I drink. I have trouble stopping. I’m concerned for my safety so I decided to have a voluntary inter-lock put on my vehicle.
There are all kinds of handheld devices for about $40. Looking at the ignition mounted models and they jump up to about $900. Worse the reviews are terrible and the people that returned them were hit with a $360 restocking fee.
Or have it mounted at a licensed dealer and pay $60 a month.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a workaround?
To be clear - this is voluntary, NOT court mandated.
And for that matter, any help with stopping drinking that doesn’t involve a 12 step program?
For example, you can get a remote kill switch for your car for about $60 and breathalyzer for your iPhone. I’m not an app or electronics guy but connecting those two things together doesn’t seem that hard.
I don’t know much about the devices, but I wonder if there might be other things you could explore. Can you tell us more about your situation? Have you driven drunk before? Are you unable to stop yourself from driving because you lack other ways to get around, because you can’t control what you do once you start drinking, or just because you don’t realize when you’re drunk?
Compared to the costs of driving under the influence–financially and otherwise–those costs don’t really seem all that bad. If the interlock actually works reliably, it seems like it would be worth it. I know there are a bunch of handheld breathalyzers, but I haven’t seen any that have an automotive interlock. I hope you find a solution one way or another.
PInterlock device companies pray on those required to use their services. Bypassing them is trivial if there are no consequences for tampering. Devices probably won’t limit you if drunk you doesn’t want to be limited.
What are your reasons for avoiding the 12 step programs?
Other programs exist. CBT/RBT and some like that.
An IOP with an LPC to help educate you on the processes at work against you, hold you accountable to yourself, and develop a plan to subvert your addiction should be considered a minimum.
Sadly, I don’t know the answers because I usually blackout. The previous night is lost to me.
I suspect I think I’m not that drunk. Or maybe it’s because my wife won’t let me drink so I drink as much as I can before I get home. Either way I’m fooling myself. But as I say, I don’t remember my state of thought.
I don’t drink that often, I’ve been years in between but lately it’s much more often… and that scares the hell out of me.
My wife proposes driving me to work. But our schedules are different so that could be problematic.
This seemed like a good solution, and it’s not so much the cost per se, I just know you’re not getting your moneys worth. You can buy many much more technologically advanced devises at a mere fraction of the cost. If if you buy a unit outright you still have to pay a monthly calibrating fee.
There is a guy on YouTube who claims to show you how to make one but apparently his video has been blocked.
Like I said, the whole industry smells like a scam.
Atheist. I sat in on a couple of AA meetings and I can’t buy into the notion that the only way it can work is turning myself over to a higher power. Among other nonsense they spew.
I’m glad it works for those it works for but recoil at the “keep coming back”. I don’t want to spend the next 20 years in meetings.
I hear ya. My grandma was an alcoholic who got sober with AA, and I always thought to myself I had better just not let it get to that point because I’m not gonna sit through some “surrender to a higher power” crap.
But there are treatment modalities that are not only godless; they’re supported by science. Meds and therapy and the like. You might also want to think in terms of planning your binges better until you’re ready to get more comprehensive help. If the wife won’t let you drink at home and there’s no public transit, leave your keys at home, call a cab, check into a motel, and walk to a bar or liquor store.
We’re onto something then. CBT/RBT and other semi scientific approaches exist. They are equally hokie to me but I’m sure there’s some merit there if you’re so inclined.
The higher power stuff is subjective but makes sense in the context that the accountability is necessary but the gods are not. Maybe find some poor LPC that’s willing to hold you accountable to yourself. That you respect enough to listen to, and will learn you in the ways of not pissing your life away. Pay them as often as you see them. Schedule in advance. IOP programs exist to fit your bill depending on your area, and if they exist in the wasteland I call home I’d expect to see them most other places as well.
Perhaps you can try replacing the alcohol addiction with a healthier addiction, like trying out a new sport/activity, playing video games, or marijuana (I’m only half-joking on this one). I’m reminded of the story of how Alice Cooper successfully fought his alcohol addiction by getting hooked on golf instead.
And while you’re adjusting to the process of weaning yourself off alcohol, have your wife lock your car keys away. Use the money you save on drinks to pay for a designated driver.
To answer the question, it’s because 99.999999% of their customers are mandated by the court or as a condition of bail. There’s a reason the companies lobby state assemblies to mandate them. Thus, they don’t really need to compete and you have machines which will malfunction due to hand sanitizer or other stuff.
Here’s my older thread about AA criticism and alternatives.
I should back things up a minute and verify whether you want to stop. Are you interested in doing that if you found a method that worked, or are you functional and just trying to remove the temptation to drive?
Yeah, this. I always figured it was easier to remember not to drink and drive while sober, as opposed to while drunk. If you know you’re going to drink, don’t have your car anywhere near where you’ll be once you’re drunk.
Like I mentioned earlier it’s becoming more frequent. Maybe twice a month.
Absolutely 100%. I would be happy to never have another drink. But it’s in my dna. My father died from it. 3 of his 4 brothers died from it and his father was an alcoholic. I’m not making excuses. I’m exposing this drive that I hate.
Unfortunately my drs won’t help. I had a great doctor in the last town I lived in but drs here suck. I have degraded discs in my back. Also sciatica. My md explained that she doesn’t wire pain scripts - period. So go to be a pain specialist who prescribes 5mg of oxy. 5! That’s nothing. But despite that he won’t write a prescription for naltrexone for alcohol.
1 Those devices, unlike keychain devices, have to be very accurate and durable. They need lab quality, court acceptable results.
2 They also have to be tamper resistant.
So in general more $ will be needed. Add to this they have a captive audience, so can charge pricing accordingly, such is the way our capitalist system works.
3 If you cobble a device together yourself, you most likely will know how to defeat it.
As for your atheistic point of view, well there are other groups and methods. But again it seems like you want to try it your way, and that has not been successful. Trying the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome has been compared to a definition of insanity. It seems like you will need to turn over some control to overcome this. It also may be an opportunity to test God and see if it works despite you being an atheist, or just find another group. Keep trying but what you seem to be doing is looking for a bandaid instead of a doctor here, or more specifically and more directly you are looking to treat the symptoms here which will allow you to keep drinking - which indicates you don’t want to stop, and asking for help on how to do that.
