June 7, 2023

Getting "arrescued" doesn't actually work.

When a loved one is living with serious substance use disorder and refuses to get help, sometimes it seems like the only solution is to force them into it. In many states, people can be "arrescued" — that is, forced under penalty of law into a treatment program that is nearly identical to being incarcerated, down to orange jumpsuits. But Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine physician, says that while she understands the love that makes people see involuntary treatment as a solution, it doesn't actually work.

"One patient had been in multiple voluntary and involuntary settings, and had also been imprisoned. And he said to me that he actually preferred just being in prison, where he could mind his own business and do his own thing and wasn't forced to go to eight hours a day of what he perceived to be not-very-helpful groups," Wakeman said.

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