Do-It-Yourself Residential Alcohol Treatment

It's not unusual for people to know that they need some help in getting over their alcohol abuse and dependence, but not know how to start. They look at residential and long for the escape isn't that what really fuels the alcohol abuse anyway? but shudder at the cost and disruption. Then they look at outpatient and that seems like too little help for so pervasive a problem. So they do what we all do, sit back, sigh, and wait until the next crisis to go through the whole non-decision process all over again.

Happily, however, if one looks hard enough there are a rare few other possibilities. Scattered across the country are a handful of outpatient programs that have incorporated a semi-residential component into their intensive and distance programs. These hybrids offer the best of both without the disadvantages of either.

How's that work?

The concept is fairly simple. Combine short term, intensive, outpatient treatment with a self-service residential aspect. What's that? An example best illustrates this.

Jackie (or Jack) knows she need treatment and thinks she could use more structure and support than a therapist or typical outpatient program offers. But she doesn't need or want the bells, whistles, and expense of a residential setting. Instead she decides to work with one of the two or three places offering good custom designed solutions.

After extensive planning by phone and internet and possibly a visit if feasible - Jackie drives or flies into town on Sunday (with or without family) and checks into a good hotel near the facility. Monday through Friday she is involved in intensive assessment, planning, goal setting, and activities. Evenings she is developing new patterns, reading, writing, or just relaxing. The following weekend she may return home or experiment with two alcohol free days in a different setting.

The second week will be more intensive fine tuning of Jackie's new day-to-day life and direction. It will usually involve planning changes in her usual at home routines and schedules; breaking patterns that lead back to drinking; deciding what problem areas need to be addressed and which can be deferred; and planning how to handle friends and family who will either support or sabotage her efforts most people will do some of both; and devising good follow-up procedures to insure that the momentum that's been generated doesn't get lost in the return home.

All of this can be accomplished in a week or so and provides Jackie with a bit of respite and perspective but keeps a lot of the process under her control and at her discretion. Client success depends primarily on motivation and the client's belief that they can succeed. It offers choices and flexibility and allows her to pick what she needs. Need a few more (or less) days? That's fine design it in as you go along. Try it out, adjust it, reconsider it, adapt, and adopt.

All this empowering at one third to one tenth the cost of a typical residential program and without the substituting of one dependence for another. Nor does it foster change in a fantasy environment that no one can sustain when they return home to all of the usual realities of daily life.

Behavior change succeeds when people are motivated, supported, and feel like their future prospects look better than their current realities. Success is the outcome of believing that it's possible and desirable. All of this comes from having faith in oneself, not in a particular program, and in finding help that is based on strengths, interests, and abilities, not weaknesses, "diseases," and a continuing focus on alcohol.

Do yourself a favor. Look for services which work with you and for you, not ones which seek to mold you into their "program" and spit you out as a slogan-mumbling clone. Don't become just another dry drunk transferring your alcohol-focused life from bars to basements. You deserve more than that. See to it you get it.

Dr. Mary Ellen Barnes is President and co-founder of Your Empowering Solutions, Inc, a southern California based alternative alcohol counseling center. Dr. Barnes is particularly interested in the plight of women who wish to change their use of alcohol, either through moderation or abstinence. Learn more about Dr. Barnes and Y.E.S. and the innovative work being done at: http://www.non12step.com

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