My experience with rehab programs such as inpatient or outpatient and meetings are as follows.
Rehab is intense. Your whole day is all abotu recovery. Learning and sharing woth others like yourself.
i have done inpatient and it is all recovery all the time. From 6 or 7 in the morning to 8 or 9 at night. You go to groups about different topics and learn skills for staying clean. Theres alot of interation between the patients. And a counselor to guide you.
I liked rehab. I am waiting to go to a sober house which is a halfway house. But is just like inpatient except you have a little freedom with a curfew. But you still have to go to an outpatient program everyday, a meeting and all rules still apply like in an inpatient rehab hospital.
Outpatient is like inpatient except you only go for a few hours a day and go home for the night.
Meetings in my experience is just a place to find people for support. Others who are in all different stages of recovery to learn from and find support from while living a normal life. Working, being a productive person in the world. Its an hour a day. And you choose how many times a week you want to go.
Meetings are more of a self help thing.
You have to make all the effort. No one can make you go to meetings. Not like being inpatient where you are required to go to groups and stuff.