Drama...
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
I am back. Talk about drama. I just got released from Anchor Hospital in Atlanta GA after a 28 day stay for alcohol rehab. You think that you have seen drama in a strip club. What I have seen and heard in the last 28 days, far surpasses everything that I have ever seen in a strip club. A cute 18 year old girl taking taking the program for drug use while her father had relapsed and was taking the cure in the same hospital for alcohol use. A 30 year old women who wake up last November in bed, felt something warm and wet, and discovered her husband lying next to her with a .38 caliber shot through his head. A 72 women for RX drug use. An army Ranger going through his 4th rehab and facing a dishonorable discharge. And on and on.
My drama is not so intense. I am being forced to retire after 42 years on the job. Effective April first. I had hoped to work another 3 years but went to work drunk once and blew it. Maybe a blessing in disguise. I am 67 and have never been unemployed. It is time for a rest.
I have dual insurance coverage, so my 28 day stay will not cost me anything. Normal cost is $700 per day. I have been to 28 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while in the hospital. I have nothing good to say about AA. They brag about their success rate but I only met one person in the program who was there for the first time. And you must believe in a higher power (GOD) or they will tell you that you cannot keep sober. They want me to attend 90 AA meetings in the next 90 days. It ain't gonna happen. My hospital ward only had 13 rooms for 13 patients. So the meetings did not have many attendees.
I will try to stay sober. But no guarantees. My health has not been affected and I want to keep it that way.
As soon as I get caught up around the house, I plan to make another trip to my favorite Columbia club. I wont't drink, so that will give me more money for the strippers. Got that Gridget? Thanks for all the emails, PM,s and messages left on my answering machine by my fellow TUSCLers and favorite dancers.
My drama is not so intense. I am being forced to retire after 42 years on the job. Effective April first. I had hoped to work another 3 years but went to work drunk once and blew it. Maybe a blessing in disguise. I am 67 and have never been unemployed. It is time for a rest.
I have dual insurance coverage, so my 28 day stay will not cost me anything. Normal cost is $700 per day. I have been to 28 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while in the hospital. I have nothing good to say about AA. They brag about their success rate but I only met one person in the program who was there for the first time. And you must believe in a higher power (GOD) or they will tell you that you cannot keep sober. They want me to attend 90 AA meetings in the next 90 days. It ain't gonna happen. My hospital ward only had 13 rooms for 13 patients. So the meetings did not have many attendees.
I will try to stay sober. But no guarantees. My health has not been affected and I want to keep it that way.
As soon as I get caught up around the house, I plan to make another trip to my favorite Columbia club. I wont't drink, so that will give me more money for the strippers. Got that Gridget? Thanks for all the emails, PM,s and messages left on my answering machine by my fellow TUSCLers and favorite dancers.
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24 comments
Welcome back! :) Supposedly, over in the UK the treatment is the exact opposite of AA and is much more successful. The AA people that I met seemed to be in horrible condition even if they by chance they were sober; especially those who believed in the organization.
Here is a link for some alternatives to AA: http://www.aanottheonlyway.com/ .
I had watched a documentary on alcoholism treatments and the moderation approach was supposed to be very effective in the UK. The AA approach was pretty much dismissed because its 12 Steps are a canard. You don't have to believe in God or the Pink Unicorn or heaven forbid even AA! You may actually have a mind that can be used to think and reason and find an approach that works for *you*. Tom Hussey told me that he was a miserable failure with AA and to save his life he couldn't stay away from the bottle. He found his miracle cure by accident----Prozac. The way he described it was truly a miracle. I could go out an drink with him; beer, wine, shots and have a blast. I'd never have thought of him being an alcohol or a drunk. He told that if I'd known him before Prozac, then I'd had a totally different picture of him. Before the miracle he had to drink and after the miracle it wasn't a big deal one way or the other.
The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
1.) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
2.) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3.) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4.) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6.) Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.) Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8.) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9.) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.) Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11.) Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12.) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
http://www.aa-louisiana.org/steps.htm
Jablake, for once I agree with you. AA is not the answer for everyone. They say that you do not have to believe in a GOD but all of it's doctrines make constant reference to a higher power. The "Big Book" was published in 1939 and has not been revised to eliminate this reference. Trying to interpret the Big Book is like trying to read the bible. What do they mean by that? They brag about their success rate. Yet by my own observation and what I have read, I doubt it seriously. I grudgingly did step 1. The head of social services in my ward and the M.D. that I met with 22 times were never alcoholics and never did the 12 steps but yet they preached it to me. Why? They were getting paid to do so. As were for the most part, the other 20+ lecturers that I was forced to listen to. I was given a list of 20+ AA meeting groups in my area. All were in churches. Surprise?
So what did I get out of rehab? I enjoyed the fellowship of the meetings. I learned more about street drugs than ever before. Hearing the stories from my fellow addicts made me realize that I am much better off then the rest of them.
AA must of mellowed a little over the years. The AA adherents that I met many years ago insisted salvation and hope and sobriety were only available by the grace of God.
I can't imagine enjoying that kind of fellowship. I'd probably spout whatever nonsense was demanded to be free of their BS.
OTOH, if a person is into that one size fits all mentality it might "save" 'em.
Least you're trying, better than most of the drunks I know.
Hoping I'll get down to columbia some time this summer when you're gonna be round.
I imagine that even when I was young and religious that I would have found AA repulsive and disgusting. Hard work, honesty, empathy, punish not unless ye be punished, many roads to Rome, turn the other cheek, help thy neighbor, protect thy family, etc. were tesselates of God's design as I was taught.
Commanding and approving powerlessness like a grown man or woman is an infant? I guess that is someone's religion. Don't care to be near it much less have it shoved down my throat. AAers that I met also had a perversity concerning "enabling" that was even more sickening. Damn straight I'll be an "enabler" if to fail to help will bring catastrophic or permanent harm----sometimes you need to protect people that have a particular need or weakness even if that protection is only partial or temporary.
Long ago I made the statement we are all sinners and surprisingly met some extreme objections. I had thought that sin was self-evident even to the most goody two shoes angel, but it turns out that was merely a religious teaching. And, these goody two shoes in my eyes are some of the worst sinners even though they seem to have no idea that their acts are evil. Most seemed only capable of seeing their evil if the tables were turned so to speak.
Fuck AA----that is a positive sentiment for most, imho.