A friend did it twice but some of it NHS funded.
She still gets a few months together, then relapses.
I spent thousands on private counselling. Never worked. There was no other reason why I drank too much other than I liked alcohol too much and used it as my first choice of weapon to when things were bad. Also when things were good.
In the end I decided that the fact that alcohol made me really unhappy and the people I lived unhappy, that was enough for me to stop drinking.
I will have 5 years in Feb 2017.
Wish I had done AA first time round without spending all that money.
But thats me and hindsight is a wonderful thing. Maybe it was all part and parcel of what I needed to happen.
It took hard work at the start.
I had to put every ounce of what I had into not stopping by the shop for a bottle, declining invites, keeping super busy.
I never told myself it was forever that I was stopping for. At first a week, then a month, then 6 months, then a year.
I just told myself I would not drink that day. If things were still rubbish the net day, I could drink, but not that day. Nothing was ever that bad the next day that would require me to drink to get over it.
My relationship died, I was made redundant twice, a family member died, I had surgery, had a 40th, had friends 40th's. NOT A SIP!!!
It worked.
Have you been to your GP?
Have you been to AA?
I wish you the best xx