It answers questions about substance abuse, its symptoms, different. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, but it worked. I've seen a handful of posts where OP talks about the struggle to deal with someone else's relapse. They feel surprised, disappointed, angry, responsible, they want to help, etc.
I think it's probably natural to feel any of these things, especially if you haven't been sober for a long time. I also agree with AA's advice, although you definitely need care after rehabilitation, at least several months if you want a chance not to return. Rehab itself may not, but with an ongoing program like AA after rehabilitation, people can successfully stay clean. In reality, it's not that difficult to search for success statistics or stories of people who credit rehabilitation for saving their lives.
I've been clean for twelve years and have worked closely with the addict community at that time, and I've seen many reluctant people literally forced to rehabilitate themselves by employers or court orders who, once there, gave up and found a path to sobriety. My brother drank for 20 years, went to rehab for a month, now cleaned for three years without relapsing even once. I say we give him time off; however, I would make the following strict stipulation (and I would put it in writing): if there is a relapse after rehabilitation, he's out, period. While rehabilitation isn't as effective as some would like to believe, to say that it doesn't actually do anything is factually wrong.
His answer is actually aligning my point of view here, that traditional rehabilitation is a failed method for overcoming addiction. Generally, the standard is to allow an employee to attend rehabilitation and get their old job back if they self-identify. I'm not in any way suggesting that the results of inpatient rehabilitation are impressive, but it's better than nothing. Someone who goes through rehabilitation, overcomes psychological dependence, goes through withdrawal syndrome, breaks a record of how many days go without receiving visitors several times.
In the early years of sobriety, enough time had elapsed to establish very strong friendships with sober people I never met when they were drunk (as was the case with everyone who was younger than me in rehabilitation centers). As a recovering alcoholic, if you give him a chance, be sure to send him first to detoxify, then to rehab, and then to an aftercare program. Rehabilitation aims to reduce both the frequency (how often it is taken) and the impact of addiction and to increase the addict's quality of life. I have many examples in my personal life where people go to rehab, get cleaned up, go out and have a relapse.
