NIU

alcohol rehab

Posted by Stacy on Monday, May 05, 2008 3:58 PM

I learned at an early age that I come from a family of addictive personalities. I have grandparents and parents who all drink alcohol daily. I have another grandfather who was a complete alcoholic and died before I was born. I have an aunt who is an alcoholic, and a cousin who is a drug addict. In any case, when I was about 19 even before I hit the legal drinking age, I began hanging out at bars where I knew the bouncers and would drink myself into oblivion. The only problem was no matter how much liquor I drank; I never got sick or hung over, even hard liquor. I don't think that I really noticed until one night I was at this bar with a friend of mine and had promised to drive her home. Well, anyway, I wound up hanging out with this guy and that one, and before I knew it my friend said that she was getting a ride home. I don't know how many absolute and orange juices I drank that night, but I do know that the bar tender was counting on me being wasted, and the drinks kept getting bigger and stronger each time. Well when the night was over, actually by now it was morning, I drove myself home. I don't remember driving home that night, and still the next day I was not sick or hung over in any way. This situation really frightened me, I mean what if I had run someone over that night on my way home, would I have even noticed?

I knew that it was time to get myself some help and within a week I had checked myself into an alcohol rehab facility. I was afraid that with all the family history I had that I was really heading to a scary place. Fortunately I was a social drinker, so I didn't get hit hard by the detox phase of treatment, for most people this is the worst part of addiction treatment. From detox I went to some group and individual counseling sessions which have been a great help to get me to see where my behaviors are coming from. They said I was one of the few people who really understood that I was on a bad path early on, and made a conscious decision to change it.

I can't say enough good things about alcohol rehab. It really helps provide you with the support you need to make changes in your life.