My Story--Coldfusion
Sobriety is Traditional
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Orcas Island, Washington
Posts: 9,067
My Story--Coldfusion
Let me start a year before I quit. My wife and I had a serious alcohol problem, but we were far from blaming anything on our drinking habits. I had a lot of stress at work, and we both thought and hoped the world was going to end on December 21, 2012.
I became a hazard to myself and those around me, so in October 2011, we determined that I should be hospitalized for three days of psychiatric evaluation. But because we could not afford a hospital bill, we had to do an "involuntary" evaluation. This meant I was taken to the hospital by the police. A deputy and a social worker came to our home in a police cruiser, and drove me to the police station. I could not be "interviewed" for several hours because my blood alcohol content was too high, and I spent part of the waiting time in a cell. I was later taken to the hospital in handcuffs.
But alcohol was not the source of our woes, it was everything and everyone else. We were at a restaurant ordering wine within half an hour of my release.
In October, 2012, we ran out of money. Our wine expenses were approaching $40 per day, and we were both unemployed. We realized that my alcohol withdrawal was going to be a problem, so off to the hospital we went on Halloween, 2012. This time, I was humble and receptive to change. After a medical evaluation, I was sent to a no-cost, inpatient detox program, where I stayed a week. Several of the other patients were young adults addicted to heroin--in them I saw how low I could go, and how much I had to lose. Part of the detox program was nightly AA or NA meetings conducted by volunteers from different local groups. I saw how important meetings would be to my sustained recovery. I also saw that there was considerable differences among the groups, and that I would have to "take what I needed and leave the rest."
Actually, for several years I had known that meetings were the cure for alcoholism, but of course I was not an alcoholic. I had read that addiction affects more than just the primitive parts of our brain. Addictions also affect the prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain which evolved to support our existence as sophisticated social creatures. Thus, when this part of the brain malfunctions, a solution can be found in a therapeutic social setting. (4 March 2009; Neuroscience: "Rethinking rehab", Jim Schnabel, Nature 458.)
But AA is an old-fashioned, God-centered program. I had questions about things, and there was not always an opportunity to ask the questions at meetings. Some of the questions might even have been disruptive to the therapeutic environment. So I found SoberRecovery, where people discuss things like how their concept of God affects their recovery. Also, any time spent here at SR helps my recovery.
I became a hazard to myself and those around me, so in October 2011, we determined that I should be hospitalized for three days of psychiatric evaluation. But because we could not afford a hospital bill, we had to do an "involuntary" evaluation. This meant I was taken to the hospital by the police. A deputy and a social worker came to our home in a police cruiser, and drove me to the police station. I could not be "interviewed" for several hours because my blood alcohol content was too high, and I spent part of the waiting time in a cell. I was later taken to the hospital in handcuffs.
But alcohol was not the source of our woes, it was everything and everyone else. We were at a restaurant ordering wine within half an hour of my release.
In October, 2012, we ran out of money. Our wine expenses were approaching $40 per day, and we were both unemployed. We realized that my alcohol withdrawal was going to be a problem, so off to the hospital we went on Halloween, 2012. This time, I was humble and receptive to change. After a medical evaluation, I was sent to a no-cost, inpatient detox program, where I stayed a week. Several of the other patients were young adults addicted to heroin--in them I saw how low I could go, and how much I had to lose. Part of the detox program was nightly AA or NA meetings conducted by volunteers from different local groups. I saw how important meetings would be to my sustained recovery. I also saw that there was considerable differences among the groups, and that I would have to "take what I needed and leave the rest."
Actually, for several years I had known that meetings were the cure for alcoholism, but of course I was not an alcoholic. I had read that addiction affects more than just the primitive parts of our brain. Addictions also affect the prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain which evolved to support our existence as sophisticated social creatures. Thus, when this part of the brain malfunctions, a solution can be found in a therapeutic social setting. (4 March 2009; Neuroscience: "Rethinking rehab", Jim Schnabel, Nature 458.)
But AA is an old-fashioned, God-centered program. I had questions about things, and there was not always an opportunity to ask the questions at meetings. Some of the questions might even have been disruptive to the therapeutic environment. So I found SoberRecovery, where people discuss things like how their concept of God affects their recovery. Also, any time spent here at SR helps my recovery.
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