Question:
Hi! > Throughout all of this experience with 12 step groups, one thought > permeated them all: DO NOT USE DRUGS TO RECOVER WITH!!! They treated > meds as a failure to really recover. A side-step to true recovery. On > and on and on… It was, like, if you can’t do it with the help of the > group, your sponsor, the 12 steps, and your Higher Power–you aren’t > really doing it.
I’ve only been 12 Stepping since 1983 or so; I’ve only been involved with Gam-Anon and Al-Anon meetings… not AA, OA etc. I certainly have known ‘double winners’ from meetings, and alcoholics and gamblers ‘up close and personal’. However, I’m certainly no 12 Step expert. Nevertheless, I regard the above described 12 Step meetings as groups to avoid and bullsh*ters. These folks are not working their own program IMO when they judge or attempt to judge someone else’s program. While recovering 12 Steppers are told to avoid their ‘drug of choice’, we are also told to take care of ourselves (which usually we did not do before 12 Stepping). Taking care of themselves includes medical and dental attention. Psychiatric medications and medical therapy are two ways to help take care of ourselves. > I completely disagree with this line of thinking.
The only 12 Steppers I’ve heard even start to talk along this line seemed, to me, to be so fearful that they were having serious troubles with their own recovery. On occasion I’ve seen folks attempt to sabotage someone else’s recovery as a distraction from themselves. However, these were only my opinions and I’ve tried to avoid taking others’ inventories. I’ve personally ‘taken down’ whole meetings with my comments when I was in serious emotional pain; even 15 year members gently crossed on me during the meeting. About 2 days later I’ve figured out what happened at the meeting and been horrified at how easily I’ve been able to bring out control issues in others; PTSD is a cunning and devious disease. :/ Once I figured out how easily I could distract one 12 Step meeting from its mission I quit that meeting and moved to another. Although I do not regard myself as a strong personality, I do need a meeting where the other folks do not get carried away hearing my pain. Thus, I say quite calmly … the paranoia about medicating is a symptom of someone not working her own program. IMO, such paranoia is just another fear manifesting itself and is the reason every 12 Step meeting I’ve attended says: Take what you like and leave the rest! > My mother, to this day, 12 stepper that she is, is very much opposed to > the use of meds to recover with and thinks that all meds are potentially > addictive. FWIW, my mother is a drug and alcoholism counselor; she is > a social worker and this is her specialty.
I believe that this is an extreme position. The other extreme position among such counselors is that 12 Step groups do not allow (allow ?) their members to take prescription medication under a doctor’s supervision, and so the 12 Step programs are ‘bad’. To me, these control attempts over addicts from ‘both sides of the street’ are a sign of how little we (and they) still know about addictions. > Adding to a person’s guilt, feeling of failure or paranoia is not > beneficial.
It is not the purpose of either ’side of the street’ to encourage my own ‘distorted’ thinking. Thus, I am very supportive of the concepts of not going to meetings with those I know and not knowing my therapists or psychiatrist in a personal way. I’ve tended to use my therapist as my sponsor and recipient of my 4th Step inventory; actually, I believe that therapy is an ongoing Step 4. 
When someone is close enough to see the trees in my life, s/he is too close to see the forest IMO. Sponsors are supposed to listen, _not_ give advice. Therapists are supposed to listen and offer alternatives, _not_ give commands. All the above is my opinion only … take what you like and leave the rest. Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
Response:
Greetings, My two cents worth— I am also a recovering alcoholic and addict and have been sober for 3+ years. I also have PTSD and currently on meds–Prozac and Terezedone. In 1993 I sobered up for the 1st time and about 1 year into revovery a dr. I was seeing put me on Zanax for my anxiety. I had not yet been diagnosed with ptsd. I took them andI know they set off the allergy. It wasn’t long before I was drinking and drugging again. So when I sobered up again 5 monthes later, I chose not to take any meds that give me that "high" that I like and crave so well. Along these lines if I am in pain and need surgery or dental work, I will take the meds but I also let my sponser know or someone else that I am close too so they can help monitor me. What I find to be amazing is this–when I am in really bad pain and need the drug and take it, it does not give me the "buzz." It goes straight to the pain and stops it. Its when I go over the line and take 4 every 1 hour instead of 1 every 4 hours that messes me up. And this is only my experiences with meds and recovery. Since I relapsed and am now sober again, I am willing to do whatever it takes not to set off the mental or physical craving. The big book talks about that also, how we have a disease that centers in the mind rather than the body.
Response:
Hi Jeannie! > I chose not to take any meds that > give me that "high" that I like and crave so well. > Along these lines if I am in pain and need surgery or dental work, I will take > the meds but I also let my sponser know or someone else that I am close too so > they can help monitor me. What I find to be amazing is this–when I am in > really bad pain and need the drug and take it, it does not give me the "buzz." > It goes straight to the pain and stops it. Its when I go over the line and take > 4 every 1 hour instead of 1 every 4 hours that messes me up.
Exactly so I am aware of the addictive nature of Percodan, and my addictive personality. When I was put on Percodan for 7 weeks following major surgery, I was worried about taking so much. I talked to the surgeon about my fears, and she said that I did not need to worry, she wasn’t going to keep me on Percodan any longer than necessary. I got a high with the last pill … about 2 hours after the stitch that had caught around a nerve resorbed and the pain had gone. When a medically-prescribed pill gives me a ‘high’, it’s time for me to talk to the prescribing physician. I think that’s ‘normal’ for all of us … there’s a reason that these are called ‘restricted’. Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
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