sobergirl77

I have read a couple of threads here just now about intensive outpatient rehab, so I hope this thread is in the right place.

I now have a therapist and psychiatrist because I can't seem to stay sober for more than 10 or 11 days at a time and end up on a terrible binge. My last one was last week and so awful I am still suffering the physical consequences. Anyway... the place I go for therapy has an intensive outpatient group therapy program for alcoholism and drug addiction. It's groups of 8 or less in a meeting, meets 3 mornings per week for 3 hours, and you see a counselor individually once a month.

I'm strongly considering doing it, because as I'm working my 4th step in the AA program, I realize I have some underlying issues (mostly self-esteem) from childhood that probably need to be dealt with, abandonment issues from my alcoholic parents that died when I was in my teens, the whole nine yards.

But I'm going to pray about it for a while longer and see if doing my 4th and 5th step help... and continue seeing a therapist twice a month.

I'm willing to do what it takes to "get better". I'm tired of being sick and relapsing. I do nearly everything my sponsor tells me to do and still can't stay sober for long. My sponsor is getting frustrated with me. I mean, I go to meetings nearly every day (went to probably 150+ in my first 60 days in the program), read the big book, pray every morning and night, believe and trust in my HP which to me is God, do service work from time to time... I'm working sporadically on my 4th step. Yet still that incessant urge sends me to the darn liquor store every week and a half or so.

After last week's relapse, my entire body felt like a truck ran over it. I felt stabbing pains in my chest, stomach, tingling in my legs and arms and feet, couldn't eat or drink anything. I had drank straight hard liquor for several days and barely ate a thing. If I keep on like this it'll kill me, and none too pleasantly. And I'm only 30.

Anyway, I'm sorry to ramble on. If anyone has any experience with a program like I mentioned above, can you tell me how it went for you - like if it helped you grow emotionally? What are these meetings like?

Thanks in advance!

Tazman53

I have no experience with IOP, but I can tell you that for me calling my sponsor or someone else in the program BEFORE I drank stopped me from drinking. IOP from what I have heard in most cases is a tremendous help for a lot of folks, it sure can not hurt, I never heard of any one getting to much recovery! LOL

CarolD

I have no experiences to share
I don't think they were around when I quit.

I too was habving trouble staying sober in AA.
It took me 5 years to earn a 1 year medallion.

I do not have a back history such as yours
but of course...we all have issues to overcome.
I would be using whatever I thought beneficial..

Anyway...I read a book....."Under The influence"
that convinced me to finally quit.
Amazon usually has it as well as the newer
"Beyond The Influence"

Yes...I do use God and AA
to stay in the joy of recovery...

Blessings...

Cathy31

Also no experience on this, however I can see you're trying hard : suggestion: go back to step 1...you sound like you need a firmer platform to work from re being powerless over alcohol as well as unmanageability - someone on here said the only step you gotta do perfectly is step 1...I'd go straight back there if I were you.
Good luck - keep trying - don't quit before the miracle happens!
Cathy31
x

findingout

Hey sobergirl77,

I started recovery in an IOP program. It worked for me because at the end of the 6 week program, I was convinced that I was an alcoholic, that the problem would not just go away, and that I would not be able to maintain my sobriety without change and without help. If I hadn't gone through IOP, I would never have committed myself to making A.A. and N.A. work in my life by changing my life. Initially, I wanted IOP to be some kind of six week magic bullet, to get my official certificate of sobriety and move on with my life. I just did not want to accept the idea that I would always be in recovery or I would be using. I wanted IOP to cure me, to make me not an alcoholic, but that didn't happen because it cannot happen.

I also learned a good deal about my disease during the six weeks. No earth shaking information that I could not have found in another way, but information I needed to know and IOP was where I learned it.

One thing I have read is that treatment, inpatient or outpatient, is the ambulance that delivers us to a long term recovery program. It's not a short cut to sobriety. In my case at least, that has proven to be a true observation.

Tazman53

Very well said.

RufusACanal

sobergirl,

Good step forward. Few people have been through the number of treatments that I have and failed again afterward; I was never really ready to stop drinking. Treatment never got me sober; treatment gave me information about the disease and time to heal. Until you are completely willing and without reservation to not drink again, find and ask a Power Greater than you for assistance and work diligently daily to live differently, you will not stay sober. If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, you are ready. With healing the disease will return and unless you have a defense you will return to where you came.

Do not give this time, ask God to be your Principle and follow the directions of the many winners in recovery around the tables of AA. Do not waste your life please on another spree.

Ananda

I did IOP.....it helped get me ready to go to in patient which got me to a place where I could begin to actually BE sober.

My expereince is that i drank all the way through IOP...it still helped, but I think it works better if you don't drink.

flower44

I start IOP tomorrow night - so I'll let you know how it goes!

mrhodes01

I've started IOP 8 times and finished 5 times...I'm a slow learner.

I find it's definitely helpful to get over the sobriety hump, but it takes a sustainable long-term recovery program (one day at a time, of course) to STAY sober. It's been my experience that I leave IOP, feel much better, stop going to meetings, and then I drink and screw up my life again. Repeat cycle

Good luck, just keep coming back!

MR

PaperDolls

I just started IOP on Monday. So far so good. Tonight will be night number 2.
The group on Monday was very good.

The IOP I'm in, does not allow you to be there under the influence. They'll send your home ........ or rather, make you wait for someone to come pick you up. Either way, if you're drunk they don't want you there. I'm sure all are different.

Good luck.

Gertiegirl

Thanks for this thread. I begin my IOP in a few weeks when my youngest child starts school, and am a bit freaked out now - cause mine is 9am till 3pm every weekday for 8 weeks. Gonna be pretty intense! Im still uming and ahing about actually committing to it. The other thing too though - is beforehand I am undergoing a medically managed diazepam detox, then going straight on naltrexarone. Have you considered getting medical intervention as well to help you get dry, stay dry and then do the IOP?

lizw

Never finished the residential as I hooked up with a guy so was asked to leave.

Finished the other though. Use to met 3 times a week, Mon, Weds, Fri 9am - 12noon. Heard some funny stories, met some interesting people - one being the leader of a local gang - learnt a few things about my brian and it gave me something to do since I was too nutty to work, but that is about it.
I got sober and stayed sober because of AA.

How much time you spending with AA peple outside of meetings? And I don't mean having coffee straight after the meeting either. Like talking to them on the phone, meeting for lunch etc...

sobergirl77

What is involved in a medical invention? Although I am still getting anxiety and other symptoms from my last spree, I don't think I need any meds this point. I was using Librium for withdrawal symptoms nearly every time I relapsed and am now out of it. I think I'd be better off without becoming dependent on another substance, whether it be medically prescribed or not. I just want to be free from it all.

Being without librium is one thing keeping me from going on another spree... I know I'll have to suffer the horrors all over again, and I do NOT want to go there again!

tommyk

In my opinion the Intensive Outpatient Therapy can only help, there's no downside, right?

(Medical intervention = ask your doctor if he/she thinks you need anything.)

sobergirl77

No, I can go days (sometimes almost 2 weeks) without touching a drop of alcohol, then I relapse. Medical intervention is not necessary at this point. I am OK physically, it's the mental and emotional that are falling apart.

But I'm working on my 4th step tonight - all night if necessary - until I am [mostly] finished with it. I have GOT to get through these steps. If the steps don't work for me, then I will do the IOP.

Thanks for everyone's advice and feedback!

tommyk

"If the steps don't work for me, then I will do the IOP."

Ask yourself: are you already planning what to do (the IOP) if/when you relapse?

Suggestion: do EVERYTHING YOU CAN now, before any hint of a relapse. Assume that relapse is NOT and option and that relapse will NOT occur under any circumstances.

Just give it some thought.

Tazman53

There is no such thing as to much recovery in early sobriety.

jjaaam

Just from my experience, no rehab or IOP will work unless YOU WANT IT TO.

At one period in the last few months, I went to residential for a week. Got out and drank on the way home. Was in IOP for a week and a half and got kicked out because I contined to drink. Went right back into another residential program the next day for two weeks...got out and drank on the way home. I went to their IOP for four weeks...and spent the first 2.5 weeks drunk almost every night. Something finally happened and I am about 45 days sober now...I guess I was just FINALLY READY.

I know for a FACT that every time I said "Oh...AA just isn't for me...residential isn't for me...IOP isn't for me" it was just a veiled excuse because deep down I KNEW I was going to drink again.

Again...this is just my experience, so please do not take offense to my opinions.