LAT: Fewer alcoholics are seeking treatment: Benefit cuts play role

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Fewer alcoholics are seeking treatment
Despite new drugs and insights into causes, millions don't get help. Benefit cuts play a role.

By Kevin W. McCullough, Special to The Times


....Even as scientists have gained a better understanding of the nature of alcoholism and more effective treatments have become available, fewer people are getting help. Fewer than one in 10 of the more than 20 million alcoholics in the United States are diagnosed each year, according to a recent study by researchers at George Washington University Medical Center....(F)ewer than half receive any type of treatment. The number of Americans entering alcoholism treatment programs has been declining steadily, dropping by more than 23% between 1993 and 2003, the latest year for which federal statistics are available....

***

As new drugs are developed and treatment improves, why are fewer people getting help?

The answer to that question is complex. Certainly, the social stigma of alcoholism and patients' unwillingness, or denial, to acknowledge their drinking as a serious problem remain issues. But some more immediate factors are exacerbating the problem, experts said.

According to a 2004 federal report, the average cost of outpatient substance abuse treatment was $1,433 in 2002, while inpatient treatment averaged $3,840. But some private inpatient treatment programs are much more costly. At Hazelden, for example, a 30-day inpatient stay can cost $20,000, notes Moyers.

Groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous are free or inexpensive, but behavioral therapy is only one part of treating an alcoholic's addiction, and the groups cannot provide professional therapy, help with the acute effects of withdrawal or prescribe drugs to manage recovery. Many people simply can't get access to treatment programs if they are unable to afford them....


http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-alcoholism19sep19,0,1247777.story?coll=la-home-health

[lebkuchen]

1. Bush says God cured him of alcoholism

I guess he figures, that's how it should work out for everybody.

[Javaman]

2. Yup, he's their new role model of how to be a dry drunk.

[GOPAgainstGW]

12. Pretzels Anyone? n/t

[progressivebydesign]

3. Perhaps because America has declined so dramatically...

..some people are finding it necessary to stay drunk. For some, that's the only way to handle life when everything is falling down around them. Unfortunately, it causes more problems than it hides, but they can't see that when they're in it. It's a cheap way to medicate yourself.

[OKthatsIT]

4. Perhaps its because they have no health insurance?

...the poor, the poor. Punished for coping.

[pitohui]

8. well also it could be because they DO have health insurance

a great way to lose yr job is to inform yr boss you have a substance abuse prob & will require a month off for detox/rehab

i know more than one boss or business for whom being an alcoholic is a firing offense, they don't want to deal w. it or feel they can't deal w. it for reasons of legal liability

[Mountainman]

5. I know it isn't popular here and doesn't have an scientific backing but AA

is free. I'm a friend of Dr. Bill's with over 21 yrs sober.

[pitohui]

7. yes it's free but it works for v. few as i'm sure you know

mountainman, yr achievement is wonderful but for everyone who is helped by bill there are thousands who try & try agn & it just doesn't work for them

if the free, easily available cure worked for everyone there would be no alcoholics or drug addicts

i don't know personally know anyone who stayed sober w. only aa & no professional medicine or detox, to be honest, most of those, even sober for yrs, eventually relapse

i don't know what the answer is, wish i did

but what alcoholic is left on this planet who hasn't tried aa?

there really can't be any, it's the first place everyone goes for help

we do need more science & even the science we have does not seem to be enough for everyone :cry:

[Theres-a]

11. Really

"What alcoholic is left on this planet who hasn't tried aa?"I would imagine a million or so.Denial ain't a river in Egypt.Lots of folks with alcoholism think AA is the last house on the block,and that you have to be really desperate to attend.That's just my opinion.I could be wrong.

[Dora]

13. It's about the desire to change.

It's not that AA doesn't work: it does work. Many people who join AA aren't willing to do the work it takes to get sober. Many people who join AA don't really want to change, they only want to change a little bit, just that little bit of themselves that makes drinking a problem for them - but that bit isn't little, and it never is. Very few people are up to the task of facing their demons, and blaming AA is an easy way of ducking responsibility for their addiction.

By all means, AA is fallible, and it's necessarily fallible because it's made up of people who are struggling with sobriety. Sponsors aren't experts, they're just addicts with advice, bad and good. Old-timers don't know how to deal with new-timers, and new-timers want there to be a grey area in the drinking/non-drinking paradigm. Again, the responsibility for the behavior falls onto the individual.

Yes, a person can quit drinking with just AA. No amount of counseling, psychotropic meds, in-n-outpatient therapies, or twelve-step groups are going to work for any addict if that person does not have a real desire to change.

[pitohui]

14. in other words it works just like abstinence education

it doesn't

you must not know any alcoholics if you think the victims do not desire to change

i don't know any alcoholics or crackheads who don't want to quit

they do have a v. real desire to change

the trouble is they can't no matter how hard they try

that is the definition of addiction, dora

if you can change thru power of will, you don't have the disease of addiction

& you are fortunate

but telling ppl in real distress that all they need to change is the desire to change is horseshit of the finest caliber

[Dora]

20. Huh. I don't smell anything.

If you smell horseshit, it's cause you're stepping in piles of your own making.

My husband is seventeen years sober. My stepsister is bedridden because of alcoholism-related brain damage. I'm a former speed freak, and I quit entirely on my own. (Oh, but according to your expert opinion, I wasn't an addict because I quit on my own.)

Do not condescend to me, and do not make assumptions about me and who I do or do not know.

What I intended my post to communicate is my opinion that people often say they want change, and they pray for change "to happen," but they do not want to change themselves. My stepsister is an excellent example of this. She was tired of the problems that her alcoholism was causing her: health, relationship, work, law. She did court-ordered inpatient therapy, but it was of no use, because she did not want to examine the roots of her drinking - her anger at her father (my stepfather), and whatever else was her torment.

Alcoholics/addicts do the pros and cons just like all of us, and to many of them the buzz, the high, the rush, is worth all the DUIs and the debt and the arguments and everything else because DEALING with the DRIVE of the addiction is seen as much, much, worse. So, today my stepsister requires a home health aide in her daily life because she didn't have the DESIRE to DEAL with her DEMONS. She wanted to quit drinking, I believe that. She didn't want to deal with her problems too. Sobriety demands an exchange. When we give up an addiction, we have to give up the cause of the addiction, and we have to WANT to do this.

Go check your shoes.

[Nickster]

26. I think you made your point much better with this explaination.

Before that, it sounded a bit like you were saying one should blame the addict. I get what you're saying, it just didn't come out to well on the first post and I can see where the upset response came from, I was feeling it a bit myself.

[Nickster]

18. Having the desire to change is only a starting point to getting help.

Depending on the physical damage that an alcoholic has, they need, physically need alcohol just to have some semblance of a life and avoid physical symptoms. Telling an alcholic, just stop is not enough. First they need medical help and medication to stabilize their bodies, once they have their physical symptoms in order, then they can go on to AA and get support.

Going straight to AA while the physical needs are not addressed only leads to an addict who can't understand why he can't stay away from the booze, then feeling even worse because they weren't strong enough to "just stop" even though they really wanted to.

People are very different, some can just drop it after years of abuse, some can't. Some have physical issues to address, some don't. Just making a blanket statement about just wanting to quit and AA isn't taking into consideration all of the different aspects of abuse.

[Dora]

21. I completely agree with you. n/t

[Dora]

27. And genetics play a role in alcoholism as well.

I grew up in the desert southwest, and I'm well aware of how our Native American population has been decimated by alcoholism. As well, my husband tells me that when he became sober, he learned that the Irish really do have a predisposition for alcoholism (and he's of Irish descent).

I wasn't trying to make a blanket statement in my first post. I was simply stating that personal desire is of utmost importance in successfully quitting drinking. There's nothing in my post that says, "Just say no." I never said it's The Answer to alcoholism, and I certainly never said "just stop."

Thanks for the validation.

(I meant to post this on your other reply above.)

[Nickster]

28. I "benefited" from those genes as well.

I got what you were saying from your second post. The first one just didn't get your point across as well. I know you didn't say, "just say no" but it did seem like that was your point originally.

[Psephos]

9. AA saved my best friend

Only thing that worked.

Peace.

[pitohui]

15. i'm glad, but it didn't save mine

peace back at ya

anything that millions of ppl have tried, unless it's a cure for rabies, some thousands of ppl will have been "cured" by it

aa means well

it just doesn't seem to accomplish anything real at any rate greater than chance

we need some science

we need technology

what we have ain't cutting it

the addiction statistics tell the facts

[Kukesa]

19. I'm Bill's friend, too Mountainman.

It's been 24 years for me and I couldn't have made it with Bill and some of his friends.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

23. As am I

though not quite as long.......:) Best thing I ever did for myself.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Just did the detox

thing with my sister, who has excellent health insurance with the state's best HMO.

Only thing is they don't cover substance abuse. AT ALL.

So she is paying out of pocket. She is retired and it isn't easy.

[zann725]

10. The less Alcoholics treated, the MORE Domestic Abuse, Incest increases

Wonder if a correlating study has been conducted? Alcoholism seeks an object of its unleashed rage and emotions...and unfortunately the family unit bears the brunt of that (overtly OR 'hidden'). Women, adult or children in the Alcoholic family unit most often are the object of that rage...either via a fist, or verbal rage, or... well....for the female children in the Alcoholic families where Mothers are overwhelmed and made to feel powerless at protecting even themselves.

[GayCanuck]

16. AA

I know it sounds simplistic, but I am a recovering alcoholic and I credit Alcoholic Anonymous with much of my recovery. It does depend on the particular group you are in. Some groups take a more religious slant but my group has many gays and lesbians in it and has been more comforting to me. I do believe it works though. 2 years and 127 days sober.

[Dora]

22. Way to go.

One of these days you'll look at a calendar and realize that you've forgotten your "birthday," and you'll do the math and realize that you've stopped counting, and after a little more figuring, you'll come to the conclusion that you've finally shed that monkey on your back.

[Desperadoe]

25. forgotten your "birthday,"

Actually, forgetting your birthday isn't the best part. The best part is when your friends and family forget your birthday. That is when you know that you must be doing something right.

That monkey is never really gone.

[WCGreen]

17. I firmly believe that a lot of treatment centers in the

1980's lowered the bar for an alcoholism diagnosis in order to attract more patients....

All the major benefit programs covered the clinic approach back then and many many people went to dry out who really shouldn't have been...

I know, I saw the people who were diagnosed alcoholic after they were released from treatment and they were not alcoholic before....

It was a scam designed to make money.....

Not all but enough to make the insurance companies question the validity of the diagnos....

Just my opinion....

I have been sober for years....

Just like any other disease, you have to want to be curred in order for the cure to work....

[Scout1071]

24. I used to see Rehab commercials on non-stop. Now I don't see very

many at all. Hadn't occurred to me until this thread!