
Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.

deleted_user
I'm starting to think I was misdiagnosed... how much of all this "mental illness" was just from my alcoholism and bad coping skills? I'm working on going off my bipolar meds, and have gotten off the main one and am doing fine, some ups and downs but they're normal ups and downs due to stress I'm under. I'm going off the other 2 meds in the next 2 weeks. I was drinking at the time I was diagnosed, my boyfriend tells me it's common to get misdiagnosed when you're drinking. I'm wondering how much else was misdiagnosis? We thought I had multiple personalities... and since I got out of hte bad situation I was in, I'm not dissociating any more at all, or hearing voices, was that some screwed up coping mechanism to deal with the stress??? I'm starting to think I'm not so screwed up as the drs and everyone else think I am. I got out of a bad marriage, moved in with my new boyfriend 12 hours away from home, and I can't say all my problems have gone away, but I'm functioning now, dealing with things, learning to live life on life's terms. Yeah, I still get depressed, but I deal with it, and I have a great support system and people who pick me back up when I fall, something I never had back home.
I'm not getting to enough AA meetings though, only been to one since I got here 2 weeks ago, and haven't found a sponsor up here yet. We have to drive into town to go to meetings, and there's so much to do here on the farm, and trying to help my boyfriend's friend wiht a problem he's going through, it's just been next to impossible to get to a meeting. I need to get to one soon though and get a sponsor. Once I learn my way into town I can get to meetings on my own, but right now I don't even know how to get around this small town I'm in, much less get into Lincoln. I'll have to figure it out soon though if my boyfriend doesn't help me get to more meetings.
I'm not getting to enough AA meetings though, only been to one since I got here 2 weeks ago, and haven't found a sponsor up here yet. We have to drive into town to go to meetings, and there's so much to do here on the farm, and trying to help my boyfriend's friend wiht a problem he's going through, it's just been next to impossible to get to a meeting. I need to get to one soon though and get a sponsor. Once I learn my way into town I can get to meetings on my own, but right now I don't even know how to get around this small town I'm in, much less get into Lincoln. I'll have to figure it out soon though if my boyfriend doesn't help me get to more meetings.
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Keep trying to go to meetings. They say meeting makers make it. Sometimes if you get a hold of someone in the program, they will help to make sure that you get to the meetings.
I wish you much luck!!! Keep it simple!
Alecia
I really don't think I have all this mental illness that I've been told I have, I'm really doing so much better just since I got sober. I figured if I get off my meds and I get all screwed up again then maybe I do need them and I can go back on them. But I don't really think I need them, I think I was misdiagnosed.
Jason
Made it to a meeting Thursday to get my 6 month chip, it was a really good meeting, my boyfriend liked it too and wants to keep going to it every week. I need to get back to at least 3 meetings a week like my sponsor back home "required", so there's that Thurs meeting, and a Sunday and Tuesday night meeting in the next town over that we can definitely get to. So that would make my 3 meetings a week. Of course I should try to get to more than that, but I need to at least do that much.
I've thought a lot about all this, and realized how I never got much parenting, I was never taught how to deal with things really because with my parents i had to bottle up emotions, let everything build up inside, I couldn't express my feelings to anyone, I was taught that you're not supposed to. Then things would build up and I'd lose it. So when things built up way too much and things got really bad, they threw me on meds. I've been on meds off and on for almost 10 years now. Makes me think my problems and issues are more from not knowing how to deal with things, not knowing how to live life on life's terms and all that... since being in AA I've learned more of how to handle things, and to ask for help, and am learning to express my feelings to people I'm close to and be able to open up a little to some people, and with that I'm doing so much better. makes me wonder if I ever needed all those meds.
THis is my experience with BP and booze. I was diagnosed BP in 2000, while still a VERY active alcholic. I started taking my meds. In 2001, I got sober. Somewhere around early spring of 2004, I quit taking my meds, by May I had relasped. I had also quit going to AA meetings. I don't what contributed, if any to my relaspe.
I went back on my meds, started going to meetings in July 2004. I have been on meds and sober ever since.
Just my story.
If it is the case that you were misdiagnosed then it can be dealt with. Please seek help from a medic who understands alcoholism and mental illness!
It is true that many people are mis-diagnosed with mental illness, when what they are suffering from is alcoholism, but there are also many for whom the reverse is true, that they are alcoholic AND have a diagnosable mental illness.
The point about recovery is that it is not about the meetings you make, it's about the steps you take. Many meetings do not a sober alcoholic (necessarily) make.
PM me if I can help in any way.