Anyone know a non-12 Step inpatient rehab place in Texas that takes insurance?

I suspect that many are based on AA’s 12 Steps because it is relatively successful. Here is a list of rehab programs in Texas with brief descriptions, in case there are some you have overlooked. Some do indeed state they are 12-Step based, while others don’t say. I would suspect that any that say “Christian” would also be 12-Step based. Have you checked with The Freeman Center in Waco? Or Nexus Recovery Center in Dallas? They do both take insurance.

Our only experience to date is with Laurel Ridge in San Antonio (a bad experience) and with Meridell Achievement Center in Liberty Hill (an excellent experience but for teens and younger children only).

Thanks @Darwin. I’ll take a look at this list and see if there’s anything there that hasn’t been checked already. AA may work for some people, but for others—well, it’s a difference in philosophy I guess. And bad experiences with AA in general.

I’m not surprised that most, if not all, are 12-step based considering it’s in the south and quite religious; what does surprise me is that very few take insurance. It’s hard to get someone help when you can’t afford the $18,000 for 30 days.

Oh, I forgot this important part: The person who is looking to go into rehab has her own business that she runs through the internet. She’d have to be able to use her computer and/or phone for about an hour a day. That’s also an extremely difficult thing to find.

Since the 12 step process is the most successful substance abuse treatment methodology, most places are based on it.

Not all AA meetings are religion (Christian) based. It often depends on who is there. If this person has gone to one or two and judges the entire thing on those, then they need to revise their ideas of what AA is and what it does.

I’m not an alcoholic, but I’ve gone to meetings. Some, with the bible toting people, are very religion based. Others are not at all. It depends on the meeting, the place, the time, the people, the leader, and other factors.

Honestly, I have a hard time believing that someone who actually wants change would decide completely that something that can actually help is not for them.

This person has been to many AA meetings and has tried. She’s just philosophically… not opposed… just doesn’t agree with it. I’m been to them with her and I tend to agree with what she says. The number one issue is admitting that she’s powerless against alcoholism. Whatever AA is trying to say by this she takes it to mean that she’s stuck in the cycle that she’s in. Calling it a disease gives her an excuse to drink because, “hey, I can’t help it—it’s a disease.”

At this point she’s tired of waking up in the emergency room, tired of how her kids treat her, and tired of me being disapproving.

While I don’t doubt that there’s a part of her that wishes there was a magic pill she could take to cure her, she does try. Unfortunately, she’s full of other psychological problems, all of which probably contribute to her problem.

There are programs that look like they would work for her: psychological exams, counseling, psychiatric review, therapies that involve figuring out how to go out to dinner without getting loaded, and whatever else. Something more than a group of people sitting around talking about being an alcoholic. Unfortunately, they’re all self pay.

And from the looks of it, that’s just the way it is.

My younger brother was describing his experiences in sobriety to me and said that there were many folks who were unable to buy into the religious trappings. There was a simple suggestion made. A “higher power” doesn’t necessarily have to be called God. One can choose whatever one wishes to consider to fit the definition of what a higher power means to them personally.

Some people, himself included, chose to use “the group” as their higher power. Obviously they meant the AA group.

That certainly isn’t a standard definition, but it was a practical one which worked.

I don’t know whom she has been talking to at these meetings that they gave her the impression that because it’s a disease she is stuck. Any RESPONSIBLE recovery professionals also emphasize that, similar to other diseases, this one can be MANAGED.

In that way it would be analogous to diabetes. As yet there is no cure for it, but with proper management people can have a long healthy life. But if they neglect proper measures their lives will be fraught with the results of that neglect (blindness, loss of limbs, etc. ) and shortened as a result.

The management of Alcoholism is very straightforward. DON’T DRINK.

But no alcoholic wants to hear that. From what you have written, I’m going to give you my honest impression. You are certainly free to ignore it or disagree.

She sounds like she isn’t really ready to surrender to any treatment process YET.

Put aside the 12 step issue for a moment. She wants to set her own agenda with the stipulation about one condition being internet access for an hour a day. I can tell you right now that there is NO REPUTABLE, EFFECTIVE program that will go along with that.

They wouldn’t make any exceptions for Betty Ford. So what does that tell you.

Sometimes folks are under the mistaken impression that rehab is primarily to physically block off addicts from their substance of choice. It’s true that’s a necessary part of the process. But the primary objective is to get addicts to be ruthlessly be honest WITH THEMSELVES. This can only be done without any of the mundane activities that we use to prevent that painful process. Distractions of any type can sabotage that.

Without learning the basics of the ruthless self-honesty that is the key to long lasting recovery, there is a likelihood of a continuous cycle of abstinence and relapse over and over. Self honesty is not an easy skill to learn for someone who has been systematically using booze or any other substance to escape reality. But it is the key to sobriety.

The next time the two of you go to a meeting, make it a point to look for one of the old timers, probably a woman for her sake. But that’s not as critical as finding someone with 10–20 years of sobriety under their belt.

Ask them for advice regarding all of this. They have been sober long enough to cut through all their own BS and might possibly help to cut through some of hers.

Right now she’s playing the entitled victim card and dragging you along in the process because you care so deeply. Hopefully an old timer can help her cut through her own BS Snow Job and get her priorities straight.

When she truly gets sick and tired of being sick and tired (LITERALLY) there isn’t much anyone else can do for her.

If she ever does stop BSing herself, you’ll be amazed at how all these little pre-conditions will just melt away.

I have just one more suggestion and it’s a simple one. Go over to Amazon and buy Betty Ford’s book. It will be eye opening for you and hopefully you can persuade her to read it or allow you to read it to her if necessary. I’m sure you can pick it up for cheap since her first book came out quite a while ago. But she writes with a candor and brutal honesty which is surprising for someone in her position. I think it could be very inspirational as well as informative.

Good luck.

I know you’re both right; she may be ready for treatment, but not ready enough to not have it her own way. I was hoping, though, that there would at least be something out there to get her started.

Have you and her family members ever discussed the possibility of organizing yourselves to do an intervention? From what you write, it sounds as if they are also tiring of enabling her self destructive behavior.

Are you familiar with the process? This is what the Ford family did. It wasn’t as if Betty just woke up one bright day and thought “Well I’ll just go sign up for a stint in Rehab.”

And obviously there was not yet a Betty Ford Center for her to go to :) She went to the nearby Naval Hospital with no exceptions made for her status. She had to just suck it up and realize that she and everyone else in that Rehab unit were just a bunch of drunks trying to figure out how to live life without booze. She was no better than anybody else but also no worse than anybody else.

Accountability is what propels addicts to grow. Self honesty is hard work. If one is accountable only to oneself, the natural tendency toward self deception and denial is what sabotages growth.

There are no shortcuts or easy answers. For someone as enmeshed as your friend seems to be, just dipping a little toe in won’t do it. Sobriety requires radical self honesty. The key word here being radical.

I just re-read the info. you wrote previously and realized that she is most likely trying something called Moderation Management. Is this correct?

The primary difficult with this approach ( and even it’s advocates will be the first to point out) is that this is for problem drinkers NOT FOR ALCOHOLICS.

And where precisely is the line of demarcation between the two? That’s a real good question isn’t it.

However, IMHO if one is ending up in the Emergency room due to their drinking that should be a really strong hint that they crossed that line quite a ways back. MM does not work for Alcoholics.

Unfortunately Audrey Kishline, the movements founder had to learn that lesson the hard way. If you need further evidence, just do a Google on her name and read about the tragic consequences.

It’s true that you can’t force your friend to get the help she obviously needs so desperately. However, you do not have to be a participant in her denial and rationalization. MM is not the methodology which works for Alcoholics. It is a delusion to believe that. YOU are not required to participate in that delusion in order to help your friend.

You don’t have to take my word for it and you shouldn’t. But neither should you take her word either. Do your own research and you own independent thinking. Ask the Emergency Personnel who treated her if they think MM is such a hotshot idea for her.

And then read what the founder of the Moderation Movement has to say about it now.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14627442/ns/dateline_nbc/

For anyone interested in the Audrey Kishline story in her own words, Here it is.

I don’t think it’s MM. She was looking at places that do a full psychiatric evaluation. There’s a chance she could be bi-polar and she thinks that working on the underlying mental issues would help make getting sober easier. I actually understand that line of reasoning.

@mrentropy – In our experience, at least with folks under 18, they go to rehab first, to get off the drugs and/or alcohol. Then they go to a different facility for psychiatric evaluation.

With our son we went one better: we sent him to Meridell because it has a Neuropsych unit. That is, one where they have both psychiatrists and psychiatric neurologists, so they can look for physical problems, such as brain damage. Our son turned out to have several areas of brain damage which helps doctors help him.

Once at the psychiatric center, patients continue to work on the reasons why they choose to self-medicate, but many of the centers want you “clean and sober” before they begin to work with you.

Non-12-step programs are hard to find. The most successful is located in rural New York state. http://www.soberforever.net/