KellyToronto

One of my buddies here at Homewood rehab, has an addictions counsellor he sees once per month, they do a lot of talk therapy. He told me it helps him a lot.

I'm throwing a question out into SR Land: Has anyone else benefitted from seeing an Addictions Counsellor?

Thanks, and remember: OSAAT.

Kelly

Jabbadabutt

yep - the benefit for me was getting sober. I go once a week - although I do not do AA. It has made a world of difference for me. Not only am I now accountable to myself but I am accountable to them, and SR, and loved ones. It is another tool I use to keep me going in the right direction. It also helps that they are too a recovering addict so it helps me in opening up about myself and my addiction. I recommend it. Go as often as your insurance will alllow. If no insurance, the one hour a week cost is probably the same as you spent on booze or even less - it is a small price to pay to have your life back.

CarolD

When my psychiatrist diagnosed me with situational depression
he suggested I abstain and join AA.
I did. ..and have not consulted a psychiatrist since '89.

No experience on addiction counselors or what methods they use from me.

JohnBarleycorn

I tried this for a while, but to be honest, it was a complete waste of time and money for me. It took too long, and it did not get me to quit. I even went to some sessions after drinking.

I finally decided that I could not afford to waste time trying to discover the hidden "underlying causes" of why I drank, that I would probably die before doing so, and that even if I did know these "causes," it would not help me in any way.

I had progressed too far, and it didn't matter anymore whether I was happy, sad, lonely, tired, hungry, or had just gotten a big fat raise at work. Anything and everything was a good enough reason for me to drink. Even winning the lottery would have been an excuse to drink some more.

It became an end unto itself.

It was only when I stopped hoping other people would "save" me from this, and that no amount of "support" was going to cut it, that I made any progress.

It may just be due to my temperament, though.

Jabbadabutt

I agree. They will not save you. Only you can do that for yourself. You need to be ready to be sober. You need to accept that. They may help you realize that. Just saying.....it can't hurt.

JohnBarleycorn

Like I said, it may just be me, but I can only offer my experience. Others might benefit from it if they are temperamentally suited to it.

Apparently I was not. :-)

aasharon90

Councilors are great as you can see them
right there in rehab. They are cerfied in their
field in helping those with addictions. Those
people men and women showed up every
morning or everyday for
group sessions and support.

For me, some of those councilors we gooooood
looking. They looked sharp in their suits and well
groomed. Whew..!!!! In fact it was love at first sight.
Or was it lust. lol

Years later I realized it was the latter one. No love there
as I learned that some are just as sick or still sick in many ways.
Like I was. oh nooooo.

Being new in rehab and looking for love in all the wrong people,
places and things. I placed my councilor like most fine looking
men up on a pedalstol because i knew if they could stay sober
then i could too. Of couse i later learned that putting people on
a pedalstol are just as human and can easily fall off of it like
any other people. And I have seen many with yrs of sobriety
thinking they had it and soon lost it including their lives.

So even tho I have 20 yrs sober and have no intentions of
drinking today, id rather just sit beside you instead of being
placed on a pedalstol.

Reset

Yeah I did, and yeah it helped.

Sort of a long story but I originally went in for general depression and then the psychologist I was seeing recommended I see a psychologist specializing in addiction. I only saw the specialist a few times but he definitely helped me in the early phases. I continued to see the other psychologist until last week when she basically told me she didn't think I needed to go anymore on a regular basis.

I'd say it's definitely worth checking out. You don't have much to lose anyway, and for some people it helps a lot.

dfw

I see one and it definitely helps. It's nice to have a neutral party to discuss things with.

littlefish

I went to an addictions counselor for 2 years. It was the best thing I could have done at the time. By the time I quit drinking, I was a chronic high volume daily, all day drinker AND a binge drinker who would have horrific 5 to 7-day binges about once a month.
I had friends but I wouldn't tell any of them about my alcoholism. So, it was such a wonderful relief to go to someone and just talk about my drinking, my family, everything, because I had NO ONE to talk to in the end. Alcoholism had totally isolated me.

Now here is the second part. There was a problem with my addictions counseling program: it really wasn't a program. My addictions treatment therapist openly admitted she had no program per se, the therapy was based on talking and examining my feelings and thoughts.

Because most therapy today is still loosely based on methods of the past, my counselor never called me on obviously wrong behavior or demanded better behavior from me: my feelings were valid, which is true, but I felt like my (alcoholic) behavior was also being accepted as valid and that is when I began to think I wasn't really getting anywhere.

You might ask if your counselor is working with a cognitive approach? that might be good because cognitive therapy is more aggressive about changing destructive behavior.

So, at the encouragement of my therapist, I eventually went to AA.

bellakeller

I went to IOP with an addictions counselor following treatment. I found the addictions counselor to be stuck in the problem and I had already been in AA prior to rehab and found that AA was offering more of a solution so I felt like the counselor was a waste of time for me. I wanted to quit living in the problem and find a solution to me drinking. I was also seeing a therapist for crazy-brain, so maybe for that reason, an addictions counselor was overkill for me.

SSIL75

My friend's husband has been sober for 3 years and attributes it to his counselor. He is an atheist and not in AA.

least

Same here.

dfw

I had the opposite feeling. In fact, and no offense to anyone in AA, but yesterday-when I was seeing my counselor-I got very livid about why AA does not fit with my own personal belief system. She recommended SMART, I told her I was on SR, and we pretty much concluded by the end of the conversation that SR is working as a support system.

HOWEVER, she did say something I find to be worth mentioning...support groups are NOT treatment for alcoholism or alcohol abuse. Some of you may disagree, however I frankly agree with my counselor...support and treatment are two separate entities. As has been said on here, everyone finds their own way to get through this, what works for me doesn't necessarily work for you.

Anna

I think it depends on the 'fit' between the two of you.

It couldn't hurt to give it a try and see what you think.

dfw

Now this, I definitely agree with. I got pretty damn lucky with my counselor.