Quarantine: the first two weeks in the centre

The first two weeks are the hardest period, and the most painful one for the family: the person is angry, demands to be taken home and promises to manage on their own. Here is what is actually going on during that time.

The body

First the person comes through a hangover or withdrawal. At home this most often ends with them going out for a dose themselves, simply to make it stop. In the centre, among others in the same position and with staff keeping watch, it is far gentler.

Then comes the part people rarely think about. The person gets the chance to eat properly: in addiction, food is forgotten as something unimportant, and the exhaustion at this point is almost always worse than the family imagines.

The sleep of someone dependent on alcohol or drugs does not come back straight away, so the first days are not a matter of “a good night's sleep and all is well” — they are a chance at least to lie still and get warm.

The mind

On top of the physical state comes the hard part: guilt, shame, self-reproach, regret and no idea at all how to live from here. That is exactly why the first two weeks ask nothing deep of the person — they are simply not capable of it yet.

What happens now is the one thing that never happens at home: meeting other people with an addiction. With it comes the understanding that addiction can be treated, if that is what a person wants, and that they are not the only one in this.

That is how acceptance of the illness and of their present situation arrives — and out of it grows the wish to get treatment. Without that step, no programme works.

What the family feels at this time

Almost always guilt. Calls begging to be taken home, accusations, promises to stop on their own, threats. It is the illness talking, and that is exactly why the centre's rules limit contact with the outside world in this period.

The worst thing you can do is take the person out at this stage. This is the moment when it is hardest for them, and when the decision is being made not by them but by withdrawal.

The right thing is to talk not to them but to our specialists. You will get information about how they are doing, and at the same time you can start your own work — family support runs both in person and remotely.

After quarantine

Then comes what the person actually came for: therapy groups every day, going through defects of character, looking for the causes, and getting everyday and social skills back.

A person who has grown used to care, attention and understanding starts working on themselves almost without noticing — beginning with admitting that they are powerless over the substance.