Frequently asked questions
When do you know you are addicted?
You are addicted when you find yourself powerless over the substance or the behaviour you are addicted to. The substance or the behaviour has taken over entirely. Your life is centred on your addiction. You try to cut down or stop but to no avail. And when you take up your habit again, you notice that your behaviour becomes more and more excessive. The consequences become ever more severe and your life spins out of control. You go off the rails. Your “losses” keep stacking up. Your relationships with your friends and family grow increasingly worse. Your work or your studies suffer. Your health quickly deteriorates. Your financial difficulties balloon. In short: chaos rules. Your world becomes scarier by the day. You realize that you are addicted and that you need help: professional help.Where can I get the best possible help?
Official healthcare is very slow. Even getting a first appointment is incredibly difficult. Weeks may pass between appointments. You might have to wait months before you are admitted to a clinic. This is the reality people who want to beat addiction are facing. Not to mention the actual treatment offered by official healthcare providers, the profile of the average patient and the virtually non-existent follow-up. In private addiction care, where SolutionS is recognized as an authority, you can get an appointment immediately, the same day, if you want to. The same goes for admission. SolutionS’ clinics – the most prominent of which is the SolutionS Clinic in the Netherlands – don’t have waiting lists and offer the 28-day treatment plan, based on the Twelve Step Minnesota Model. Following your stay in the clinic, you will take part in an intensive follow-up programme for at least three months. The effectiveness of treatment in the private system is incomparably greater than in the official system.When should I be admitted – or: why can’t I be treated as an outpatient?
When addiction has hit and your life has gone off the rails. When the consequences are serious. When substance abuse is putting a serious strain on your relationship. When your work or your studies are at risk. When your health is suffering: in these cases admission to a clinic is by far the most effective. An outpatient programme has its limitations by definition. If you start treatment early enough, however, an outpatient programme may provide the desired corrective effect. A binding agreement is made with the patient: should the outpatient programme not produce the desired effect, the patient will be admitted to one of our clinics.How about the cost of admission and reimbursement by my health insurance?
In absolute terms the cost of treatment is high. It is a lot of money, for anybody. Luckily, there are more and more possibilities for partial or full reimbursement by your health insurance company. Because of recent changes in Dutch health insurance legislation it is worthwhile to check whether reimbursement is possible in your specific case. When treatment is not covered by health insurance, you will have to pay for the treatment yourself. This is often a great burden, but bear in mind that adequate and effective treatment might well be the best investment you will ever make.What is the treatment in a clinic like?
The programme is intensive. You are to take part seven days a week, from early in the morning until late at night. The emphasis is on group therapy, but there is also room for one-on-one talks. There are plenty of wellness activities and activities that focus on certain spiritual insights. This makes the programme extremely varied and improves its efficiency. The programme is based on the Twelve-Step Minnesota Model. The staff’s expertise and experience provide maximum insight into the programme. The combination of therapy, wellness and spirituality helps maximize the impact of the treatment as a whole.What happens after I am discharged?
A stay in the clinic is aimed at you kicking the habit. When you are discharged, your job is to keep addiction at bay. This will be difficult, which is why we offer relapse prevention. At the clinic, we will cover the first few steps of the Minnesota Model. The rest of the steps are introduced during aftercare. The central theme here is "Change": making all the necessary and desired changes to gradually improve the quality of your life in every respect. The aftercare programme is extraordinarily intense and immediately follows your stay at the clinic. It consists of at least two one-on-one sessions a week for at least three months. There is always room for consultation and advice, especially in crises. There will also be group sessions every two weeks for the patient as well as his or her family (separately). Furthermore, we put a lot of effort into linking up our treatment with self-help groups to ensure our client has ongoing support. Here we maintain contacts with organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Gambling Anonymous, Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous and Al-Anon for family and friends.What is the outpatient programme like?
The outpatient programme must be tailored to the individual possibilities of the client, however, we recommend at least 2 sessions a week, spread evenly over the course of a week (on Mondays and Thursdays or on Tuesdays and Fridays). Treatment usually takes 12 weeks. The exact term is determined by means of periodic evaluations. It is also possible that, apart from your assigned counsellor, another psychiatrist or expert is called in to deal with certain aspects that come up during the course of treatment.What is detox?
Detox is short for detoxification. The first step in treatment is the thorough detoxification of the body. This will bring the patient’s physical condition at the desired level to be able to start therapy. Not everybody needs to detox. Alcohol or drug detox usually takes at least 5 days, yet no longer than 10 days. Exceptions to this rule are addictions to prescription drugs, which require a longer detox period.Detox takes place under the supervision of a specialized physician and it is coordinated by nurses with experience in this field. You will be watched over 24/7.