Will I Eventually Be Able to Drink Normally? (if I address the underlying cause of my addiction)
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[00:00:00] I get asked all the time about whether or not people can go back to drinking or using normally after addiction treatment and maybe even after a long period of sobriety, like a reset. This is a super normal and common question that not only people in early recovery have, but also their family members.
In fact, I got an email consult just recently asking this very exact specific question, and it comes up in a lot of my sessions. So I thought we would address it here, and I'm going to tell you my thoughts on the question. Other people might think differently, but I figured we can have a little bit of a conversation about it to explore the pros and cons of trying that, and maybe some alternate ways of thinking about the question.
For those of you who don't know me, welcome to Put the Shovel Down. My name is Amber [00:01:00] Hollingsworth, and this channel is all about helping you overcome addiction before you hit bottom. We try to show you the science and psychology of addiction from the perspective of the person who is struggling with it and from the family member's perspective.
Because our goal is to get everybody on the same page so you get your life and your family back on track. Alright, so let's get into our topic. The question that we're answering today is this. Is it possible for someone to be able to drink in moderation after they've had addiction treatment and after they've addressed the underlying causes of the addiction, maybe the things that were triggering the addiction in the first place, and they've had a significant period of sobriety, can that person go back to drinking in moderation?
And I'm talking about, occasionally having a couple of drinks at a social event. This is it's so normal to want to know this question, [00:02:00] because, when you think about recovery, or you think about abstinence, it's an immediate thought for anybody to have is I don't want to give it up. Totally. I enjoy having a drink with dinner every now and then socially, I enjoy doing this or that.
And why can't I do it? In a very small amount occasionally. And I can definitely see why people want to do that because especially if it comes to drinking after a while you get to the point where you like the taste and things like that. The answer is this.
The answer is probably not. And I would say, Most probably not. I have not really seen that be successful in my career. And I've been treating people and families struggling with addiction for more than 20 years now. A good long time.
I just don't see that happening. If the problem, if the initial problem was drinking, and then you're gonna try to go back to having a few drinks every now and then, I don't think that's gonna happen. I don't see that working for very long. It might can work for a very [00:03:00] short period of time, but pretty soon, pretty quickly, the dam breaks, and you start sliding back into your old patterns.
I have seen people be able to do it moderately, casually for A few weeks, even maybe even a month or so, but eventually the gate gets open because what happens is your guard gets down. Let's say you're sober for 3 years.
Okay. And then you decide, what? My life is different. I'm so much better. My job is different. My relationships are different. I feel spiritually connected. I'm in a good spot. I think it'll be fun if I have a couple of drinks at a bar. Jeff's wedding or whatever, I'm bit coming up and so at Jeff's wedding You have a couple of drinks and that'll go fine because the first time or two that you do it You're testing yourself.
You're proving to yourself that you can do it. So you're going to be super mindful and vigilant about it the first couple of times you do it. But then a little ways into this drinking moderately, [00:04:00] your guard is going to go down because you're going to think see, it's fine. I drank two. I didn't even want anymore.
Nothing bad even happened. I didn't even have a craving. This is what you're going to tell yourself. And then the guard is going to get down. Now I don't know how many times it's going to take. Sometimes it happens to people after once. Sometimes it happens to people after four or five times like that.
But eventually you forget that you need to be so vigilant and guarded about it. And then you pass that limit. And then once that happens, the gate flings open and it's just all, it's all like Donkey Kong. Okay. So that's pretty much what always happens. Now. I know that's bad news for most of you listening, not just for people in recovery, but for your family members too, because believe it or not, most of the time your family members want you to be able to drink normally too, right?
Like they don't want you to be left out because sometimes it makes them feel left out. That's just the honest truth about it. So they want you to be able to drink normally. And I have seen situations where families are the ones [00:05:00] encouraging you to try. If you're watching this families, I suggest not because you're going to wish that you didn't when that down breaks.
And maybe you're in a relationship with somebody who you didn't even know that person when they were addicted. And so they may, they're in recovery. Like they told you, they've had a problem with whatever in the past but you didn't know them then. So if they come up with the idea of I can probably drink as long as I don't go overboard.
And by the way, I'm talking about drinking, but you can also like insert smoking, like marijuana in here. That's the other one. Drinking and smoking moderately. That's what people normally want to do. So it could be either or. Same conversation here. So you may be thinking to yourself, yeah, that'll probably be fine because you don't remember what they were like.
And so you're going to find out and you're going to be dealing with a person that you've never met before. You're going to regret it. So just be careful when you're making that decision. Now, I know that's bad news, but I do have a different way of thinking about it that might make [00:06:00] you feel a lot better about it, especially if you're the person that's in the early stages of recovery or thinking about getting in recovery.
Here's the deal. Here's what I say to people because I always get asked this question and I say probably not. I don't say never because then it becomes like the mission to prove me wrong. And so I don't say never, but I'm thinking. I'm probably thinking probably never, right? So if your substance was something completely different, then I would say maybe, but it's risky.
If your substance was something like alcohol like maybe a benzo or a sleeping pill, that's really still in that same neuropathway as alcohol. So that's super risky. If your substance was something like pain pills or something like that, then I would say maybe, but it's risky. If your substance was something like cocaine, I would say probably not because when you drink alcohol, people that use cocaine, it's usually alcohol, cocaine, and weed. It's a little trio thing. So if you drink, if your main drug was cocaine, but then you start trying to [00:07:00] casually drink alcohol turns off the part of your brain that's helping you remember that you don't do cocaine anymore.
Relapses on cocaine are started from alcohol or marijuana. So the person doesn't intend to go back to cocaine, it's just the other door that opens first. It's going to take so much energy, And effort and vigilance and it's going to make you want it again and it's going to make you crave it And I say is it really even worth it?
Because here's what I say people are always like what I want to be able to just have a glass of wine Like yeah, I just you know, I enjoy it with a good meal And it's not that I don't believe that's true I'm, just saying is it really worth it because i'm like, okay This is what I say to my husband I'm like, we both know that a glass or two ain't gonna do nothing for you And then they're like, yeah, they laugh and they're like Yeah, okay, you're right.
I'm like, it ain't gonna do nothing for you, but make you want more. It's one potato chip. And so I'm not saying that you can't control it. If you put all those other things in place, you might can control it for a little bit, but you're gonna have to be so vigilant about [00:08:00] it. You're not gonna enjoy it.
You're gonna be constantly like analyzing, everybody else is gonna be watching you like a hawk and thinking I don't, this slippery slope, and they're gonna be worried, It's going to be like that. It's going to reopen that part of your brain. It's going to activate that addictive center, so it's going to be turning that back on.
When after a period of complete sobriety, that part, it never goes away, but it goes to sleep. It hibernates. Like I might say it's in remission. It's still there, but it's not active. If you don't feed that demon it'll stay in hibernation and it becomes super easy. It becomes super easy quicker than you think.
As long as you're trying to do a little, you keep in the demon at bay. Think about it. Like you got this, tiny little baby leash around this giant rock wall or something that's like trying to break free barking all the time. That's what you're going to feel like when you're trying to just manage it.
And I say this to people who are thinking about it like maybe I can drink socially after a long period of sobriety or [00:09:00] even people who feel like they have a problem but want to back it down because they'll usually say just occasionally socially and I just want to have a drink or two and I'm like I don't think you're really gonna enjoy it that much because I don't think it's going to do anything for you other than re trigger you.
And it's going to take a lot of energy and effort when actually the truth of it is drinking none is about a million times easier than drinking a little. You can ask anybody who's been sober a while, and they will tell you after a period of time, you just don't really even think about it anymore.
You have new habits and routines. It's not like you feel like you're missing out all the time. It's not like you feel like you're holding back or resisting. Occasionally in long term sobriety, you might be In a certain place that reminds you of it and you might have a thought of oh, it'd be nice to have a drink But that's about it.
It's just like a random thought that comes through your mind You might have a memory or something like that, but it doesn't hang around. It doesn't bother you you don't your monster mouths as I like to call them aren't talking to you It just becomes your new [00:10:00] normal and you feel great.
You feel fine. Your life is great and If you get it in your head like maybe it'll be different this time You're gonna Dysregulate your happiness your contentment your serenity and all that stuff that you've worked really hard for because You're gonna have to start holding that rottweiler back again And you don't really want to do that because it was so it's so easy to not do it.
That's probably the number one benefit people tell me is about recovery is life is so much easier. Unbelievably easy, because if you've never had an addiction, it's hard to understand, The way I like to envision it is if you had to 24 7 juggle big giant butcher knives, but at the same time you had to do everything else in your life.
You had to go to work, you had to take care of your kids, you had to go to school, you had to deal with family events and holidays. And you can't ever stop juggling those knives, and that's why the family stuff, the work stuff, [00:11:00] the school stuff, everything else eventually starts to slip through the cracks because you got to juggle these knives constantly.
And it's you juggle them faster and faster. So if you get to the point, you don't have to juggle those knives anymore. Think how easy regular life's gonna feel. You're not dealing with people being mad at you all the time.
You're not having to chase something else, juggle these knives, and live life, and it's just so much easier. Most people when they think about it that way, they feel completely different about it.
They're like, you know what? You're right. Like number one, it's pretty risky to mess with it because most people don't do well with it. And then think about how hard it is to get to that good place. It's freaking hard to get the lid back on the situation. Most of the time, by the time you get in a long term recovery, it's pretty hard.
You had to put the lid on it multiple times. You've gotten yourself sober multiple times and you know how difficult it is. And it gets harder every single time you do it. So it's you're probably going to end up making a mess of things, experiencing some major [00:12:00] discomfort, messing up some relationships, having everybody watching you, treating you like a kid again, all that stuff.
And then you're going to have to do the whole get sober thing again, and it just sucks. And so it's just is it worth it? Sometimes you'll hear people in recovery say things like, yeah, I probably got another drunk in me, but I don't have another recovery in there.
So it's just when you weigh the pros and cons of it, I'm telling you. Once you go completely sober and abstinent your brain chemicals level out. This is just a brain chemical thing It's not a personal character defect thing, right?
It's not a what? Your intention is thing. It's literally about the brain chemicals, because once you've got those pathways, it's like muscle memory, you activate it, and immediately you're back in those same patterns because your brain is made for efficiency, and that just, it just does that automatically to you, even when you don't intend for it to do that.
Maybe you had PTSD symptoms and you feel like that was a lot of why you were drinking. Maybe you feel like you were drinking or smoking or whatever, because [00:13:00] you were in a bad relationship or in a bad job or something, or you had depression or anxiety and you're like I've solved that problem now.
That doesn't mean that you'll then be able to drink or use normally once you have gotten yourself over to the category of into addiction, alcoholism, that kind of thing. You don't really go backwards, right? Even if the underlying problem is solved, because no matter why it started and no matter what was triggering it, as that addiction progressed, you built those neural pathways and you reinforced them and reinforced them.
Like thousands and thousands of times and if you wake them up They're going to be back in full force it's not if I deal with the underlying issue now, i'm not an alcoholic It just doesn't work that way
so If you're having that, watch that video. There is a reason why I use those words and it's not to be mean or ugly or nasty. I don't think anything mean or ugly or nasty about anybody who has addiction. In fact, I think we all have an addiction of some sort. So I really don't, in my mind, there's not a bad [00:14:00] thought around it, but I get people think, Oh, why are you calling the person that?
First of all, it's just easier to say than person with substance use disorder. There's a practicality to it. It's definitely easier to write on a YouTube thumbnail for sure. So When you put it in the context of do you really even want to try to do it? Is it worth it? How much effort is it going to take you when actually If you ask anybody who's had like a good amount of sobriety, they'll tell you their life is a million times better They'll tell you they feel better.
They have more energy. They have more motivation. Their relationships are better I'm not saying everything's perfect, but they will tell you everything is so much better you don't want to mess with that. You don't want to reactivate it and try to put in all that work and energy and effort that it would take to keep the drinking back to normal.
It is risky to even try to do it if your substance was something completely different. I really don't recommend you try even that, But if you're somebody that's just hell bent on it, I have seen people be able to do [00:15:00] that, but I've seen a lot of people that didn't work for either.
So that's what I'm saying. Just, you got to be careful with it. Okay. But if it was your original substance, I can tell you. it's pretty much not going to work. If you're on here right now, if you're watching this video and you've tried that before, I would love it, if you put it in the chat, in the comments, because maybe if you don't believe it from me, maybe you can believe it from somebody else, right?
I've seen it thousands and thousands of times and I know it's hard because we want it to be that way. But it never makes you feel happier to bring that back in. You got to realize you're not missing out on anything. You've now gotten back everything. So why you would want to pull this back in is crazy.
I like to tell my clients that it's like when you have a really bad toxic relationship and then you go through this Super horrible breakup. And when you finally get out of it,
And then six months passes, and you run into that person, or that person messages you on Facebook, and [00:16:00] you're not reminding yourself of how toxic and crazy it was, and then you open the gate,
and before you know it, usually pretty quickly, it goes south again and then you're like, this is why I got out of that relationship. That's what's going to happen when you go back to alcohol. This is what I want you to think about. It is an abusive relationship. It's an abusive, toxic relationship. So you don't want to try to just be friends.
OK, it's not going to work. And that's what you're trying to do when you're trying to bring it back in. Maybe we can just be friends. Don't try that. We all know that if it was a toxic relationship before, the being just friends thing, it's not gonna work. So don't try to do that. Don't try to ease it back into your life in some kind of smaller way thinking that it'll be more manageable or different.
That, Chaos and under manageability. It's just going to come back and get back all over your life again. All right in just a second. I am going to for those of you who are watching live. I'm going to take some comments and questions And get some feedback from you guys about what you think about this topic Like I said, I know other [00:17:00] people have different opinions Brie is Backstage moderating for us.
It's just we're trying to like quickly go through those and find the ones that need answered. So if you'll do that, and then I will remind you as always, there are additional resources in the description. If you want recovery coaching, if you have a family member in denial and you want to know how to get through to them, all of that is in the description.
And also I'm going to put, because we're talking about alcohol, I'm going to put the link down there to Soberlink. It is an alcohol monitoring system and it truly is the number one most effective thing that I have seen work to get people off of alcohol without, sometimes without even having to go to treatment.
I feel like this, I've had more success with this thing than I have with treatment. So I'll put the link down there for you to check it out. In fact, I recently just made a video for you demonstrating the whole thing. So you can actually see it and how it works behind the scenes and [00:18:00] get An idea of how the whole system works.
I made that video. If you follow the link, you can find it I will put that in the description for you all right, Brie. What do we got? The gamer says Why does quitting an addiction feel like a physical effort when it seems to be just mental but it feels very physical this is a super great question and it's because it is physical It is both physical and mental.
The physical part is hardest that first week or two. But then it becomes more mental than physical, but up front. Is super physical and that's because of what it does to your brain your brain Chemicals are trying to re regulate And because of that they're all out of whack when you stop a substance you go into a draw and you get physically sick different substances have different withdrawal symptoms But you can pretty much count on no matter what the substance is that you're going to have difficulty sleeping appetite [00:19:00] issues irritable Your anxiety is going to go up You're just not going to feel well.
And if you're coming off of something like pain pills, you are seriously physically not going to feel well. Mega physical symptoms. The reason it feels like it's a physical effort is because it is. It's the same kind of reason, Gamer, is like, You know when you go through a heartbreak how it feels like your heart physically hurts because that's what heartbreak is It's a withdrawal and it physically hurts.
That's why they call it heartbreak Like you can feel it in your chest and your stomach and your muscles everything. It's like that. Hey anthony Thank you for the super chat. We put all the super chat money towards helping to produce these videos. So thank you so much dale says I'm progressing into the good guy role.
Nice, nice work, Dale. My wife is now sneak drinking in moderation daily and falling into a comfortable pattern for her. She's forgotten that I can't continue in the marriage with her drinking. [00:20:00] Is there a way I can remind her and not end up as the bad guy again? No, I don't suggest you, you do that, Dale, because if in her mind, I'm guessing she thinks you don't even know she's drinking at all.
You know that she is still drinking. She's just sneaking it. Maybe it's less, but you know that it's still happening. What's going to have to happen is if in her mind it is better and she's managing it better, you're not going to get any further movement until she proves to herself that it's bad again.
So I would probably wait until she's drinking. And let her let that gate bust back open on her because that's the only thing that's going to prove that to her because if you try to confront somebody in any kind of period where they think the problem is better You really lose credibility.
So you're just going to have to wait and let her show herself And if you stand back it will show itself. I promise you if it's addiction it will get Manageable [00:21:00] No doubt.
Jessica says, question is your strength based coaching program intended before, after, in conjunction with going to rehab, trying to figure out the best course of action? I have seen it in all of those situations. After rehab, it works really well because someone is already stable and we can jump right into those higher level recovery skills like just understanding yourself as a person, getting spiritually and mentally in a good place, repairing relationships.
If you're jumping into it in conjunction with getting sober or before going to treatment or something like that, then we'll probably spend a good portion of that time figuring out how to actually stop. And so it can be useful in all scenarios, any which way. I just try to gauge where you're at and help meet the needs of where you're at in that change process.
Probably. The least best way to use the strength based coaching is if you're somebody who's in denial about the [00:22:00] problem, I can work with people that are in denial. I've spent my whole career doing that, but it's going to take. Weeks and months of sessions for me to get you out of denial What I prefer is for the family to do that part at home.
That's what I teach on this channel That's what we teach invisible intervention for you to get them out of denial and then for you to send them to me it's just a better more cost effective way to do it because you can do it more effectively Maybe you don't know how and I'll teach you how to do it and then send them to me I can help you spike it over or I can set it up for you and you can spike it over So great question.
Thanks for asking that. Fancy plants. Oh, I like your username says question What are your thoughts on choosing? Sobriety not based on first hand problems, but based on a family history of alcohol issues I think that's just smart. I think that's genius. It's look, I done seen what happens to everybody else in my family when they go down this road.
When you grow up in it it didn't look near as appealing to me. Like it really wasn't ever much of a [00:23:00] temptation. And I just knew literally I come from family where every single person is addicted.
And I knew that if I got started on the train, it would get out of control because pretty much everything I do gets out of control. I think that's a smart decision. Phil, can you successfully raise the topic of an alcoholic spouse while staying in the good role? I want to show this video to my spouse, but know that you don't recommend it.
Good job, Phil. That's a great question. people say, Hey, can I send this video to my loved one? I'm like, yeah, you can. But if they're in denial, you don't ever want to send my videos as a wake up call. What you want to do is you want to wait till they bring it up. You want to wait till you get some form of change talk and then find a video or book or podcast or anything that Follows their state of mind at the time.
Don't ever send something that's like something you think they need to hear but maybe something That they could relate to or want to hear or that they would be receptive to you want to [00:24:00] start there just this if I got a new client, I would not start by calling them out I would never Start by calling them out.
I might eventually call you out, but I would build a relationship first and that's what you want to do Either with your loved one or through the videos or however If you play your cards right and you're in that you're out of the bag, I roll eventually something will happen and they will Indicate to you.
They may not say I'm an addict and I need to quit forever, but they'll say I need to cut it back or I need this. Once you get some like change talk, then you ask them, Hey, I saw this great video on, how to quit drinking on your own if they want to quit drinking on their own. I'll send it to you if you want.
Ask their permission and then send it because otherwise they're going to see it as a jab. It'd be like this. If you had a loved one who was overweight, he would not send them a video about going on a diet unless they asked you for that. Or unless that's a conversation you've been having.
It's parallel like that. Thank you for asking that. Cause that comes up a lot. Chris says, my husband is [00:25:00] currently over 90 days sober after 30 day inpatient and 30 days of treatment. He's currently following up with personal therapy. He's drinking non alcoholic beer and saying he's committed to staying sober for at least a year.
Should I be supportive for the year and then see where he lands? I do not think he is someone that should be drinking considering alcohol and alcohol withdrawal almost killed him. And he was in the ICU for 12 days. But if this is a negotiation he has, how do I deal?
So what you're saying is your husband's drinking non alcoholic beer. Non alcoholic beer has, I don't know, some kind of ridiculously tiny percentage of alcohol in it, but no one is ever going to get intoxicated from it. So if you're worried that it's considered still drinking, I wouldn't consider non alcoholic beer in that category of what we're talking about today.
I don't consider someone drinking a non alcoholic drink as a relapse or as continued drinking. Now, I will say that it can be [00:26:00] triggering. So when people ask me about whether or not it's okay, I say I've seen some people who actually, that really worked well for because if they're a social event, everyone else is ordering drinks, it just makes them feel better.
Or it just makes them feel like at least they got the taste or whatever. But and then I have other people that it's, it just is a trigger to drink because it tastes like, it looks like, it smells like, it feels like it in your hand sounds like when you open it, all those things.
And so it's impacting your senses. So what I tell people about non alcoholic beers, I say, listen, if you try it and you find that it just makes you want the real thing, then probably don't do it. If you do it and you find that it actually helps, Then do it. You can try that. ~But should you stay with him drinking alcohol?~
~Sure, you should. ~That's not considered drinking. It's just, it's like a kid drinking a Shirley Temple or something.
Beatrice says, Is it correct to say that if a person has a drug history, they should give up alcohol as well? Often they think it's a different thing, but they end up replacing and switching the drug. Yeah They probably need to give up alcohol. The [00:27:00] particular thing about alcohol, that makes it hard is because alcohol, shuts down Your say no switch. So the part of your brain that lets you make sure you don't use the other drugs when you're using alcohol It shuts that part down So you run the risk of relapsing on the other substances when you're intoxicated And then you also run the risk of then developing into an alcohol problem Now, like I said before I have seen some people give up some substances and give up a lot of them Years later, be able to drink occasionally, but if you're trying to give up a drug today, and you're going to just continue drinking, that's definitely not going to work because the whole thing about giving up the drugs is you got to learn like coping skills, you got to learn stress management, you got to learn to live life sober.
And if you're not even giving yourself a chance to learn that, then there is absolutely zero. You are, just going to switch for sure. So good question. Thank you for asking. Elaine says, I have an alcoholic, [00:28:00] roughly 30 year old sibling. He went to detox about five months ago, but relapsed within two months.
She's currently in denial and avoiding that she has a problem. We're trying to use your advice this time around. Now that we've found your channel, she's wanting us. To come visit her one night at a bar that she's now working at. We, of course, don't support her choice to work at a bar due to it clearly conflicting with the potential of sobriety.
Should we approach it with her by basically saying, we would absolutely love to. See you and get together, but we'd rather it not be in that setting. She has a problem with alcohol for roughly 10 years and it's pretty much worked in the restaurant industry the whole time. Okay. This question is a very good question because it puts the family in a situation in a lane where you feel like if I go do that, then I'm just enabling and I'm sending the wrong messages.
But here's the way I want you to think about it. And I have a video on [00:29:00] this. A whole video on this topic, but it's like if you're dealing with somebody who's inactive addiction. And you're trying to think should I not drink in front of them or should I not drink or use around them or whatever?
This is the same question. If they know you would normally do that and now you're not doing that because you think it's not good for them or because you're being a role model, they're going to take it almost as an insult. So I think refusing to meet her there, she's just going to take it as a criticism.
And all you're really going to do is, yeah. Damage your relationship with her. It's not like that you making the decision to not go to the bar and meet her there Is going to make her change her mind about whether or not that's a good idea for her It's more likely to make her dig into it Now if you're saying I don't want to meet her at a bar because she's going to get Totally wasted and be obnoxious and I don't want to be around her like that.
That's a different story That's just a boundary for you to have but if you're worried that you're sending the wrong message by going You When they're already [00:30:00] actively doing it I wouldn't fight that battle because I don't see that it's going to do much good, but it does have the potential to do harm, which is damage in the relationship.
And as from the videos, your relationship is the power source that you have. The better the relationship, the more influence you have. Do you have a video on advocating on your own behalf to get into treatment? I'm having some serious issues asking for help
Anthony is what they're saying is you don't make criteria or something because that happens a lot
I can send, I'm trying to think where it is, I know I have this, but when you're talking to a treatment center, mostly what they're looking for is, do you meet criteria to be in here? And if you're trying to use insurance, then they're looking for, do you meet the insurance criteria to be in here? And so you have to understand what it is that they're looking for and i'm not encouraging you to Lie or make anything up, but if you understand why it is that they're saying you don't need to be here or something like that Then you can [00:31:00] better explain your situation.
And so there's something called the ASAM level of placement criteria and it stands for American Society of Addiction Medicine. That's what ASAM stands for and it basically lists like all the levels of care and it talks about the criteria a person needs to meet to be in like intensive outpatient, to be in inpatient, to be in 30 day rehab, whatever.
It tells you what it is that they're looking for. They call it six dimensions. They're looking at your physical wellness. That means whether or not you're going to go into major life threatening withdrawal symptoms. Or if you have another medical condition that withdrawal would overly complicate, like maybe you have a seizure disorder already and going into cold turkey withdrawal on your own would make you at a much higher risk of having a seizure or something like that.
So they're looking at those medical safety complications. They're also looking at Your environment does your environment support recovery? [00:32:00] They're also looking at just a lot of things like your relapse history some of these other things You may not even be realizing that they need to know those pieces of information So I encourage you to check out the ASAM criteria to understand What it is that they're looking for so you can advocate for yourself.
Maybe Anthony maybe you need to look at trying to get admitted into mental health treatment as opposed to just the addiction treatment.
If you've not been using lately, cause that's a thing. When you're trying to get into something like detox, acute care, they're trying to detox you from drugs. So if you don't have drugs in your system, they're thinking you don't need detox, but actually 30 60 90 day treatment like more like residential treatment.
It's not an acute detox issue. It's more of a relapse sustainable recovery issue. So maybe looking at trying to get into a different level of care or Looking more in the mental health vein or you can pick a program that does dual diagnosis And then when you explain the mental health symptoms, then that will qualify you to get in there I know that was [00:33:00] a complicated answer, but I hope it was at least a little helpful not to confuse him All right, guys, we are about out of time I want to say thank you so much for those of you who showed up live if you're watching on the replay we're glad you're here, too
we're live every Thursday at 1 p. m. Eastern. And of course, there are more resources in the description. If you're trying to get sober and you're trying to win Trust Factory Family, I'm telling you that is the resource that you want.
So I'll put all that in the description below this video. And I'll see you guys next week. Bye, everybody.
