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.

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deleted_user 03/03/2008

There seems to be a few questions on DS about whether rehab works and what is it really like. Of course, there are as many different experiences as there are different people. The stats for recovery seem impossible to know.

There doesnt seem to be much information on the web about the actual experience of attending rehab just a lot of advertisements about different facilities and which celebrities are going to rehab. It is very expensive.

Personally, I went to rehab for 6 weeks and when I came out I drank again but I would not blame the rehab unit for that and not everybody drinks again.

For what it is worth, I will post my own experience and would appreciate other thoughts and views on the subject.

I have been sober since 1 May 2007 thanks to AA and the 12 Step programme that lead to my vital spiritual experience. My stay in rehab was just under 2 years ago and it was a rehab advocating the 12 Step programme of recovery.

Good:

A monitored detox

One-to-one counselling once a week with trained counsellors who monitored us daily and had recovered using the 12 Step programme

A chance to get away from my life as it was for 6 weeks and escape the every-day concerns to concentrate on getting better

A chance to study Step 1 in depth and keep a daily Step 10-style diary which we wrote last thing at night and discussed in group next morning

A chance to get to know other addicts from all walks of life and discuss everything we went through and had been through together in a group. At the same time we had to learn how to tolerate each other being thrown together 24-7

Themed group discussions

A regimented and structured routine following STRICT house rules and going to AA meetings twice a week

No contact with anyone on the outside apart from immediate non-addict relatives for an hour or so on Sundays and two outgoing phone calls per week to non-addict relatives

I hated all the CCTV cameras in the house but understood why they were there

The people who ran the rehab offered 18 months ongoing support by phone and encouraged us when we left to go back once a week to answer questions from those who had just gone in or were about to leave

They still encouraged me to go back and share my experience despite several relapses

Bad:

I formed some very close relationships being in an artificial environment and felt a bit lost without those people when I returned home, only one lived close by

It was scary leaving I felt I had not had enough time there and could not afford to pay to stay any longer

I was also scared by the feeling that everyone would expect me to come out cured - that was not just fear some people did expect me to be cured and more or less wiped their hands of me for a while after I relapsed

Outcome to Date:

Out of a group of twelve, nine (five men, four women) stayed in touch. From nine all relapsed except for one guy who fairly quickly got himself a sponsor to start the Steps and is still sober today. Three men and one woman stayed sober once having started the Steps, so that is five of us sober at present. One woman died as a direct result of her drinking almost a year ago and one man died as a direct result of his drinking just before Christmas. Two women are very seriously ill and still drinking. Both are in dire need of a liver transplant but cannot stay sober for a year to qualify for one.

Those of us still around regularly keep in touch and although we all live quite far away from each other we make an effort to meet up occasionally. We still all feel a close bond.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

I was sent to many rehabs, too many, same old stuff and every time I got out I drank again. It is a money making machine in my opinion but I am sure it helps some people. I didn't get sober until I made the conscious decision to choose life because it was obvious that I was going to die otherwise. That and AA.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

"the conscious decision".... doh!

deleted_user 03/03/2008

I went away for 3 months.I was scared to death of what would happen there.I was lucky enough to get into the facility with the best success ratio in the state.40% of who went in stayed sober.It wasn't a big hospitol-like place,just a big house.They only treat 9 men at a time,the counseling is one on one and in groups.After I was there 2 mos,I started getting passes to go home,adding 1 da a week to the pass until I was weaned back into the real world.It was state funded,but the waiting list is long and applicants are closely screened.The ones who want to get sober for the right reasons are picked.I've made few good decisions in my life,but that one was the best.I was dry and detoxed 2 weeks before I went in.They leave the medical detox to hospitols,focusing only on treatment.I had 2 sponsors while i was there,and they took me through the first four Steps.The program there is based on the AA/NA Programs and we went to meetings daily.I can't think of anything bad to say about it,it was what I needed,and saved my life.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

I made the conscious decision to put myself in rehab 7 years ago so I could start living a sober life. I wanted to get sober for years before that. 7 years ago I finally took action in a positive way to do so. To this day I'm grateful for that.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

I have been working on my sobriety since then. I did it for myself.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

#5 You made a great point, you have to do it for yourself. Or it may not stick.

marie32 03/03/2008

hi i never went to rehab the waiting list was to long i done it on my own in the house wich was the worst time of my life it still get to me this day the doctor give me tablets then left me to it with two kids on my own there needs to be more help for us not just aa dont get me wrong but when i was ill there was nothing noone i hope none goes though wot i went though big hugs to all

deleted_user 03/03/2008

I was in a treatment center for 28 days and I just got out on thanksgiving day. The program I was at worked on the first step and only the first step. we did alot of classes we were in them all day, we only had about 2 hours free time all day then at night we went to AA meetings and NA meetings. Then when I got out I went to outpatient center 2 days a week and now I am in after care where we meet one time a week.
I am very glad that I went because that is what worked for me and I am still kicking butt. I do have my bad days and I am still learning on how to change something in me but I do it one day at a time.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

Oh and to add I started with 9 people that week and me and one other guy are the only ones that have not relapsed. I still talk to them when they are sober and they have told me that they didnt work the program when they got out and thought they were ok....I was like what are you thinking but oh well I have to worry about me but I pray everyday that they will realize what they are missing.

terriDasilva 03/03/2008

Treatment is for those who want it, not those who need it. If you want it bad enough and are willing to go to any lengths to get it, you stand a chance. Treatment for me was a way to have time to deal with nothing other than my alcoholism. I did not go to any fancy facility. I went to the only one that would take me w/o insurance. I was there with 56 women & most had their kids..... imagine that one, detoxing and babies a screaming + 56 personalities... They were not good times but it was time i needed. I went in there with the mentality that I needed to learn how to quit living like I was living. I had 30 days to get my butt in gear & put some action behind what I wanted.What I wanted was to do something different & today I am still doing it..... Sobriety is not something that will stick to you, you need to stick to it.

deleted_user 03/03/2008

I have been to treatment (prefer this term to rehab--I think of debilitated elderly people post-hospital before being ready to go home w/"rehab")twice. The first time I was twenty five, spent 28 days and 20 grand (or rather, my family and insurance did)at a Hazelden facility. What was offered to me was excellent, but I was not ready to get well. Did I need treatment? Hell yes!! Was I honest, open and willing?? Hell, no! The second time I was thirty five. I spent 28 days in PHP, six weeks in IOP, and about ten grand (no insurance this time around). I was desperately ready to stop drinking. I have not ingested any mind altering substances in almost four and a half years. The difference was ME. Not the semantic differences between treatment facilities. Treatment affords you the opportunity to work on yourself without the distractions of the outside world. This is what a lot of people need, as in our sickened state, we are not able to get on track with all the issues of the outside world going on around us. Our everyday life acts as a distraction and excuse not to examine ourselves and get well. People balk at the cost, but relative to other medical costs, it is not that out of line. Also, get real--most of us hard core alkies lose jobs like we lose pocket change. I have held a steady job (and a half) for four years now. Before this,my money in lost wages from my disease trumped treatment cost any day. If you're honest w/yourself, a lot of people find this holds true for them also (one of our activities was to add up the tangible and intangible costs of our use--pretty mind boggling).
I am very pro-treatment, but only if the person is truly invested in getting well. Otherwise the resource, like any limited medical resource, is better spent on someone who can benefit from it.

deleted_user 03/04/2008

I went to two spin dries. 5 day medical detoxes. this sounds a lot more in depth. I got it on the second detox.

It's intersting that some died, some stayed sober and some are waiting for livers. Neat how you kept in touch.

deleted_user 03/04/2008

I went into rehab once for 7 months,and I come out once in 1999,never touched a drink since.I always think of the friends I made in rehab,ashame I did not keep in touch,such is life.I would do it all over again at the drop of a hat.Best thing I could have done for my self,and those around me.

Thanks for you wonderful share Gailly.

It was because of someone like you that I knew what to do when I hit my rock bottom.

If I did not hear a certain person mention rehab long before I hit rock bottom,I don't know where I would be.

God bless
mj

nickyj18022002 03/04/2008

Gailly, my experience was much like yours with very much the same good and bad points.

I too picked up a drink a few times after rehab and didnt have my last drink until a year after I was in there.

The vital thing for me is that treatment is only useful if followed up with working the programme in a 12 step fellow.

Rehab did not solve the problem for me but it did introduce me to the solution.

deleted_user 03/04/2008

I have been to inpatient treatment twice. Both times for 28 days. Relapsed after both. I have stayed in touch w/ many of the people in both of the programs - they all relapsed too. I heard that the overall success rate is less that 5%. That is pretty low when you consider the dollars being invested. Addiction treatment is a business just like any other business. I am sure that part of the reason I kept drinking once I got out was because I was pushed into going both times by mu husband. The first rehab (Betty Ford) my family got on board and all tried to convince me that I HAD TO GO ASAP. The second time around, my family stepped back and told my husband not to force it. He still did and threatened me with divorce if I didn't check myself in. Well, guess what - I did the 2nd rehab for him, to satisfy his request. And we're still getting divorced! In closing, I will say that I think the classes and therapy sessions in rehab are valuable, BUT, for me the problem really was being so removed from my life for a month and then the shock of coming back to reality. I had a stack of bills to pay, and about 200 phone messages to return. Everyone at my daughters school would ask me where I'd been and I made up a lie to avoid admitting I'd been to treatment (Betty Ford told us not to disclose that we'd done the program). I have very very bad feelings about inpatient treatment - it may work for some and thats great, but it doesn't work for me.

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