I am looking for a primary care physician (relevant here because I am ready to be honest with a PCP about my history of drinking and my desire to quit). I have been drinking heavily for about 8 years now, and have lied to every doctor about my drinking and smoking habits, except one - she wrote a prescription for Klonopin, and that was it. I am much more interested in an holistic approach to healthcare.
This might be an inappropriate topic or request for this board, but does anyone have a recommendation for a general practitioner, who might be sympathetic to substance abuse (not judge) and would invest in working with me to create a full wellness plan?
Welcome. I hope you can get the help you are looking for, but I think there are a couple of things that may make it difficult to get your question answered. First, we don't know where you are located. Second, pretty much everyone here got sober by going to AA. Doctors are great for a lot of health issues but there really isn't much they can do to help treat alcoholism and help someone get sober and stay sober other than direct you to AA and/or a detox or treatment facility to get you started on the path.
If you are concerned about medical issues that may happen by quitting 'cold turkey', you can tell a doctor that you want them to refer you to a medical detox facility for a couple of days to safely get you through the first few days. Any doctor can do this.
For everything after that first couple of days, your doctor may be able to refer you to some kind of inpatient or outpatient treatment facility, or you can just make those arrangements yourself, depending on the specifics of your insurance plan (some don't require that your primary care doctor give you a referral, some do).
Aside from these two issues, your best bet is just getting yourself to a lot of AA meetings and letting the folks in AA help you by showing you how they got sober and stayed sober.
Better be careful with that Klonopin, too, Bravesis. Benzodiazepines are no joke, they are just as hard to get off of as alcohol. You're holistic approach idea is way better. And I'm not even a hippie. (Well, yeah, I guess I kinda am.)
What I've seen work best most often is a chemical addiction rehab and if they use the 12step AA model...I've see those work best. Good luck...I am leery of doctors who will prescribe a mind and mood altering chemical to help someone get off of a mind and mood altering chemical addiction...alcohol is just that and more. Good luck
I had a Dr. once in Atl, Ga. that is exactly what you described perfectly, ... however you didn't give any clue as to where you are located ...
This Dr. is a recovering Alkie himself and you could not BS him, he knew all the self-delusional thinking of the alcoholic ... he was exactly what I needed at that time in my recovery ...
Depending on your response, I will have to research some old records to locate him ... I wait and see how serious you are and where your location is before I do anything ...
Good Luck and God Bless, Pappy
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Thank you all, so much. I mistakenly thought I was on a local board. Location would help, no? I am in the Birmingham, AL area.
I am not looking for a primary to treat my alcoholism, rather to be a team member in helping to get my health (and life) back on track. I am concerned about what drinking has done to my body, and am ready to settle with one doctor to help to guide my physical rehabilitation, instead of just popping into a doc-in-a-box at random. I want a full work-up, and then continuity of care from a doctor who empathizes with my struggle.
I find it disappointing that there are no comprehensive programs in my area which simultaneously address recovery, nutrition, healthy lifestyle changes, and the emotional and spiritual toll addiction can take. I am inspired to put my advanced education to work to create such a system!
-- Edited by bravesis on Wednesday 21st of October 2015 10:14:38 AM
You sound intelligent enough to get on the 'web' and track down Dr.s in your area with alcoholism treatment in their background ... then it would be a matter of contacting them for the purpose of describing the treatment you seek ... I wouldn't have any idea how many Dr.s there are that use holistic treatment methods ... but just now getting over cancer treatments myself, I wish I'd have had more time to check out the holistic route ... the radiation I went through was a bitch and now they're saying most treatments for cancer DO, in fact, have alternatives ... it has taken 7 months for me to even begin to see an improvement in my health because of the intense radiation required to treat my groin area ...
No matter how sincere the Drs are that I have, I still have this voice in my head that says they get a whole lot more money from my insurance by using those million dollar machines, than they would if they used nutrition and other non-invasive techniques to try and cure a person ... problem is, for cancer patients, TIME is CRITICAL ... a few months TRYING something else, from the 'norm', can cost them their life if the holistic method doesn't work ...
But whatever the choice one makes here, I feel strongly that no program for cure should be done without prayer ... faith in God, to me, was crucial to my recovery ... I've seen it work for too many other people for me not to believe in it ... and not just in AA, in many other cases of a fatal nature too ...
Come back and let us know how you make out, I, for one, would love to hear your story ...
Take Care and God Bless, Pappy
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Thank you all, so much. I mistakenly thought I was on a local board. Location would help, no? I am in the Birmingham, AL area.
I am not looking for a primary to treat my alcoholism, rather to be a team member in helping to get my health (and life) back on track. I am concerned about what drinking has done to my body, and am ready to settle with one doctor to help to guide my physical rehabilitation, instead of just popping into a doc-in-a-box at random. I want a full work-up, and then continuity of care from a doctor who empathizes with my struggle.
I find it disappointing that there are no comprehensive programs in my area which simultaneously address recovery, nutrition, healthy lifestyle changes, and the emotional and spiritual toll addiction can take. I am inspired to put my advanced education to work to create such a system!
-- Edited by bravesis on Wednesday 21st of October 2015 10:14:38 AM
As pappy pointed out, a doctor with a background that includes experience in treatment for alcoholism or other substance abuse would be a good choice for what you are looking for regarding the physical and medical aspects of your recovery, since such a doctor is not likely to make ill-informed decisions about prescribing mind altering and potentially addictive meds to someone who is seeking treatment for alcoholism. It is surprising how many medical doctors know so little about addiction, and you do need to take steps to assure your doctor isn't one of them.
But I want to emphasize again that a medical doctor is only going to be able to help you with the PHYSICAL aspects of your current condition, i.e. getting you through any physical withdrawal / detox safely in the first few days, and treating any medical health issues that have resulted from your drinking. A medical doctor is not going to be able to do anything to actually get someone with a drinking problem to stop drinking and learn how to stay stopped and become comfortable with staying sober long-term. THAT is called 'recovery from alcoholism', and it is not a medical process. Again, your best chances of staying sober and living comfortably long-term without alcohol, so you minimize the chances of going back to drinking and ending up with things worse than they are now, is to get yourself to a lot of AA meetings.
Get help from a medical doctor who understands alcoholism for the physical and medical issues, and get help from AA and other sources for everything else in your ongoing recovery from alcoholism.
-- Edited by davep12and12 on Wednesday 21st of October 2015 02:41:29 PM
and our AA meetings are free ... even if you put a dollar in the basket, since we are totally self-supporting, you still end up way better off financially just going to a meeting every day ... we CAN show you a way of living that is far better than you can even imagine right now ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
You might get lucky and find a doctor in AA. When I came in we were blessed with several and they were a huge help to me personally, and very generous with their time.
For a doctor in practice it is not so simple. Economics play a role. I heard a doctor from the UK state that the average time a doctor spends with a patient to examine, diagnose and prescribe is seven minutes. He was explaining why doctors often prescribe when really talk therapy would be a better approach. They simply can't afford the time.
