Rehab doesn't have to be bad. I've been to IP rehab 2 times, the first time for 28 days, the second time for 2 weeks.

The first was a private psych / rehab hospital. We had shared rooms. Each day there was groups, but there was also a lot of free time, and also individual assignments to work on. We had to go to one AA meeting a day, and that was built into the schedule. It wasn't too restrictive. there were varying levels of passes. Some said you couldn't leave the building, then you could go outside but you couldn't leave hospital grounds, and then were full passes where you could leave the property. You did have to sign in and out of the ward though when you were leaving it - not that that was a big deal. We shared a room with one other person, which was ok, and all had meals together. People were pretty nice, and we were all bonded by the shared experience of trying to get sober.

The second was in a public psych hospital. It too wasn't too restrictive. The first week, you couldn't leave hospital grounds, the second you could get passes to leave for up to 4 hours in the evenings and weekend. It was a more intense program than the first one, with groups running almost all day. Again common meals. But in this one I had a private room / bathroom which was nice. I really liked it and didn't want to leave. There were AA meetings put on, but they were optional to attend and were open to everyone in the hospital, not just those of us in rehab.

The biggest thing I found hard to adjust to were the mandatory meal times. I was sort of used to eating at irregular times, when I felt hungry, but in both places we had to eat at designated times. The food was adequate. It was hospital food - not the greatest, but I've eaten worse.

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