beatcat22

And if you know that much, you also know that treatment is insanely expensive, takes years, has mixed or no results, there are only a tiny fraction of therapists who will deal with BPD patients, and NO INSURANCE pays for BPD treatment.

sugarbear1

"I have no money, and only Medicare for insurance. Is there a clinic in the
Washington DC area that will taper me off alcohol as I described above, has staff that are not goons, hacks, bullies, idiot/religious freaks, etc AND will take my insurance?"

The answer is: This place does not exist yet.

WAIA (Washington Area Intergroup Association--AA's office in D.C.) has no knowledge of this type of program.

Welcome to SR,

beatcat22

Okay, then the question becomes, "How to raise the money to create it, while telling the lawyers and doctors and cult members (AA) to F_uck Off and let it work?"

There ARE going to be huge liability issues if you feed tapered amounts of alcohol to someone. (There should be bigger ones for feeding them the crappy antidepresants and other prescription poisons, but that's another issue).

I seriously doubt I am not the only person who would like to check in somewhere, be treated like a WELCOME GUEST and a Paying Customer, rather than being treated as a child, an animal or a prisoner. I doubt I am the only person who would prefer to eschew useless crap like Campral and would prefer to be doled out a declinging dose of alcohol each day for a couple weeks, to facilitate quitting.

Terminally Unique

Campral is not used for medical detox, beatcat. The stuff they use for detox are benzodiazepines, which are cross tolerant with alcohol. It is essentially an alcohol substitute. A proper consult will run you about $50, and the actual script, which is usually a five day supply, will run you about $10. This is all without insurance. You can also go to a free clinic and get a detox script, significantly reducing this cost.

Barring that, some old hands in AA have helped people taper off, and will go on rotation to watch you if you ask them for help. Yes, I read about your thoughts on AA, but they'll probably help you even if you don't go to AA. You can get the Rational Recovery book used for under $5 (shipped), which might be more appealing to you. Once detoxed, you can read it and learn about AVRT. There's also the secular connections forum, which has some discussion threads on it.

sugarbear1

I know of people who are in AA who can help with this. The problem for us alcoholics is that once the drink is taken away, we can't stand living without it. It puts us in a precarious place, which is why people are known to commit suicide while sober.

Since you are adamantly opposed to working the 12 steps, I don't know what to suggest to you. Drinking was a symptom, not the real problem. My problem is how I deal (or not) with the world around me.

Hospitals will help with a 3-5 day detox. Salvation Army might help with detox and does have a rehab type of situation, but I don't know how it will effect your living arrangement and disability pay. I also am not sure if they use AA or not. They are religious.

Try reading about AVRT and start limiting your own intake. You are quite intelligent and may be able to do this.

I wish you well, whatever you choose.
Peace & love,

soberbythesea

You won't get very far here, or anywhere else, if you keep insulting everyone who tries to help you.

That said, I do think Rational Recovery could work for you if you gave it a chance. It's not quite as overly simplistic as you seem to think it is.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

beatcat22

Ok, thanks for the info. I was given Campral presc. by a shrink specifically to wean off alcohol. Useless, may as well have been placebo.

I will ask about others, but I've been on lots of pills and they've been almost entirely useless. Doctors are effing idiots, in my experience.

beatcat22

If self-discipline / rationalization / AVRT stuff could work for me, it already would have. Life sucks. When there is something that makes me feel good, other than alcohol, I will switch gladly. So far, nothing. And at this point, the alcohol is nothing but an addiction/placebo....no effect, but if I dont' drink I get sick.

beatcat22

Insanity is saying the same stupid slogans over and over and expecting them to eventually mean something.

sugarbear1

I don't think you want to quit yet.

When you are ready to be civil, there is help available, but it won't be the way you want it to be.

Best wishes

soberbythesea

Hope you find some help. Good luck!

JustBreath

Welcome to SR beatcat22.

Terminally Unique

I know one thing for certain, beatcat — nothing 'works' except actually quitting. Absolute abstinence. Not even AVRT 'works', IMO, and I use the method. This isn't like taking an aspirin for a headache, where the aspirin 'works' on the headache.

If you're looking to switch from alcohol to other feel-good hedonic drugs, you aren't likely to make much progress.

Seasidegirllau

Beatcat,

are you here for help and advice, or for an argument? People are on here caus we all want to get better and stay better, why not chill yourself..you give a list of all these things you dont like people sayin to you...yet look at how you treatin people tryin to help you...we are all looking for a way out of this hole...

bayliss

I agree. Insulting people on here isn't the way to go. We have people on here that come here for support. They aren't looking to get verbally attacked.

Either way, welcome to SR and I hope you find what you are looking for from here.

Dee74

Welcome beatcat

I get being angry - I was angry too...

but everyone who's responded to you has taken time out of their day to respond to you - you don't have to like the responses or take them on board, but I think it's always good to remember people are trying to help here

I'd also like to remind everyone that we respect everyone else here at SR.

Insults and arguments are not appropriate here - no matter what the circumstances or provocations.

I've removed some posts.
D

soberlicious

Beatcat as TU said I didn't mean campral and I wasn't even necessarily speaking in terms of drugs but rather a medically supervised detox, you know so you don't die while detoxing alone. One you detox you can quit. Stop saying you can't because you can. I hear ya....people suck, everyone is stupid, the medical community is a conspiracy, and AA is a cult....I get it. It's all cool. Your posts don't offend me in the least and I could even agree with you on some things, but that's a whole other thread. So all this pontificating aside...you gonna take charge of your life and quit, or not?

soberbythesea

Interesting.

Bamboozle

There's always Windy's two step program (slightly modified to specifically mention alcohol):

Step One

Don't drink.

Step Two

See Step One.


To reiterate what everyone said, a medical detox is necessary for safety reasons. After that, it's up to you as to what you do. I do my own sort of program. I take Windy's master program to heart, I write and read at SR and I live my life, as crappy as it is sometimes.