Other treatment methods?
 

My AW recently had a bad fall while drunk and a visit to the ER. For the first time she admitted she needed to seek serious help with her problem. She does not however want to pursue "traditional" methods such as in-patient treatment, AA meetings, etc. She has read about alternative methods that focus on the health of the body by adjusting diet and exercise so the body doesn't crave alcohol. I will admit it makes a lot of sense to me to attack this problem from all angles. AA-to learn new behaviour (mind), diet and exercise-to help the body, and spiritual training for the soul. It does seem to be that it would be more effective than AA alone.

Comments please. My biggest concern is that she is stalling here and using this to avoid seeking the serious help she needs. If you know of any books or places that specialize in this please let me know.

THANKS!

Most alcoholics do that, hon.

They want to quit, but they want to do it painlessly, and their way. What they don't realize at the time is ... 'their way' is what got them into the trouble they're in.

Basically, they want to get sober, but stay high.

Sometimes, I have a hard time with the people who want to quit but don't want AA.

The Program and Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous .. saved my life.

It's no simpler than that.
But I had to be willing.
And I had to drop the pride card.

Doesn't sound like she's really there.

Prayers for your well being.

AA was the last place I wanted to go. There must be an easier, softer way. The answer is that " AA alone" offers a solution. 100 men and women recovered in the 1930's from a hopeless state. This was unheard of before that. The alcoholic was relegatted to sanitariums, jails, or the morgue prior to the founding of AA. Now what that tells me is that when someone asks doesn't someone need something besides "AA alone", the answer is simple....No. That doesn't mean that other tools can't be useful, but I have found that substituting those tools for AA will get me drunk.

I can only speak from my own personal experience I’m not an authority on what most other alcoholics do or don’t do. I’ll leave that job to the experts in the field of addiction research.

For myself, a personalized recovery program developed by a highly trained specialist in addiction disorders did the job exceedingly well. It started with inpatient treatment then aftercare, therapy groups, personalized; exercise, diet and psychological/ emotional consoling, sober friends support, psych Dr., general MD and meds, Zazen. I guess some would say I choose “the easier softer way” because AA was not an option for me. Not because AA wasn’t available but because it offended my core belief system. ;)

nice to meet you, whshy. i'm the mom of a recovering addict/alcoholic, so i understand your concerns. what are you doing about your own recovery? alanon really helps me.

blessings, k

AA is not the only way. The only criticism I have about this sight is that AA is constantly shoved down your throat - and the general census seems to be if you don't do AA, that you will fail.
I think exploring alternatives is wonderful, if your wife has any insight on something new it would be great if you posted it! My only concern would be if she needs to go to detox - that can be dangerous to do on your own.
There are also other support groups, besides AA that are available.

Good luck to you and your wife! Take care :)

FallGirl

At no time have I ever seen anyone "shove" AA down anyone's throat in this room.

Grant it, there are many personalities in here and some may seem abrasive once in a great while.

People just advise those in need how they are keeping sober. And statistically, it is AA that is keeping many of us sober. If there are other ways that work then God speed. I know that AA, has kept me sober, and because of that I choose to stick with the winners.



Tom

Hi Wyshy,

I do not know the exent of your wife's drinking but I can tell you from personal experience that attacking my drinking from a mind, body and spiritual perspective is what has saved me. I was a two bottle of wine a day drinker, sometimes three a day on the weekends. I have always known and research is now showing alcoholism and problem drinking is about the wiring of the brain. Talk therapy alone is not going to fix it. We need to replace our bodies with the nutrients we have depleted it of. I found hypnotherapy to be highly effective as well. For the time being I am also taking a prescription drug to further assist me in staying abstinent. I am basically following the program I discovered in a book called "My Way Out" by Roberta Jewell. It is a quick, easy read and I think both you and your wife would get a lot out of it. If you google it you will find the website where you can purchase it. Best of luck to you and your wife. I think she sounds like she is on the right track in terms of how she wants to approach this!!!

Sobriety is an inside job. We have to change our behaivors, thinking, beliefs and actions. Unless something changes, nothing changes.

Diet, excersise etc are no doubt benificial, but won't do a darn thing about my inferiority complex, for example. In fact, I usually swing the other way and overacheive to prove I'm better than.

I couldn't do that without divine intervention.

I see nothing wrong with exploring alternatives. The recovery rate in AA has been statistically proven to be no better than other methods...even spontaneous recovery. However, it seems to have worked for me the past 16 years. Good luck.

I followed the program outlined in the book "Seven Weeks to Sobriety" and still take many of the vitamins and amino acids to this day. We were also already in family therapy for a variety of other issues related to having teenagers, and my husband and I both finally came clean and confessed to the therapist that we had a drinking problem. She agreed that AA would not be right for me, and she suggested that perhaps an MD (Psychiatrist) could assist, and she referred me to a really awesome psychiatrist. The psychiatrist prescribed Campral to help with the cravings and also helped with treatments of my sleep disorders as well. The psychiatrist also recommended that I go to AlAnon and possible ACOA meetings and she also suggested that I join a small women's "relapse prevention" group therapy program there at her clinic. I did talk to the Dr who runs that group and it sounded really appealing to me, but the group met once a week during my duty hours, and I was already taking way too much time off work to see the therapist, psychiatrist, sleep disorder dr, orthopedic surgeon, allergist (weekly allergy shots), dentist, etc on top of taking three children to their Dr, dentist, and orhtodontist appointments, going to parent teacher conferences, etc. If that women's relapse prevention group had met after duty hours, I probably would have participated in that group and found it to be very helpful.

In addition to the vitamins and prescriptions, I also went on a healthy diet and exercise program, both of which have helped tremendously. (And I lost 55 pounds in the first year, which really boosted my confidence and self esteem). Joining SR and reading posts from others like me has also been a huge help. Another thing that has made a huge difference for me this time is educating myself on this disease for the first time in 20 years. Reading the book "Beyond the Influence" was really eye opening and has made a huge difference in my understanding of why I can never drink again. The fact that my husband quit with me at the same time and we got rid of all of the alcohol in our home also made a big difference.

Good luck to both of you!

The very best way to get sober? The method that the particular SOBER individual you are asking got sober! In other words it is the only frame of reference that the respondent has intimate knowledge of. Any other ways are outside of the individual's own experience and therefore they are simply antidotal and are in fact second hand knowledge.

Perhaps the AA folk are more vocal about their path, or it may be there are just more of them on this site. I had to assume that since my goal was sobriety and a whole bunch of sober people were constantly referring to AA as the way THEY GOT SOBER it made sense to me to choose that approach.

I can't comment on the viability of other ways since I have never tried them. I went with AA several years ago and since then I haven't been drunk, or had a drink. I have "missed the opportunity" to try other methods. In order to try those I would have to go out and drink again and that isn't something I care to do.

I will say that after a few weeks of not drinking I did begin a healthy regimen of exercise and much better nutrition, all of which I am sure helped me stay sober. In my case I needed AA to get my thoughts cleared up enough so that I could begin to treat my body better.

Best of luck to your wife, no matter what her choice of remedies. Please do not discount the value of desire. It all starts with the desire and the recognition of the problem.

I am reading that book right now...as I am going to try a 3 prong method..meeting diet exercise.....my weight has ballooned to 240 from 215 over the last year of very hard drinking...my wife who really is a very moderate drinker has agreed as well, no alcohol in the house period....we have friends over that have a wine cellar for a bar b q or lunch, we tell them leave the wine at home..they are our friends so they understand and do.

Good luck to you Carl11. It's great that your wife is supporting you in keeping the alcohol out of the house. You'll also feel a lot better when your weight starts to come back off with the help of the healthy diet and exercise program. I know I have a lot more energy and feel so much better after losing 55 pounds.

Not to de-rail the thread, but that's pretty hard to back up because AA keeps no records. Check the traditions, AA ought never be organized.......

As far as being a zealot. Guilty as charged. It saved my life and I've seen it work miracles in others lives.

Funny, tonight we covered tradition 11. Attraction rather than promotion. That's why I post here. To try and show people by my example that AA works.

Check the forum Secular Connections it has links to methods other than AA.

wyshy, consider going to Al-Anon meetings yourself. You may find a safe and supportive space to discuss your concerns. (I don't mean to imply that SR is not a safe and supportive space, but I feel there is really no substitute for personal interaction.)

I agree with Signal30 that I don't think people generally are shoving AA down anybody's throat here -- certainly not on this thread. Even GlassPrisoner, who self-identifies as "a zealot," is simply testifying to what he has seen with his own eyes.

There are, of course, examples of AA self-righteousness. I visited a meeting one time where a man said "I have five years of sobriety, and I never get tempted to take a drink. If you still think about drinking, it means you're too lazy to do the Steps the right way." People with more time quickly raised their hands to say that they still think about drinking. I've never been back to that meeting, I'm just glad it wasn't my first meeting.

I certainly don't think AA is necessarily the only way to stop drinking. I stopped drinking for nine years after realizing that I was drinking too much. I went to precisely two AA meetings, then decided that I didn't need it. I ultimately realized that I didn't believe I was an alcoholic, and thought I could start drinking socially. It worked out OK for three years, then I blew up my job with a drunken incident. Now I'm working on 90 meetings in 90 days -- today marks 60 days of sobriety.

And I love going to meetings -- it's always one of the highlights of my day. I've never been to an AA meeting where I didn't laugh. Sometimes I've also cried, but there always is laughter -- along with love, support and good advice.