Have you ever been in rehab, or known someone who has?

My ******** paid a fuckton for alcoholism treatment.. This was a outpatient thing. 10K a month.

Worked for a bit. Then a few months later back to the norm.

One afternoon I was in a really bad place. Fucked up hard. I was pretty much sure I had to be strapped to a bed for a month to get straight.

Tons of calls and yeah.. no help. There is literately no help if needed. And if you need help it is crazy expensive.

Still a drunk.. Just not malt liquor anymore.

Not me, but I have seen rehab be helpful for people, when the actual root issue was about family issues and living in an unsafe community. Rehab provided separation and time and space away from those things, and counseling and seeing other people in the same place and desire to get out of the place. It also offered some mindsets and practice with discipline and dealing with being away from distracting indulgences, etc.

Coworker of mine disappeared for a few months into an inpatient program for eating disorder. I don’t know her well enough to talk about it with her, but she came back much less terrifyingly skinny and has stayed that way, so I think it helped.

My brother has been in rehab for alcoholism several times. It worked for a while, but then he went back. Now, he’s on medication and seems to be staying sober. He still is using the precepts that he learned in rehab so I do think it was ultimately valuable.

@marinelife, did your brother go into treatment of his own volition, or was he made to go there by his wife, or because he broke a law and was sent to rehab? I wonder if it makes a difference, regarding the success of the treatment, if a person seeks treatment on his or her own decision.

@Kardamom, according to someone who should know, it makes all the difference.

During his third rehab, he told me (on family visiting Sunday), “Until the alcoholic is ready, nothing’s going to work. The alcoholic has to be ready.” That’s because the programs don’t work, any more than the recipe bakes the cookies. The people work.

He told me, “Some of the people in here are busy planning their next relapse.”

He didn’t make it that time either.

When he was good and ready, he came and asked for help.

In AA they say, “When you’re sick enough and scared enough.” He was. And that’s the time that worked.

Some people do well on the AA program and some people are practically allergic to it. That’s fine. There are lots of alternatives, some based on a 12-step model and some not. Some people do it all on their own. The difference that makes for success or failure is in the attitude of the addict.

People keep going to meetings because they don’t want to drink or use again. You hear of people who’ve been sober for 5 years, 18 years, 34 years, and think they’re cured, and now they can drink normally again. They’re going to have to start their counters all over again at day 1.

@Kardamom Different reasons. Sometimes me or one of my siblings took him. Sometimes (the last couple of times) he sought help on his own.

The isms last a long time, as they say. I go to Al-Anon meetings regularly. That’s a group for family and friends of alcoholics (and addicts). I can’t do anything about the drinker’s or user’s behavior, but I can do something about how it affects me.

That’s important because it does affect everyone close to him or her. We need support too, and I think it’s best when it comes from others who understand exactly what we’re going through.

I’ve known plenty, they say you get the best drugs there. Even in my hardest party days, I’d scare myself and just stop. It worked for me, but many friends have died over their various addictions, even after rehab.

Thanks @all. I have a dear friend, and a couple of co-workers who I like, that are pretty heavy alcoholics. I am not a family member or spouse, so I really don’t have any influence.

My own teetotaling ways tend to be looked down upon by a lot of people as “quaint” much in the same way as me being a vegetarian, something that other people have no interest in getting involved with.

It’s just painful to watch people, that I care about, who are in my same age group, going downhill, and guessing that they will die early, because of their drinking problems : (

@Kardamom Same, not a drinker but based on my own personal history and two alcoholic bio parents, people think I’m a little weird or a prude. I can go tear it up once in awhile and be fine, but I just don’t enjoy it as much as other people. My insurance literally suggested I have at least one glass of red wine a day, which is laughable to me. I keep it at the house and rarely have one glass. The good news is I’m a cheap drunk…lol, one or two glasses will floor me.

Thing is, it’s socially acceptable in all classes, to drink. No other drug is still acceptable from smoking to uppers to opioids, thus many think it’s okay to overindulge on a regular basis. Just continue to be a good example and hopefully they won’t learn the hard way.

@Kardamom,

> I am not a family member or spouse, so I really don’t have any influence.

That’s the thing. Family members and spouses don’t have any influence either. One of the sayings goes, “Nobody ever got sober because his mother wanted him to.” That’s why the sobriety programs focus on the user, and the family-and-friends program members focus on themselves. Obsessing over someone else’s addiction can make you sick, and trying to figure out the “why” of addictive behavior is pointless. We have to learn anew how to take care of ourselves and not someone else.

It is painful to watch the progress of someone’s disease. And if the person is close to you, it can be terribly destructive in all kinds of ways. As a friend you may not be able to do anything for them; but losing a friend can sometimes jolt a person enough to get serious about recovery. Only you know where your boundaries are.

No.

Hubby was in cardiac rehab after a heart attack over Christmas. After a lot of arguing with the health insurance, they finally agreed to pay for cardiac rehab. Things were going well until he began to have trouble with a knee that had had reconstructive surgery.

He called his cardiologist and told her that if he continued with cardiac rehab. that the therapist needed to either change the way they did his exercises or he needed to quit. The exercises were too tough on his knee, and if he continued, he’d soon be crippled The doctor never bothered to respond so he quit.

We’re going to join a gym and he’s bought a heart monitor that goes on his wrist. We will work with a personal trainer and try to approximate what was happening at cardiac rehab.