mimi54321

I've been referred to a rehab centre for alcohol, drugs and eating disorder. I feel that I can't do this alone and even with AA I still feel I need a bit more.

So I was wondering, have you done rehab and did it work for you?

M

walkertall

Rehab worked for me albeit it was outpatient. Good luck.........

aasharon90

Hi Im Sharon and Im an Alcoholic.

By the grace of my HP and people
like you here in SR I havent found
it necessary to pick up a drink of
alcohol since 8-11-90.

For that and u I am truely grateful.

Rehab was not by choice 19 yrs
ago. It was a family intervention
that sent me there. It was them
doing for me, getting me help,
I couldnt do for myself.

Feb 1990 a bad accident, 10 day
hospital stay, wasnt enough to
set me straight. I had to try again
and in a few months my progression
to drink was sooooo rapid i wanted
to die.

Rehab for 28 days with a 6 months
aftercare program tact on set me
on the path of recovery.

Rehab gave me a good head start
to clear alcohol from my system
then recieve some tools and know-
ledge of my alcoholism.

I took those tools and knowledge,
suggestions and followed them.

There were many sober people in
meetings sharing their own ESH
that i knew if it worked for them
then it could for me.

So i kept going. Kept listening.
Kept absorbing. And kept applying
the steps to my everyday life one
day at a time to get me where I
am today.

I am extremely grateful for what
my family did for me. And Im
extremely grateful for the recovery
program of AA.

It has become an awesome way
of living life happy joyous and free
from the grips of alcohol.

bananagrrrl

Rehab helped me as much as it could help a person that was not ready to stop drinking yet. I desperately needed to dry out with the help of doctors. The therapy was great.

Bottom line was, I still didn't think I had a problem. I got out and drank again. I almost lost my marriage over drinking. I have to credit God, AA and my sponsor for stopping drinking.

I encourage you to try rehab. You sound like you are willing and ready.

Hugs to you.

least

I was in rehab three times in early '08. Like Bananagrrl, I wasn't ready to stop drinking yet so I always drank after getting home. What a waste of my time. It took me at least a year after the third rehab to achieve any solid sobriety, and then I blew it at six months. Now I depend on some AA meetings, daily visits to SR, and my weekly counseling session. Am coming up on six months and feeling for the first time that I can stay sober.

If you go to rehab, make good use of the tools they teach you. Don't mess up and throw it all away when you get home like I did... I wish you the best.

penny74

No, not at all.
But that was down to me, not to rehab...

aasharon90

At the time i went into recovery
i was with 2 small kids and 8
yrs into my marriage. When they
told me i wasnt gonna stay sober
at 2 weeks when i was to be
released, i asked them what else
could i do.

I was already away from my family
for 2 weeks and they wanted to send
me to a halfway house out of state.

At that point, i begged them to let
me stay in rehab with the 6 week
aftercare program when released.

I was WILLING to do what ever it
took to stay right where i was and
not to be away from my family any
longer than i had to.

Sure enough i did follow instructions
and continue to do so even today.

crisco

Rehab created the 30 day break that I need to get sober. It got me into the meetings. It got me my addiction thearpist that I still see after 18 months of soberity. I got my first sponsor that I went through rehab.

I got 18 months sober and I would be dead without AA. I have the tools to maintain my soberity in very difficult situtations where people are smoking weed and doing other stuff. So it does work. Keep coming back. Call your sponsor every damn day that I went to.

artsoul

Hi mimi - I went to rehab twice: once twenty years ago and once ten years ago. I had many years of sobriety each time. I've suffered from depression all my life and finally got some help for that too. I also discovered with testing at the treatment center that I suffer from OCD tendencies. I feel going to treatment was the best thing I could have done for myself at the time and am still happy that I had the chance to go. So if it were me, I would do it. If the door is open for you to go........

I was considering going again this time, but it's much more complicated as I'm now divorced, still have a teenager at home, plus I'm self-empoyed. And since I've been through it two times, I pretty much know what it's all about.
If treatment worked for me, why did I relapse? I think it was a combination of the company I kept, my lack of gratitude for sobriety, and mostly because I thought I was more "mature" and could try drinking again. We all know about that one. It took the third and final strikeout to convince me.

Dee74

I haven't done rehab mimi but I wish you the best of luck

D

findingout

Yes. My six week outpatient rehab followed by another 9 months of a once a week early recovery group worked, but it was only one piece of my puzzle. I do not believe I could have remained sober if I had not also made an ongoing commitment to the spiritual discipline provided by a 12 step program. But that is just me. Well, not exactly just me. I have a number of friends who started at their recovery at the same rehab center and followed the same path pointed to by the 12 step programs. I am pretty sure they would all say that rehab worked too.

Bard

I've done both in and out patient rehab. It wasn't a complete waste I did learn some interesting things but I ultimately fell off the wagon many a times since then. It's not a guarantee to keep you sober but it can be a enlightening experince.

wren

I tried inpatient detox/rehab for a week--several years ago. Even though it was my idea, it wasn't a fix, and I started back drinking a week or so later (while on antabuse).
My problem, I think, was that I didn't do any follow-up outpatient stuff that they recommended.

I would have gone back, if I had had the money.

Mark75

I went because I pretty much had too. I resented it at the time, still have a little... But I don't know if I'd have been able to get sober without it. I stay sober and have serenity because of AA.

It's what you make it, during but especially after.

Mark

tellus

I spent nine days in an inpatient rehab facility at the start of 2008. It was actually a really great place -- only six beds, round-the-clock scheduling (i.e. no free time), and good counselors. My counselor was a young tattooed woman, maybe five years older than me, and I really felt comfortable with her. We went to lots of meetings, both AA and NA, and held our own as well. The enforced meeting attendance was maybe the most important part of rehab for me, as it got me in the habit of going every day. (I didn't stay in AA, but it was vital for me the first few months.)

That said, rehab worked for me because I wanted it to work. I was desperate to get sober, and St. Clare's provided me the time and support I needed to kick-start my recovery. One of the other patients, a girl just a little younger than me, did NOT want to be there. She got absolutely nothing from the center, and was kicked out due to non-participation and disruptive behavior. Rehab can work, but only if you work with it.

viavai

I needed rehab--not just detox--and I went to Hope by the Sea (often featured on that show "Intervention") for thirty days; it was amazing. Three years later, I went to the Renfrew Center for my eating disorder (because, even with AA, I had not totally surrendered)--and that was MUCH harder on ALL levels, since anorexia is my primary addiction. If you have the opporunity, take it. As other posters have said, it works if you are willing. With the ED, I wasn't necessarily willing, but I did it anyway--because there was a part of me that truly did want to get better.

I am crazy, insane busy with schoolwork right now, but I would absolutely make the time to talk to you, so PM me if you want.

stugotz

Kinda on the fence here. I had to be willing to do whatever it took to get sober.

rws177

Rehab helped me out a lot. I went 3 months without drinking then had a binge, now I am 6 months sober and using the tools that I learned in there. Plus I felt it was a safe detox and I couldn't get booze even if I wanted to so I had to dry out.

BullDog777

i went to rehab, and stayed sober a year before i relapsed. i had only been drinking about 4 years at the time. i wasn't anywhere near ready to quit.

however, the next time i was able to put together that kinda time was roughly 13 years later when it was either sobriety or death....literally.

take this as an enormous gift and run with it. you never know how badly this disease will grip you the next time you think you can outsmart this horrible obsession. it took me 13 years after that rehab stint to put together any time.

good luck, and God bless.

keithj

My path leading up to recovery in AA started with seeing my doctor. Tried to manage the alcoholism with depression and anxiety meds. Failed utterly. Then came 1-1 counseling. Failed utterly. Then a 2 month stint of willpower, followed by IOP outpatient treatment, both failing utterly. Then came rehab, failed utterly, then AA with all the service work and fellowship I could want. Failed utterly.

Then came surrender to the simple spiritual program of AA. A life changing experience and a completely new outlook on and reaction to life. I haven't drank since and I know a new freedom I never thought possible.

In my opinion, the hierarchy of seriousness and effectiveness puts rehab as less serious and less effective than abandoning oneself to the program of AA. Many, many people have gotten sober in AA after multiple stays and failures in rehab.

If what you are doing in AA doesn't seem like enough, ask yourself, 'What Step am I on?' If you can't answer that, or haven't taken action on that Step today, then your solution may be to really work the program of AA instead of going to rehab.

Rehab has its place and can be very useful if one can't stop drinking long enough to have a spiritual awakening.