives in an entirely different way. That might make the work more than worthwhile.

If you need help in finding the right treatment program to deal with your addiction, or you have questions about how treatment works and whether or not its right for you, please call us. At Axis, we blend tried-and-true treatments with innovative approaches that can really make a difference in the lives of people with addictions. Please call us to learn more about the help we can provide.