It’s been about 8 months since I updated this blog, so here’s the latest.
On September 1 I landed myself in rehab for alcoholism. I was surprised/not surprised at this development. I had come to work violently ill and friends there took it upon themselves to take me to the ER. There they injected me with a lot of benzodiazepine. Repeatedly. Then the ER doc said very bluntly to me: “you are going to rehab today. Not tomorrow–today.”
My first thought was “how do I get out of this so I can go home?” My second thought was “and then what?”
I had landed myself here. I didn’t drink at work or before work. But I drank at all other times. Including some Saturday and Sunday daytimes. And subsequently when I got up and went to work on that day, I experienced severe alcohol withdrawal. The benzos were to stop me having a seizure. I had done this to myself. I tried to drink less and/or less frequently, but I couldn’t.
And so my third thought that day in the ER face to face with a doctor telling me to go to rehab was “maybe I should listen to other people and do what they say. Clearly doing my own thing has resulted in disaster. I’ll put my trust in the opinion of others for a while and see how that goes.”
And so I went. Hand-held by my great friends, all of whom were concerned and supportive. They got me into a good place and confirmed that my insurance would cover it. In fact, it was 100% on the house since I had paid so much money for other medical stuff earlier in the year. That is how on the evening of September 1, I was admitted to Casa Palmera for 30 days.
I could–and will–write many things about my time there. For now, I hope it will suffice to say that I continued my new policy of doing what people told me to do. I did well there. It’s a great place for addiction rehab. And, when they advised me that I should probably go to sober living after my 30 days was up, I initially resisted. But then I remembered my success formula: do what people tell you to do. So after that 30 days, I went straight to West Coast (west COAST!) Recovery Center and their sober living housing. I have been here for 42 days. They say I’ll be discharged on or around December 11.