Rehab: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

I developed an Adderall addiction in college. I told my father, who used to be an alcoholic, that I should go to a rehab clinic to get clean. He said to me, "Those places are scams; talk to a drug councilor, and then go to AA or NA instead." Looking back on it, I'm glad I took his advice."

I was on meth for 8 yrs, heroin for 6 (FAITHFULLY) and I just passed my 500th day being TOTALLY CLEAN last week! ... and I did it WITH NO REHAB!

As someone who went to multiple rehabs and failed every time, I can concur...rehabs are a joke. I ultimately got clean by doing it myself, which was insanely hard and I’m lucky I didn’t die in detox, but I had no other choice. I was definitely going to die if I didn’t do something. I just hit my 3 year anniversary.

I recently watched Bojack Horseman, and the Pastiches Centre really reminded me of this, a revolving door centre of sketchy practices not based in evidence, run by "Doctor Champ", who is not a Dr but is simply named "Doctor", and repeatedly stresses that he is not a therapist but a therapy horse held to no standards. It's excellently done.

"Getting sober is hard, but nothing is harder than an 8 minute phone call with another human being" 2 years clean of heroin and truer words have never been spoken

Addiction is hard. Getting clean is hard. Staying clean is hard... getting help should be easy. Never a truer word spoken. Thank you Mr Oliver

As an addict who feels he's losing to this struggle, this is so goddamn terrifying. Thank you John Oliver. May others be saved.

"And the tragedy is his son died... and remember the funny guy who hated horses? He died too..." gave me chills.

"Nothing is harder than an eight minute phone call with another human being." As an introvert, truer words have never been spoken.

John Oliver: The guy who talks about subjects you initially don't know or care about, but by the end realize their importance and feel bad for learning about the problems yet want to find a solution.

"Tons of life changing things happen at the Four Seasons..." Hotel or Landscaping?

After my first stationary therapy (12 months) I received a call of a social worker who asked to visit me for inquiry. They did a study about how people who underwent longterm therapy were doing, to gauge the success rate. Now she visited me 22 months after therapy and I was 100% sober. 3 months later I relapsed, so in the said study I'm listed in the success group. Serious studies should be done 5 yrs after treatment, then they might actually reflect partly the reality.

This segment totally educated me and my adult daughter about rampant problems in this industry. We watched this show many times and used it to "vet" potential recovery centers. Aetna sent a list of 154 in-network providers; all but three failed our litmus test. My daughter researched yelp and google reviews, even facebook reviews. It was eye-opening. I thank John Oliver from the bottom of my heart for this information. It took three months for my daughter to get a bed in a recovery center that IS a great rehab center (Montecatini in San Diego). Your rehab section kept us away from the predators.

Claiming you're cured is a HUGE red flag about that rehab's credibility

My son has been 8 times. John is right. Most rehabs do not know wtf they are doing. The situation is even worst for under 18 folks. Panicked and desperate parents are easy pickings for these corrupt outfits. My ex wife was thrilled to send my son to an equine therapy bullshit place. It partly explains why she is my ex. Thank you John. Always informative, always relevant and always entertaining. You are a national treasure.

I have so many stories of my time as a young girl in Florida for treatment, where my parents thought they were sending me to get better all the way from CT. I’ve had rehabs and halfway houses do everything from verbally and sexually assault me, supply me with drugs so they could run my insurance again to go to detox, to attempt to sell me into sex work. My mom somehow tracked me down in Overtown, Miami (one the most dangerous areas in the country) with a broken arm at a facility with metal beds and no blankets that a fancy rehab sent me to after they broke my suitcase wheels and sent me to an all male homeless shelter. Thankfully she was able to send me a cab and fly me home. I could write a book on the horrors I endured there in 2 years in and out of treatments.

0:16 "to drugs or alcohol" I just love how our society separates "drugs" and "alcohol" because of how socially accepted alcohol is, yet it is just as much destructive as other drugs

As a professional in this field, I’m giving this a standing ovation

I just got a bill from an outpatient rehab that I went to for a month or two 5 years ago, for $13,500. They billed my insurance company $1292 per test, but $420 to me. That's liquid gold.

John Oliver seems to have a complicated relationship with horses