I was referred to a… psychiatrist?!?
I was curious to how normal this is:
My husband told me that if I cared about our relationship I would go get help due to my irritability an difficulties giving up alcohol. I was a daily drinker for 5 years, went through 6 days of acute withdrawal after I stopped and still cannot sleep and am irritable, but I haven’t had a drink now in 49 days (May 24) but quit for the first time March 19 (2 months prior).
Today, I did go to the therapist for an intake appointment and she made me a treatment plan that included:
1. Individual therapy sessions
2. AA meetings and/or community inter-focus group
3. Psychiatric evaluation
To be honest, I was floored by the last. It didn’t seem as though they were used to giving psychiatric referrals. Is this normal?
Tagged with: a... • psychiatrist • referred
Filed under: Alcohol Withdrawal Treatment
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Absolutely normal. But you have to be sure this is what you want and you have to put your whole heart into it and always be honest. Good luck to you!!!
I’m not an expert, but my understanding is that many people drink to self-medicate, that is, to help them cope with other problems like depression. Maybe the therapist wants to make sure that you don’t have some other problem that caused you to drink.
Your recovery may go easier for you and your husband if he goes to Al-Anon. Al-Anon is a 12-step program for the families and friends of alcoholics. Now that you’re not drinking there will be a lot of changes in your marriage. He will learn how to deal with those changes in Al-Anon.
Congratulations to both of you–and especially to you for your sobriety!
As Dallas said this is absolutely normal. You need to see what got you drinking to begin with and besides the drug why you continued. A lot is going to come out and you will ultimately feel so much better you will be amazed it took you so long. So you are on the right track. As was said you have to do this for you first. But look at it this way. As you come out the other end you will have your family waiting for you. A lot of folks don’t have that. BTW choose the AA meetings if you have such a choice.
This is very normal. Alcohol dependence and certain mental conditions often occur together (about 50% of the time, in fact), so it is normal protocol to get a psychiatric evaluation for someone who presents with a drinking problem.
You might want to take a look at these websites:
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100202307&page=1
http://www.aanottheonlyway.com/
http://www.smartrecovery.org/