The price of rehab: The ex-addict who gives addicts a second chance

There are addicts who steal to finance the next drug dose, but even those who seek to quit discover that the pleasure is not cheap.

Despite the public interest, it turns out that the State of Israel does not support hospitalization fees for rehab needs in private centers.

We talked to someone who was a drug addict and became the owner of a rehab center

Dr. Maya Gaz

02/10/2022

Sunday, 02 October 2022, 17:15 Updated: Saturday, 08 October 2022, 07:29

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Amir Amsalem, former addict, day owner of a rehab center (Photo: Niv Smithline)

Amir Amsalem knows how great the economic price of a heavy drug addict is in Israel.

"Being an active addict, a user, is very expensive, and requires a lot of money. It can reach 4,000 shekels a day. In the beginning, it's 500 shekels. Very quickly it rises to a thousand shekels, and as things get worse, the numbers become higher. It also depends in the types of drugs".

"Being a clean addict is not financially expensive, but it is very hard work. You work mainly on emotion, boundaries, lifestyle, changing your way of life, you surround yourself with support groups, a mentor, and clean friends, all the time taking care of a healthy envelope around you."

"A rehab center can be cheaper or more expensive. In my time, the expensive ones did not exist. After the rehab center, I moved to a day care center, through the state and welfare. It requires a nominal amount and there is not much financial investment."

Amsalem knows what he is talking about.

The impressive and coherent guy, a real personality, was addicted to drugs, weaned himself and now established a new rehab center "The Path to Life" in Be'er Ya'akov with the approval of the Ministry of Health.

In this center, he makes sure that the price is as accessible as possible to every pocket.

The corona virus, he says, did not help addicts.

"The corona has added to an abrasive lifestyle, working long hours, a tense security situation and economic survival. There were those who felt the ground was falling from under their feet and fled to everything that could dull the senses: drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling and even marathon and obsessive watching of television or porn."

Here's a bit about drug addiction in numbers: Treatment at a rehab center costs NIS 19,000 per month.

In the state's rehab centers, day hospitalization, the patient's cost for 21 days is NIS 650 per day for the patient, that is, more than NIS 13,000, with the rest covered by the state.

On the other hand, the state does not supplement hospitalizations and day treatments in private rehab centers.

"The cost is the patient's. The intention is not to get rich but to work with a mission. This is a medical center for everything and we have to cover the costs of a doctor, a nurse, social workers and staff members such as a cook and a cleaner. There are profits but there are periods when one month makes up for the previous one. Not every Time is occupied at home. During the holidays, for example, people do not start rehab because they postpone it until 'after the holidays'."

"I haven't been in the world of drugs for 13 years. I don't even know how much drugs cost and I haven't tried the new drugs. Many drugs have entered the market and there is a big deterioration. I see it because I treat people who come to us. I will not fall into this pit again."

Respectful terms for addicts (Photo: Alran Avisror)

From soccer to balls

The new rehab center, a dream of years, was established by Amsalem, after his life was saved thanks to another rehab center, which believed in his abilities to return to life.

As a child he was disciplined and quiet, liked by the teachers.

From the age of 6 he played football and felt that the game brought him out as a gentle and shy boy.

Amsalem was always the smartest kid around, and a master of crossword puzzles and word games.

With the head of an entrepreneur and with developed business skills, he helped his father in the family business (Polish Company) already in his youth.

At the age of 14, his dream of becoming a soccer player was cut short due to an injury.

He left the league in Ramla where he played, and the way to deteriorate into soft drugs was paved after he had to give up his dream of becoming a professional soccer player.

Amsalem was 16 years old when he started using hard drugs.

Against all odds, Amsalem managed to finish 12 years of schooling.

Over time, he was no longer able to work or be part of a setting because the drugs controlled him.

In between there was an opening in the markets to generate income and help at home.

He managed Basta on the promenade in Eilat in order to work there.

During all the years of his addiction, he never took money from his parents but worked and supported himself.

Over the years he tried countless times to quit drugs without success.

He was 30 years old when he suffered a stroke as a result of prolonged drug use, was hospitalized in day rehabilitation and realized that he had to decide between life and drugs.

He had plenty of time to think, after being forced to spend about a year in a wheelchair.

After 21 years of being an addict, it happened.

"Probably until then I wasn't sure I wanted to quit. There was a small opening that allowed me to go back to drugs. I didn't understand the meaning of changing the way of life completely. At the age of 34 I had fear, and I think that fear fascinated me and kept me in a rehab center and prevented me from going out and using That time I tried to do something different. Not to listen to my head, but to let someone I believe in guide me along the way. So they managed to accompany me to a rehab center for six months and I immediately continued a year in a therapeutic day center. This was my true surrender to change the path of my life in a fundamental and significant way." .

"It's not easy. There are growing pains at the beginning. You give up a world that was part of you for decades. I didn't feel it when I got addicted and I didn't feel it when I quit. Understanding to live a new life, to get out of street life, crime, and start a new path with a lot of sacrifices is not an easy thing. You have to At the age of 34, relearn like a baby to live a normative life that you don't know about."

Amsalem, 48 years old, originally from Ramla, comes from a very warm and loving family.

Today he is married to Esti and father of two children, lives in Rehovot.

Of his wife's family, only she knew he was an addict and kept it a secret.

After ten years of marriage, the groom's past was revealed to the extended family.

"I opened the center and her father asked what happened to Amir and the rehab center and she told him I was an addict. It was surprising and he told her he was very proud of me."

After the wedding, he opened a building management and maintenance company in Ramla and today it is one of the most stable and well-known companies in the market.

"The Path to Life" precisely at a time when the number of addicts is on a disturbing and constant increase, and the ability of the families and the state to deal with the consequences and provide a benevolent healing process, is small to non-existent.

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There is also a therapeutic horse farm in the yard (Photo: Alran Avisror)

A problem of life

At the rehab center wean off drugs, alcohol, gambling, medicines and painkillers.

This is a spacious villa immersed in green and offers a living experience in a homely atmosphere.

The staff is professional, skilled and knows the job.

There is, among others, a narcologist, a registered nurse, clinical social workers, nursing staff and social counselors who are present 24 hours a day.

which includes fitness facilities, a fully equipped kitchen, a heated jacuzzi, clean rooms and a spacious living room.

In the courtyard of a horse farm that is used as a therapeutic element.

The daily routine in the complex is rich in effective activities and diverse content, the possibility of individual or group treatments, which take place several times a day.

The price is less than five days of addiction of a heavy addict.

"The rehab center is a dream I've had for ten years," he says.

"We do deep-rooted work. Not necessarily physical withdrawal from drugs, alcohol, gambling or anything that people are addicted to, but internal work on emotions, changing the way of life, daily routine. At the end of the day, we know that we don't have a problem with drugs or alcohol. We have a problem of life".

The center was founded by Amsalem with a partner who prefers to remain in the shadows.

"We've known each other for forty years. We're both family and we've used together and we'll remember that time."

The center holds a license for up to 12 patients.

"We reserve one bed for the indigent and those who don't have the means to pay because we want to try to help them."

"Not anymore. In the beginning it was. Exposing yourself is not easy but I understand the purpose and I talk a lot about my life experience. About what I went through, I tell my life story as part of lectures with the aim that this mission will help families to diagnose and addicts to identify with my story and if I have saved more One soul thanks to the story of my life - as far as I'm concerned, I've done my part."

Do you have to be a strong person like you to successfully quit?

"You need to know what you need to do. If you're tired of the catastrophe of your life, there's no reason why you shouldn't build a backbone. In addition to the rehab center, there's been a guide for 12 years, a step group, and there are guys who have been with me for ten years. Seeing them build stability is My true happiness."

"True. The fear of it keeps me safe, but it doesn't paralyze me. As long as I get up in the morning and know what I have to do, there's no reason why I shouldn't stay clean. Beyond that, I don't think ahead. They ask me what will happen if the children... I don't think far ahead . I live in the moment. What will happen in another ten years? You never know. My children are healthy, I scatter them in the settings. I get up in the morning and know that I have to work. To do my service, my mission."

Experience living in a homely atmosphere.

Amsalem's rehab center (Photo: Niv Smithline)

• Of money

Tags

• weaning

• addiction