Originally Posted by
helpformyson 
My 22 year old AS went through rehab and was doing well until he got into the 1/2 way house. The first week he went into the 1/2 way house, he got his paycheck and bought drugs, tested dirty twice and was thrown out. He moved to another 1/2 way house...same story. He is now living with 2 high school friends. One takes loracet (hip pain problems), they all smoke pot, and my son shoots oxy's, but claims he has "only relapsed 3 times" since January and he has been clean for 2 weeks. He also works with "recovering" addicts. He claims that he needs to be around other "recovering" addicts for support. He also claims that during rehab, his counselor told him that it was better if he had support from other "recovering" addicts.
He is right on this fact, however, there is a distinction thats made clear to patients in rehab between newly recovering addicts and old-timers. Once out of rehab I was told to stick with the winners (i.e people who had a year or more of sobriety) reason being that these people are much less likely to relapse and also have the ability to talk me through a craving or urge should one arise.
Originally Posted by
helpformyson He claims that he does not enjoy Alanon or any other programs of that nature.
Not sure if you meant AA or NA instead of Alanon. He should not be going to Alanon, that is family members // friends of an addict / alcoholic to go to. Those types of meetings will be beneficial to you as opposed to him.
If you meant NA or AA, I can tell you that I used to say the same things to my parents. I did not relate to people in meetings because I hadnt lost anything, been arrested, stolen from people , yadda yadda. The core reason I did not like meetings was because these people were actually putting forth
real effort to stay clean and truly wanted a better life. I just wanted to keep using but trick my parents into thinking I was cleaning up.
Originally Posted by
helpformyson I want to take him to an addiction psychiatrist (sp?), but feel as though I am wasting my money and time, since he has no desire to be away from other addicts. I have set an appointment for next Monday. He has agreed to go.
Please....any opinions, experiences or suggestions would really be helpfull.
I saw an addictionologist who helped me understand a lot of the changes that were occuring in my brain during use and withdrawal of the drug. He helped me a lot with why I thought the way I did while using or when trying to clean up, atleast from a bio-chemical point of view. He was very informative and never judgemental (which is HUGE for addicts, when we are judged by ones we love or friends we completely shut down. nothing good can get accomplished).
I only saw this guy for the first 3 months of my sobriety (was paying 225$ per visit and was seeing him twice a week) If I had insurance I would most likely still be seeing him as I feel he taught me some very essential coping mechanisms for daily life.
I go to NA meetings these days which is like therapy as well, but, its free!!!
Hope that helped some. Stay strong and I hope your son gets on the path to recovery. ~~ scott
oh btw, he should
NOT be living with people that are using a similar drug to his. (you said he likes OC's and his friend has scripts for lorcet??) that will just never work.