Michigan’s long border with Canada and its miles and miles of Great Lakes frontage means that the state combats drug smuggling on a daily basis. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, club drugs, and any number of prescription drugs are abused by Michigan residents, and while the state of Michigan funds many programs aimed at drug prevention and treatment, families must be proactive in seeking help. Drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment centers in Michigan are widely available in most larger communities.

Both public and private drug and alcohol treatment centers abound in Michigan. Rehabilitation programs are just a phone call away, but one should be wary when evaluating them. Services vary, and expertise, funding, and staffing can all affect the quality of the outcome. Some centers have a narrow focus, others can offer everything from intervention to persuade an addict to seek treatment to inpatient residential care. If you are seeking help for yourself or a loved one, take the time to ask questions and choose the right program, because a bad one could just make the problem worse.

It is natural to want to seek treatment from a rehab center in Michigan; however, local options may be limited, and there are distinct advantages to removing the addict from the environment that enabled his or her addiction. Whether the addiction was accidental, to some prescription drug, or deliberate, through abuse of alcohol or cocaine or Xanax, breaking free takes more than willpower and a little luck. Modern drugs are very addictive, and there is usually a high degree of emotional dependency attendant on addiction of any sort. A drug or alcohol treatment program must address the reasons why someone took to drugs or alcohol in the first place as well as the reasons they could not stop.

Residential treatment programs, in Michigan or located elsewhere, free the addict from local distractions of work and family. They offer 24/7 medical supervision through the difficult and sometimes dangerous process of withdrawal and detoxification, and they offer intensive and consistent counseling services to help the addict face up to her addiction and learn to live without the drugs. In addition, really good drug and alcohol treatment centers of any sort offer family outreach and wellness programs to heal shattered relationships as well as to build up debilitated bodies. Achieving a healthy, drug-free lifestyle should be the goal of any rehab program. Michigan families would do well to explore all options before deciding.

Drug treatment facilities, alcohol recovery centers, detox centers, and mental health clinics may all look the same from the outside, but inside they are very different. Detox, counseling, behavior modification, and wellness constitute a well-rounded program. If your local Michigan rehabilitation center cannot offer all of these, keep looking. There is no point in going through withdrawal if there is no follow-up counseling. Likewise, joining AA does no good if the body still has a physical dependency on alcohol.

The network of Michigan drug and alcohol treatment centers exists to serve you. The sooner you start, the better.