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Alcohalism treatment
by Hopefullperson, May 24, 2007 12:00AM
I'm realizing that I'm addicated to Alcohal and I need help. I drink about every other day, and its usually a lot. Please don't tell me how much of an idiot I am for what I do. Now, I'm admiting my problem and want to seek help for it. Are there are over the counter medicines that can help you quit drinking? Or is there anything I can do?
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My personal favorite as far as inital starting treatment is residential rehab. Addiction, to alcohol or other drugs, is very serious business. Unless it is arrested, it will eventually lead to one of three ends - jails, institutions or death. I don't think it's wise to let anything stand in the way of full and adequate treatment of a disease that will end up destroying your life.
Then, you can move on with lots (and I do mean LOTS) of AA. Many people simply start with AA (or NA) and do very well. I was not one of those. I needed long term residential rehab, if for no other reason than to provide a safe place while my mind and spirit recovered from the horrible self-inflicted damage of my addiction. In fact, I got a lot more out of rehab than just a safe place, but just a safe place would have been sufficient reason for me to go.
Both those who run rehabs and the "old timers" in AA suggest that newcomers initially immerse themselves in the program by committing to attend (and then actually attending) 90 meetings in 90 days.
Here is how AA says it works:
HOW IT WORKS
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked. thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol, cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power that One is God. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. we asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventure before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought.
[above from Chapter 5 of the Big Book]
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Good luck to you.
CATUF
(Day-716)