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Comment by algaeontoast | Hacker News Reader

Well, as horrible as it sounds, rehab programs don't come with customer satisfaction guarantees.

I feel for the family, but unfortunately there's nothing you can "buy" that can change someone's state of mind or being. Those who want to harm themselves and don't want help will reach their own demise on their terms. Some will even manipulate the feelings of those who love them in order to continue a damaging and deadly habit.

I wouldn't be surprised if Vox published an article titled "She couldn't get together $110k. Her son still died" or "Her son didn't want help. He died because of $110k". These kinds of articles are journalistic hack jobs that don't inform or help the issue of addiction and mental health.

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> I feel for the family, but unfortunately there's nothing you can "buy" that can change someone's state of mind or being.

This is news to the medical profession. As it turns out, there are things that you can buy to change someone's state of mind. Methadone, for one. Of course, because we don't treat drugs as a medical issue - and instead as a moral issue, lots of people who would benefit from it can't get it.

> Those who want to harm themselves and don't want help will reach their own demise on their terms.

Ah, right, those degenerates want to harm themselves. /s

Way to oversimplify addiction. This is the sort of thing that leads to toxic ideas, like "Oh, getting people off street heroin, and onto prescription methadone isn't any better - its just replacing one drug for another! Never mind that one of them will kill you, and turns you into a junkie only worried about the next fix, and the other lets you remain a productive member of society..."

I see your perspective, but doubt you've lived in a place where drug addicts or mentally ill addicts are present enough to notice them or sympathize.

When speaking with addicts at my front door in Boston I've found that many of them refuse food stamps or have explicitly told me they do not want help. This is from conversation directly with those in need and struggling addicts.

If you have done the same, I warrant your criticism. Otherwise, you should consider whether your perspective is really as valid as you believe it to be :)

I am surrounded by functioning drug addicts, as is anyone who has ever lived in a city is. >10% of Americans regularly use illegal drugs, and >60% of Americans regularly use alcohol. There's also some non-trivial amount that are addicted to prescription drugs.

The typical addict is not the hobo sleeping behind my dumpsters. The typical addict is a middle-aged soccer mom. That soccer mom is the reason why all of a sudden, America's in the middle of a drug panic - because people like her have started overdosing.

The article is part of Vox's The Rehab Racket series [1].

"America is facing a harrowing opioid epidemic, one that kills thousands of people each year. But the rehab system that could help combat the crisis is failing. It is far too expensive for typical families and often provides addiction treatments that aren’t proven or actually have evidence against them."

In other words, the system is encouraging a reckless amount of money spent on solutions known to not work while evidence-based interventions exist.

We are living in the "leeches and trepanation" era of addiction treatment.

[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/30/20833549/v...

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