Her drug store still calls my house when her script is ready. She picks it up about once a month and it lasts about 4 maybe 5 days. She doesn’t know the drug store still calls my house. When the xanax rus out thats when the alcohol really starts pooring down. I know addiction is the serious part of the problem. If it were just the mental illness aspect I don’t think it would be too hard to deal with as it seems relatively mild. Maybe just no hope, likely no hope. She has been through every program in Ca. She still attends aa meetings between bouts. I doubt she has ever really worked the steps with any honesty.
I’ve got both alcoholism and mental disorders, and when I was actively drinking, they fed off of each other. I was seeing a therapist for many years, and I wish that he had insisted that I at least work on quitting alcohol as a condition of treatment. I’ve had clinical depression and other issues from well before I started to drink; drinking was self medication for me, but then it started to take a life of its own. Once I started to drink alcoholically, my ups and downs started to cycle as frequently as your friend’s.
I’m six months sober, and have more rough days than good days, but it’s still a hell of a lot better than it was before. In my case, getting an official diagnosis of a specific mental illness would have been impossible while I was actively drinking.
You friend could well have some sort of mental illness which underlies drinking. However, as the doctors are telling you, they don’t know until she’s sober. It’s something which has to be ruled out before they can look at anything else.
If she does have issues separate than drinking, be aware that stopping the self-medication will make things worse before they get better.
It’s tough, but I hope you both can find peace.
Since the OP is looking for advice, this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator