flower44

Is anyone else depressed on this website? I came here to look for encouragement, but have read several posts where it sounds that treatment didn't work.

dryjuliet

Hey there:

I know how you feel. It seems the only success on here is for AA folks, and Im not into that. What's your story?

Taking5

Treatment, IMHO, rarely works. Recovery is entirely different than treatment. I was forced to attend AA by a judge. Did a little jail time too. It did me no good. Many others here were forced into treatment or rehab by judges, spouses, bosses, etc. In my experience this doesn't work until we the addict/alkie decide to get sober for ourselves.

By the way I drank for 6 more years after doing jail before I found recovery in AA voluntarily. I still to this day have not been in treatment.

Hopefully some more folks will relate their success stories on this thread as well.

nandm

Treatment can and does work for some people. There are also many recovery programs besides AA. There is a link on this forum at the top, it is one of the "stickies" that provides information on a multitude of recovery programs. There is pretty much a program avaible for anyone who wants to get sober.

Yes, there are a lot of people here who have recovered through AA. My thoughts on that are that AA is the most well known recovery program therefor more people have found recovery through it. We do have many people here who have recovered via other methods and have a great quality of sobriety.

Stick around and hopefully you will find what works for you.

Many people who are trying to quit drinking find they have depression. It is not uncommon. There is a whole set of symptoms that can be brought on by alcoholism when we quit there is a web site on Post Acute Alcohol Withdrawl (PAWS) that you might find useful. I appologize but I no longer have the link due to computer issues. You might also find our mental health forum useful.

Again welcome to SR.

austingemini

Flowr44 - I hear what you're saying, some posts on here can be pretty #$%* depressing. So let's cheer it up some: learned yesterday I DON'T have lymphoma , I'm 11 days sober and feeling super, and I'm about to go shovel a hearty ice cream sandwich into my pie hole of a face :P I don't know about you, but I feel better

Ananda

much of the pain that we feel comes up on these threads, but so does the hope the sucesses and the feelings of joy.

There are many paths to sobriety, find one that works for you. As Nandm said there are examples of many paths (even in AA there are many different ways that people travel the path).

The pain I see on this site simply reflects the pain that I suffered during my drinking and still at times in sobriety.

I focus on the joy and hope that I find within the very same threads and sometimes in the verysame post.....seems life is full of both for most people.

Please keep coming here and seek what you need.

Oh yeah - ultimately treatment DID work for me...just not how and when i thought it should!

Signal30

The path to soberiety and freedom has many bumps and holes where we all fall from time to time. The important thing is, is that we get back up and keep trudging.

I'm happy most of the time. When I'm not happy, it is my job to use the tools that AA has given me to counter the unhappiness.


Tom

CarolD

Flower...
Have you been diagnosed with depression?
Do you have medical damage due to alcohol?

Why are you interested in quitting drinking?
Do you consider yourself to be an alcoholic?

I think these are important issues for anyone
to consider when planning sobriety.

There are many ways to stop drinking
the key is to find one that brings you joy.

Explore all options...

CarolD

dryjuliet....Welcome to our Alcoholism Forum...

Did you check out the links I gave you
in your thread in Newcomers?

....AA was only one of the list of programs.

Tazman53

Flower some one yesterday posted something to the effect that treatment (re-habs, detoxes, out patient & inpatient treatments) is nothing but an ambulance that allows an alcoholic to move into recovery.

This site is full of hope and support, we learn from those that are suffering, I have seen a lot of folks here who have been to re-hab after rehab and have wound up drinking again, they thought that treatments were cures. Some of them learned that detoxes and treatments were simply a bridge to recovery.

I have been on this site over a year now and have seen quite a few folks who stuggled for quite a while, many of them going through pure hell, that eventually found a method of recovery that worked for them, these are the people that give hope to others.

Experience - We all share our experience, from the experience of others we learn what has worked for others and what has not worked for others. That is not to say what works for one person will work for everyone, but when one truly wants to stay sober they reach the point where they are willing to try anything to get and stay sober, even things that they swore they would never try.

Strength - We gain strength when we hear people speak of overcoming difficult times without drinking due to the strength they have found in their recovery.

Hope - We gain hope here when we read success stories of others, when I first got sober I got hope when I saw people pick up chips for more time sober then I have. When I first came into AA I got no hope from someone picking up a chip for staying sober 30 years!!!! I could not fathom staying sober that long, I could not stay sober 1 day, little lone a week!!! I did get hope when I saw someone pick up a one month chip..... a month I could understand, I could not understand a year without a drink!

Treatment centers deliver people to recovery programs, it is then up to the person leaving a treatment place to decide if they are willing to work on recovery or not. There is no cure for alcholism, but there is recovery from it.

Juliet there are folks on here with fantastic recovery that do not use AA, yes AAs are in the majority, but AA is not the only path to recovery. Even the founders of AA knew that and said so openly. Bill W. & Dr. Bob continued to seek other methods of recovery in the hope of helping those alcoholics recover who could not recover via AA.

Juliet when one is willing to go to any lengths to get and stay sober they will be willing to try numerous programs until they find one that works for them. Please do not give up, there are enough programs to choose from that anyone who truly wants to recover can find one that will work for them.

One thing I will say is to not give up on any program until you have followed every single suggestion they make in their program. I have found recovery in AA by working the entire program, not just the parts that were easy, but all of them.

No program can be deemed to not work for someone if they are not doing the entire program.

Recovery is there for any one who is willing to do what ever it takes to get and stay sober, just keep working at it.

faith08

aa never did me any good....it's definitely not for me (but if it works for u, work it)
i agree with others-if you look at the stickies at the top of the alcoholism main category there are different options. im on day eleven and am just doing whatever works. it varies from day to day but the one thing i do every day is come here and post at least once.
the gratitude thread (there are several) is my favorite. all you have to do is be grateful and it's brought something good into my life. and more than my gratitudes i love to see what everyone else is grateful for. it's a "feel good" that i love starting my morning off with.
i wish you the best--glad to have you here--welcome--welcome.
you won't meet any better people or better supporters anywhere than here at sr.
keep coming back and keep posting

least

I found treatment/rehab to be very helpful, but after all, it is a very protected environment and it's only after going home that you are aware of the struggle to stay sober. I felt great after being sober for days in rehab but after going home I was again able to get alcohol - which is not available in rehab - and could drink or not drink as I chose. And it's so easy to drink when no one's telling you that you can't.

I feel like my own will is just not strong enough. I need God's help, but even so, I often don't listen to Him...

Rehab is very useful but it's up to the person after returning to "real life" to stay sober. Some of us find that really really difficult.

tommyk

It sounds that treatment didn't work?

That's not a 'sound', it is someone stating the FACT that treatment didn't work for them.

I'm not being harsh, just truthful - treatment most often does NOT 'work' and people die. The people end up DEAD. There are all too often jails, institutions, and death at the end of the road for those who's treatment didn't 'work'.

Accept it all as a stern warning: MAKE YOUR OWN TREATMENT WORK.

(Recovery can be a VERY depressing process in light of the high number of failures. Your recovery does not have to fail though.)

It's not just you, and recovery is depressingly SERIOUS stuff. Welcome, keep coming back.

Sugah

On "success for AA folks":

I think one of the reasons folks who use a 12 step program to get sober seem happier is that it teaches us that service to other human beings is so important. It teaches us that we're not God. So long as I focus only on how things affect me, I can't be happy - because I can't control the thoughts, feelings and actions of other people to suit me. Once I recognize that I'm part of a greater whole, I can find some peace and serenity.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

BackToSquareOne

You also can't forget that anxiety and depression are very common conditions in alcoholics. Many people use alcohol to self treat these conditions even though alcohol really just makes these things worse. It's very important to address these conditons with your doctor as they will be major roadblocks in any recovery attempt.

Signal30

I don't really know one fellow alcoholic that didn't suffer from some form of depression. In my non-doctor opinion, alcoholism and depression go hand in hand.


Tom

RobbyRobot

hi flower,

welcome to SR. no course its not just you. i see that you have already gotten many responses on a few threads so you have got some great ES&H from the forums. terrific, and here's some more. ummm, when you say treatment didn't work, what are you meaning?

depression is a managed condition/illness/state of being and i don't know that it can be treatment cured away in every case. or any case. depends on so many individual elements.

there is help that does work. what is actually your own problem? please.

Surlyredhead

It is a sad statistic the we, as Alcoholics do not have great odds of recovering. This is true with or without treatment, AA or other support groups. There is a lot of recovery here on SR, but think about the masses who are not here, or even in recovery yet!!! This is why we MUST want to get and stay sober, more than anything else...ANYTHING else!!! I know that, for me, I have to put sobriety first in my life...without it, I am not a very great person, not a good Parent, Daughter, you name it!!! I went into treatment in April of 1994, it was my last hope, I had to learn to live all over again...from the most simple things, like sleep at night, awake in the day!!! I was truly at my bottom, there were two choices left, get better or die. I chose to live...that was over 14 years ago and I am still sober. That is not to say that treatment is the right choice for everyone, nor is AA, I am here to gather the support I need on the various forums and leave the rest. I am also here to give what ever support I can, take what you need and leave the rest, recovery is a very personal thing.

About getting depressed, of course I get depressed...just like anyone else! But in recovery, I know that it will pass, even if I have to work on making it go away. Life happens to us in recovery too, and sometimes, life sucks!! But it is so much better now that I am sober, I am truly happy most of the time, I love myself today, please don't give up because you think recovery is all black and white...it is a rainbow of colors...choose your favorite and go with it!!

Cathy

sobergirl77

My own "depression" is related to alcohol. Sure, I have other issues from childhood and stuff, but they didn't make me depressed. But the fact that alcohol is tearing me limb from limb and destroying me emotionally, spiritually and physically is what is making me depressed.

I am giving AA's 12 steps a serious try. I'm on Step 4, and according to many AA folks, I HAVE to get through this step or I will continue relapsing and being miserable. So I'm dedicating a couple hours tonight to finishing it.

Tazman53

sobergirl I did find relief in the steps, actual salvation, but every one is different, alcoholism can and does lead to clinical depression. Although I did not do any treatment other then AA after I came out of detox, I have never heard a person in recovery, in or out of AA say that it was not beneficial.