From the experiences of this lad and others of my ilk and kin, sometimes the doctor does not always know best. I trust doctors like most people and this is the unfortunate fact for a lot of addicts and alcoholics attempting to recover from the symptoms and treat our illness.
We walk into the doctor’s office and tell our tale of woes, pains, and withdrawals; the first response of the unlearned doctor is, “Well, this sedative or this medication is what I can prescribe for your symptoms…” I don’t blame the doctors fully, because I know the skills us addicts and alcoholics possess and utilize when it comes to the games and manipulation we use to get what we want.
Now of course, there is a certain detox phase, but the doctor should know how dangerous it is for us to detox alone and self-medicate at this stage of our recoveries.
However, there is some responsibility on the doctor’s shoulders, as they are medical doctors after all. I would think as a doctor and more specifically psychologists and psychiatrists (who we tend to see with equal or greater frequency when sobering up and through our initial years of sobriety) with their prescribed method of treatment; medication or the wonderfully dangerous advice of “just stop using” flaps out of their voice holes.
Which leads me to my friend, who heard recently when visiting his psychiatrist, “Look Mister X, it is a matter of will, simply decide not to use and don’t use…it really is that simple…”
He was in a slight panic, as he recounted the story of this session because the very words from the head doctor started a chain reaction of denial and doubt in his mind. Luckily he knew exactly what was happening inside of him from his disease as a reaction to the information. I listened, as he frantically ripped off the summary of an hour and a half visit with who he called at this point “complete hack…” and some other colorful words I will not repeat.
Of course this gent has underlying issues which contribute to his alcoholism and drug addiction hence weekly psychiatrist visits were made mandatory for his special case. I suggested to him that he keep in mind that the psychiatrist’s knowledge base can be very helpful in terms of trauma and other matters he suffered early in childhood and adolescence and even those events through early adulthood which he himself perpetrated against others.
I also suggested that he continue with his program of recovery in terms of his addiction specific issues although these matters become intertwined by the time a person sobers/cleans up. He stated that he would because it has been working for him for over a year, but illustrated his frustration at having to even listen to a person who does not know make hollow suggestions at him from their own blind spot.
Of course that is a summary of the event and I won’t give too many more details or bore you with examples, which are countless, of men and women sobering up and being told it is simply “a matter of will” or it is because they are “weak in morals and values”. It happens every day to someone and occasionally they talk about it, but unfortunately not everyone knows enough to discuss these things.
The purpose of this blog is to pass along a bit of information to those doctors via the doctors who do read my blog and email me with both criticism and praise; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or DSM IV is a guide for psychiatrists and psychologists and other medical types in terms of diagnosing mental illness and it has alcoholism and drug addiction categorized as a mental illness!
Folks, no offence intended, but this is your manual ladies and gentlemen; give it a read or even just a glance and when you do, read the section on alcoholism and chemical dependency. Ask yourself if you were diagnosing someone with schizophrenia, would you tell or suggest to them that they can use their will to make the voices, hallucinations, or any of the symptoms go away? Would you have the moral superiority to tell them they are weak of morals and values?
Would you tell a cancer patient, as addiction is a terminal illness, that he or she should will it away? Would you not tell anyone who suggested that to stop practicing “witch craft” that they were crack pots? Of course you would, as doctors with ethics and codes and principles…you would be in a position that you might feel compelled to say such things…
Being that I too attempt, imperfectly of course, to live by a set of principles; it behooves me to tell you that the old prescription of telling addicts and alcoholics to smarten up and just stop using and drinking has passed you by. Even your own association has designated this as an illness; it is time for all of you to start getting the information and utilizing it just a bit better. Is it really that difficult for some of you to make a referral to an outside source?
The field in which I work is littered with people carrying no degrees or education to the extent of you, yet they have absolutely no issue finding the resources that are best apt to help the client they are working with… I sure hope that is not the issue; pure arrogant indignation in terms of referrals.
I was told that if I want to see change, I must become the change. Slowly I try to be a part of the change I want to see and that is about information sharing; so consider yourselves somewhat informed and remember, I did not come up with this stuff… it was actually you fine ladies and gentlemen
David Lewry
We walk into the doctor’s office and tell our tale of woes, pains, and withdrawals; the first response of the unlearned doctor is, “Well, this sedative or this medication is what I can prescribe for your symptoms…” I don’t blame the doctors fully, because I know the skills us addicts and alcoholics possess and utilize when it comes to the games and manipulation we use to get what we want.
Now of course, there is a certain detox phase, but the doctor should know how dangerous it is for us to detox alone and self-medicate at this stage of our recoveries.
However, there is some responsibility on the doctor’s shoulders, as they are medical doctors after all. I would think as a doctor and more specifically psychologists and psychiatrists (who we tend to see with equal or greater frequency when sobering up and through our initial years of sobriety) with their prescribed method of treatment; medication or the wonderfully dangerous advice of “just stop using” flaps out of their voice holes.
Which leads me to my friend, who heard recently when visiting his psychiatrist, “Look Mister X, it is a matter of will, simply decide not to use and don’t use…it really is that simple…”
He was in a slight panic, as he recounted the story of this session because the very words from the head doctor started a chain reaction of denial and doubt in his mind. Luckily he knew exactly what was happening inside of him from his disease as a reaction to the information. I listened, as he frantically ripped off the summary of an hour and a half visit with who he called at this point “complete hack…” and some other colorful words I will not repeat.
Of course this gent has underlying issues which contribute to his alcoholism and drug addiction hence weekly psychiatrist visits were made mandatory for his special case. I suggested to him that he keep in mind that the psychiatrist’s knowledge base can be very helpful in terms of trauma and other matters he suffered early in childhood and adolescence and even those events through early adulthood which he himself perpetrated against others.
I also suggested that he continue with his program of recovery in terms of his addiction specific issues although these matters become intertwined by the time a person sobers/cleans up. He stated that he would because it has been working for him for over a year, but illustrated his frustration at having to even listen to a person who does not know make hollow suggestions at him from their own blind spot.
Of course that is a summary of the event and I won’t give too many more details or bore you with examples, which are countless, of men and women sobering up and being told it is simply “a matter of will” or it is because they are “weak in morals and values”. It happens every day to someone and occasionally they talk about it, but unfortunately not everyone knows enough to discuss these things.
The purpose of this blog is to pass along a bit of information to those doctors via the doctors who do read my blog and email me with both criticism and praise; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or DSM IV is a guide for psychiatrists and psychologists and other medical types in terms of diagnosing mental illness and it has alcoholism and drug addiction categorized as a mental illness!
Folks, no offence intended, but this is your manual ladies and gentlemen; give it a read or even just a glance and when you do, read the section on alcoholism and chemical dependency. Ask yourself if you were diagnosing someone with schizophrenia, would you tell or suggest to them that they can use their will to make the voices, hallucinations, or any of the symptoms go away? Would you have the moral superiority to tell them they are weak of morals and values?
Would you tell a cancer patient, as addiction is a terminal illness, that he or she should will it away? Would you not tell anyone who suggested that to stop practicing “witch craft” that they were crack pots? Of course you would, as doctors with ethics and codes and principles…you would be in a position that you might feel compelled to say such things…
Being that I too attempt, imperfectly of course, to live by a set of principles; it behooves me to tell you that the old prescription of telling addicts and alcoholics to smarten up and just stop using and drinking has passed you by. Even your own association has designated this as an illness; it is time for all of you to start getting the information and utilizing it just a bit better. Is it really that difficult for some of you to make a referral to an outside source?
The field in which I work is littered with people carrying no degrees or education to the extent of you, yet they have absolutely no issue finding the resources that are best apt to help the client they are working with… I sure hope that is not the issue; pure arrogant indignation in terms of referrals.
I was told that if I want to see change, I must become the change. Slowly I try to be a part of the change I want to see and that is about information sharing; so consider yourselves somewhat informed and remember, I did not come up with this stuff… it was actually you fine ladies and gentlemen
David Lewry