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Another family day in rehab
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<blockquote data-quote="klmno" data-source="post: 378048" data-attributes="member: 3699"><p>90 in 90 is pretty aggressive after an inpatient stay- that's usually what they do as an initial outpatient if inpatient isn't an option. I'll give you a bit more background of my experience to put things in context, then answer your question.</p><p></p><p>I had been raped by a family member as a teen and with that, plus some other "traumatic" experiences as a child, had PTSD and although I first went into treatment for a substance abuse issue, it soon became clear that the substance abuse was secondary to PTSD, albeit still an issue that I needed to address. I also have a cousin who suffered PTSD for different reasons and was treated after it was revealed thru treatment for substance abuse- his experience was about 1-2 years before mine and our two expereinces are the ones I am most personally familiar with. He was treated by the VA and I was treated while on active duty, by the military. They, of course, used basicly the same treatment modality. I am not positive how much the specific focuses might differ when PTSD is not determined to be the underlying cause of trying to reach outside oneself to find answers and relief from pain. </p><p></p><p>In any case, for me treatment focused more on identifying emotions, digesting them, working thru them, learning how to meet my own needs, a lot of psychoeducation involving dysfunctional families, etc. For myself and my cousin, step 4 was VERY important and considered key in whether or not we would be able to beat addictive tendencies. I am not sure if it was more crucial for PTSD sufferers or not. I tend to think it's crucial for anyone needing a 12 step program. After Step 4, it seems that working the steps in order is not quite as critical- the most important thing was to keep working them whether there starts to be some overlap between them or not, and incorpaorate them into life in general.</p><p></p><p>I attended meetings, stayed off everything including alcohol, and actively worked a program for about two years. About 4-5 years after treatment, I started drinking very lightly and occasionally. Keep in mind that I had gone into treatment for street drugs. Anyway, it was that way for many years. I have gone to meetings sporadically at times but not often since that time period. I still do try to live by the basic concepts- the Serenity Prayer and always making amends, as examples. Over the past 1-2 years, my drinking has increased and I have discussed with VA people whether or not the drinking in itself is now a problem. (Fortunately, I have been able to get VA medical treatment starting a few months ago.) There has been a glitch in my access to appropriate tdocs there, primarily due to waiting lists and I haven't pushed it too much because I know the people coming back from recent wars need help more than me and deserve it before I do. Anyway, the goal there is to get some help for current PTSD issues, decipher if the current alcohol usage is another addiction issue or not, get whatever treatment necessary. They were going to give us family therapy, too, which I honestly believe would have helped my difficult child with his issues and us in general but he couldn't stay out of trouble long enough.</p><p></p><p>Sorry this got so long- the short answer is "no", I currently do not attend 12 step meetings but feel certain they are in my future. Whether that's for PTSD issues, NA, or AA, I don't know and don't really care- the principles are the same. I also should mention that since I am the guardian of a juvenile with legal involvement, I am being a little cautious about how I go about this. My son has had a GAL and others who focus more on the fact that I have had issues and use any effort I make to get help as means to justifying blaming my previous issues for everything he does. So, I am being cautious about jurisdiction I use, move to, etc. (This wouldn't be such a big problem except that in this jurisdiction, the juvenile courts people want to- and CAN- take over any treatment program- not just monitor it - and that scares the koi out of me- obviously, their idea of "treatment" hasn't worked so well for my difficult child.)</p><p></p><p>I will say though, that after my treatment in the military, I put myself thru college, became a licensed professional with a decent career, was able to live independently with no "crutch", 11 years later had a son and raised him on my own, and was considered a pretty good success story by most who knew about it. It is worth it. It just all crashed down on me about 2 years ago, a couple of years after my son became a difficult child and instead of getting the help he/I/we needed, we got more things that caused us more crisis and a reoccurence of my PTSD symptoms.</p><p></p><p>In regards to Susie's post, this is another area where I'm not sure how it all plays into each other. With my cousin and myself, it eventually became more than obvious that our compulsions were due to excessive use of "stuff" as we tried to self-medicate PTSD symptoms. When those symptoms were adequately dealt with (and not by substituting an illegal substance with a legal one- ie, an rx'd one), by working thru it all, the compulsions went away. There are different trains of thought about this. One is that a "true addict" will always have the compulsion. Another is that if the compulsion is still there after many years, then the program was not successful, for whatever reason- including that it might not have been worked appropriately. I don't have the answer for that. I can tell you that my compulsion went away and I still don't have it for my drug that I had so much problem with before, however, with the reoccurence of PTSD symptoms and feeling like I have no way to work thru it yet, I am "reaching" for relief and clearly see this. So again, this might have a lot more to do with whether or not substance abuse and compulsions are secondary to a bigger problem or the primary problem.</p><p></p><p>That's a debate and question that has been around for years, I think. From what I heard in meetings- it varies for people and no one has that answer for sure.</p><p></p><p>I did hear many times that if the internal struggle remained as hard as it had been initially, no one would remain off their drug of choice and I tend to beleive that. Also, that a person continuously trying to struggle thru that is called a "dry drunk"- they got off the substance but whether attending meetings or not, never really dealt with their issues and changed. I can't speak for Susie or her family but if this is the same bro of hers that she's referred to in other posts, I am not positive that this description might not fit him as well.</p><p></p><p>Again, I apologize for this getting so long.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="klmno, post: 378048, member: 3699"] 90 in 90 is pretty aggressive after an inpatient stay- that's usually what they do as an initial outpatient if inpatient isn't an option. I'll give you a bit more background of my experience to put things in context, then answer your question. I had been raped by a family member as a teen and with that, plus some other "traumatic" experiences as a child, had PTSD and although I first went into treatment for a substance abuse issue, it soon became clear that the substance abuse was secondary to PTSD, albeit still an issue that I needed to address. I also have a cousin who suffered PTSD for different reasons and was treated after it was revealed thru treatment for substance abuse- his experience was about 1-2 years before mine and our two expereinces are the ones I am most personally familiar with. He was treated by the VA and I was treated while on active duty, by the military. They, of course, used basicly the same treatment modality. I am not positive how much the specific focuses might differ when PTSD is not determined to be the underlying cause of trying to reach outside oneself to find answers and relief from pain. In any case, for me treatment focused more on identifying emotions, digesting them, working thru them, learning how to meet my own needs, a lot of psychoeducation involving dysfunctional families, etc. For myself and my cousin, step 4 was VERY important and considered key in whether or not we would be able to beat addictive tendencies. I am not sure if it was more crucial for PTSD sufferers or not. I tend to think it's crucial for anyone needing a 12 step program. After Step 4, it seems that working the steps in order is not quite as critical- the most important thing was to keep working them whether there starts to be some overlap between them or not, and incorpaorate them into life in general. I attended meetings, stayed off everything including alcohol, and actively worked a program for about two years. About 4-5 years after treatment, I started drinking very lightly and occasionally. Keep in mind that I had gone into treatment for street drugs. Anyway, it was that way for many years. I have gone to meetings sporadically at times but not often since that time period. I still do try to live by the basic concepts- the Serenity Prayer and always making amends, as examples. Over the past 1-2 years, my drinking has increased and I have discussed with VA people whether or not the drinking in itself is now a problem. (Fortunately, I have been able to get VA medical treatment starting a few months ago.) There has been a glitch in my access to appropriate tdocs there, primarily due to waiting lists and I haven't pushed it too much because I know the people coming back from recent wars need help more than me and deserve it before I do. Anyway, the goal there is to get some help for current PTSD issues, decipher if the current alcohol usage is another addiction issue or not, get whatever treatment necessary. They were going to give us family therapy, too, which I honestly believe would have helped my difficult child with his issues and us in general but he couldn't stay out of trouble long enough. Sorry this got so long- the short answer is "no", I currently do not attend 12 step meetings but feel certain they are in my future. Whether that's for PTSD issues, NA, or AA, I don't know and don't really care- the principles are the same. I also should mention that since I am the guardian of a juvenile with legal involvement, I am being a little cautious about how I go about this. My son has had a GAL and others who focus more on the fact that I have had issues and use any effort I make to get help as means to justifying blaming my previous issues for everything he does. So, I am being cautious about jurisdiction I use, move to, etc. (This wouldn't be such a big problem except that in this jurisdiction, the juvenile courts people want to- and CAN- take over any treatment program- not just monitor it - and that scares the koi out of me- obviously, their idea of "treatment" hasn't worked so well for my difficult child.) I will say though, that after my treatment in the military, I put myself thru college, became a licensed professional with a decent career, was able to live independently with no "crutch", 11 years later had a son and raised him on my own, and was considered a pretty good success story by most who knew about it. It is worth it. It just all crashed down on me about 2 years ago, a couple of years after my son became a difficult child and instead of getting the help he/I/we needed, we got more things that caused us more crisis and a reoccurence of my PTSD symptoms. In regards to Susie's post, this is another area where I'm not sure how it all plays into each other. With my cousin and myself, it eventually became more than obvious that our compulsions were due to excessive use of "stuff" as we tried to self-medicate PTSD symptoms. When those symptoms were adequately dealt with (and not by substituting an illegal substance with a legal one- ie, an rx'd one), by working thru it all, the compulsions went away. There are different trains of thought about this. One is that a "true addict" will always have the compulsion. Another is that if the compulsion is still there after many years, then the program was not successful, for whatever reason- including that it might not have been worked appropriately. I don't have the answer for that. I can tell you that my compulsion went away and I still don't have it for my drug that I had so much problem with before, however, with the reoccurence of PTSD symptoms and feeling like I have no way to work thru it yet, I am "reaching" for relief and clearly see this. So again, this might have a lot more to do with whether or not substance abuse and compulsions are secondary to a bigger problem or the primary problem. That's a debate and question that has been around for years, I think. From what I heard in meetings- it varies for people and no one has that answer for sure. I did hear many times that if the internal struggle remained as hard as it had been initially, no one would remain off their drug of choice and I tend to beleive that. Also, that a person continuously trying to struggle thru that is called a "dry drunk"- they got off the substance but whether attending meetings or not, never really dealt with their issues and changed. I can't speak for Susie or her family but if this is the same bro of hers that she's referred to in other posts, I am not positive that this description might not fit him as well. Again, I apologize for this getting so long. [/QUOTE]
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