Telling my doctor Im addicted. Any ideas or tips?
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2021
Posts: 60
Telling my doctor Im addicted. Any ideas or tips?
Life isn't fun and going through depression and anxiety chronically makes me reach out for alcohol. Slipped up last night and drank again. I was 6 days no alcohol but those who 6 days I was crying and I was a wreck also I tapered off long term use of benzos..... And this SSRI I'm taking isn't doing anything. So I plan to tell the doctor I would like treatment. Do u reccomend taking the pill that makes you nasous if you drink? What all can I bring up and should I bring up at the appointment ?
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,435
I think most people, whatever country they're in, have shared that it's important to share everything.
Be honest. Don't hold back or minimise anything.
Antabuse isn't for everyone either so I'd be guided by what the doctor says.
good luck
D
Be honest. Don't hold back or minimise anything.
Antabuse isn't for everyone either so I'd be guided by what the doctor says.
good luck
D
bona fido dog-lover
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: SF Bay area, CA
Posts: 99,776
Antabuse does just make you nauseous, it can make you violently ill. I have read accounts of people here who drank while on it and got horribly sick.
Tell your doctor that you want to stop drinking, but are having trouble doing that. Ask him/her for help.
Tell your doctor that you want to stop drinking, but are having trouble doing that. Ask him/her for help.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Michigan
Posts: 5,382
Thanks karthas! So sorry for the pain you’re going through! I wasn’t coming off the benzos like you when I sobered up! Mainly alcohol! But one thing I knew is it was one big ball of pain every time I made another attempt at sobriety!
One time I was so depressed trying to sober up I was taking a bunch of antidepressants and then threw in a bunch of cocaine and non-alcohol cough syrup to get high so it wouldn’t interfere with the Antabuse in order to cope with the pain of staying sober!
One night I had a temper tantrum and took the whole bottle of antidepressants! Thank God my mother heard me fall out of bed and found me unresponsive and called the ambulance! Or I wouldn’t be here today! They had to pump out my stomach and after the hospital stay threw me in a psyche ward! These attempts at sobriety went on for 10 years straight! I now have 29 years of continuous sobriety and am a member of AA and help other alcoholics! How I pulled out of it I don’t know! It’s a miracle!
And you can pull out of it too! Keep fighting! Keep seeking help! Yes I would tell the doctor everything! From my experience most doctors have very little training in addiction and alcoholism! I found it helped to see a doctor that specialized in addiction!
I took Antabuse for years and it can be another tool in the sobriety tool box to help you stay sober if done correctly! There were times I would quit taking Antabuse for several days so I could drink without getting sick! But eventually by the time I made it to my fourth and final treat center I used it correctly and didn’t skip any days for a year straight! After that year of staying sober I figured this was the big test! I got off of the Antabuse because at that time I made improvements mentally and was on my way to long term sobriety!
One time I was so depressed trying to sober up I was taking a bunch of antidepressants and then threw in a bunch of cocaine and non-alcohol cough syrup to get high so it wouldn’t interfere with the Antabuse in order to cope with the pain of staying sober!
One night I had a temper tantrum and took the whole bottle of antidepressants! Thank God my mother heard me fall out of bed and found me unresponsive and called the ambulance! Or I wouldn’t be here today! They had to pump out my stomach and after the hospital stay threw me in a psyche ward! These attempts at sobriety went on for 10 years straight! I now have 29 years of continuous sobriety and am a member of AA and help other alcoholics! How I pulled out of it I don’t know! It’s a miracle!
And you can pull out of it too! Keep fighting! Keep seeking help! Yes I would tell the doctor everything! From my experience most doctors have very little training in addiction and alcoholism! I found it helped to see a doctor that specialized in addiction!
I took Antabuse for years and it can be another tool in the sobriety tool box to help you stay sober if done correctly! There were times I would quit taking Antabuse for several days so I could drink without getting sick! But eventually by the time I made it to my fourth and final treat center I used it correctly and didn’t skip any days for a year straight! After that year of staying sober I figured this was the big test! I got off of the Antabuse because at that time I made improvements mentally and was on my way to long term sobriety!
Life Goes On
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Posts: 6,069
Karthas, I wonder if you notice that you are always on the lookout for a substance to cure your ills. If it's not alcohol, then there must be a pill you can get to fix your other issues. In my experience, it doesn't work that way.
It's not like I could start taking a medication that miraculously took away the suffering that I went through when I wasn't drinking. I had to go through the suffering bit first. Telling the doctors what I wanted them to do for me didn't really work out that well either. I mean, they mostly did follow my lead, but frankly, I didn't know what I needed. Or if I did, I wasn't really willing to take that particular pill - you know, the one where you have to actually feel all of the feelings without an anesthetic.
The first step is to tell your doctor the 100% unvarnished truth about the extent of your addiction and your desperate mental state. Then you say, "I need help."
If you aren't completely honest with your doctor, they can't possibly give you the help you so clearly need.
xo
O
It's not like I could start taking a medication that miraculously took away the suffering that I went through when I wasn't drinking. I had to go through the suffering bit first. Telling the doctors what I wanted them to do for me didn't really work out that well either. I mean, they mostly did follow my lead, but frankly, I didn't know what I needed. Or if I did, I wasn't really willing to take that particular pill - you know, the one where you have to actually feel all of the feelings without an anesthetic.
The first step is to tell your doctor the 100% unvarnished truth about the extent of your addiction and your desperate mental state. Then you say, "I need help."
If you aren't completely honest with your doctor, they can't possibly give you the help you so clearly need.
xo
O
Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 8
I can definitely attest to puking my guts out while drinking on antabuse, although this is hardly the only time I drank against my will.
We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals – usually brief – were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this but it hasn’t done so yet.
We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals – usually brief – were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this but it hasn’t done so yet.
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