Massachusetts inpatient programs and cocaine/alcohol

My friend's wife called me yesterday in tears.  Her husband (my friend of 20+ years) has had issues with cocaine and alcohol on and off for as long as I've known him.  But apparently it's gotten really bad recently.  Some of the things she mentioned:

- Their oldest daughter (16) has figured out what's going on (he has 3 kids)
- He's spending his unemployment check on coke and lying to his wife saying he didn't receive the check and ruining them financially
- He's drinking with coke and blacking out all the time, then driving
- Throwing up a lot
- Skipping his anti depressant (paxil) while on a coke binge, then taking 2 the next day and downing them with mass amounts of alcohol

She tells me he is willing to do what it takes to get cleaned up.  He checked into Nashoba Valley Hospital where they kept him for 3 days for evaluation then sent him home.  She's called their insurance company who says they will pay for weekly counseling and he should go to AA.  He's way beyond that.

In researching, I've found that Massachusetts does not recognize cocaine as a treatable addiction and have been advised that when talking to the insurance company, not to even bring that issue up.  But it seems alcohol inpatient programs are usually limited to 3 or 4 days, ASSUMING somehow one can get the insurance company to pick up the tab.

He is doing the cocaine alone, not with any friends, he has a number of different dealers and his family is of absolutely no help.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[mtgoat911]

yeah, health insurances do not see cocaine as a phsical addiction, do not get me started on that!!!
i do not even like cocaine but if i try one line the mental obseesion with that drug will have me doing it for a week straight
i suggest that he try na, not aa, not to step on aa's toes, i just found there to be more information on addiction in na liturature,
if you can get to an na meeting tonight, just ask around about inpatient tx centers with or without insurance
there are several ways to find tx, one is to make an appointment at your local vocational rehabilition center, most people think that this department is to help people with disibilities find jobs but they forget addiction is a disibility and this resource center will not only find you a tx center they will help you find a job
try this and see if you can get him in tx, detox does have a place for cocaine addicts its called "social detox"  i am sorry you insurance company did not tell you about that

[gizzy32]

Yep, most treatment centers don't recognize cocaine addiction as treatable, maybe cause it's not curable and there are no physical w/d's except for the horrible crash and cravings that can bring you to your knees. It's a shame drugs like cocaine/crack are hard to get help for, they completely destroy lives. Like mtgoat said, check out N/A, there were a few cocaine/crack users there when I went and most had signifigant clean time. As a cocaine addict myself I know that alcohol goes hand and hand. Alcohol caused immense coke cravings for me, ones that i just could not fight, so he will need to give up both if he wants to stay clean.

It's so important to get support, to have people that can help him through the cravings and hold himself accountable. He needs to learn the tools on how to stay clean and change thought patterns. Since he is willing to do anything to get help, ask him to come on here also, it's a great support group. I would love to talk to him. Good luck

[rawbar]

thanks guys, i did recommend he try getting online as one of his support mechanisms.  he isn't very technical but he was interested.  im trying to reach his wife as I found an NA meeting 5 miles from his house tonight.  also i spoke with an addiction councilor at a local practice who wants to talk to them and apparently has a lot of experience working with insurance companies and getting them to cough up the $$$.  i will be back with an update soon and hopefully with some good news and my hope is he'll hop on here as well.