simco
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2014
- Messages
- 2,246
I had an experience last night that pissed me off so bad, even this morning, I still feel like I need to vent about it...
So, I'm in an "intensive outpatient" rehab program offered through a local hospital. In fact, I'm almost done with it; this is my last of 5 weeks. From the get-go, it's been absolutely awful. While the medical staff are nice, the counselors just *suck*. Everything here is abstinence-only, 12-step dogma. For instance, they continually berate me about the 1.5 mg/day of clonazepam long Rx'ed to me (and recently reintroduced to my regimen by psychiatrists in a world-class inpatient psych hospital). There are a million gotchas like that.
But last night, the counselor who was leading the group crossed a line (as it happens, he's also the counselor who is assigned my case, so I deal with him a lot).
There's a young woman in the program who is trying to get out from a dope habit. Several inpatient rehab stints. Goes to 12-step meetings like crazy even though she hates them. She's been on suboxone for several months, but keeps relapsing. (This is an experience I had, as well.) So last night, during our "check ins" it came out that she started methadone.
The counselor just lit into her, shaming her like crazy. It started with a pouting, surly "well...you know *our* position on methadone." She said she had talked with her Dr about it and simply felt it was her last best option. Which brought out this fucking tirade from the counselor... "You're not taking your recovery seriously. You're always looking for the easy way out. You're never going to get out of this if you don't take responsibility for your actions." It went on and on, long after she had understandably started sobbing.
Of course, going onto methadone is a serious decision. But I can't imagine *any* situation in which publicly shaming someone in a group therapy setting is even remotely OK. I was stunned...and PISSED.
I think I'm going to call them today and ask to be transferred to a different counselor. None of them are great, and it's late in the game. But I don't even want to be in the same room as this asshat any more.
Anyhow. Sorry for the kinda random post. I just felt like this was going to eat at me if I didn't get it off my chest.
So, I'm in an "intensive outpatient" rehab program offered through a local hospital. In fact, I'm almost done with it; this is my last of 5 weeks. From the get-go, it's been absolutely awful. While the medical staff are nice, the counselors just *suck*. Everything here is abstinence-only, 12-step dogma. For instance, they continually berate me about the 1.5 mg/day of clonazepam long Rx'ed to me (and recently reintroduced to my regimen by psychiatrists in a world-class inpatient psych hospital). There are a million gotchas like that.
But last night, the counselor who was leading the group crossed a line (as it happens, he's also the counselor who is assigned my case, so I deal with him a lot).
There's a young woman in the program who is trying to get out from a dope habit. Several inpatient rehab stints. Goes to 12-step meetings like crazy even though she hates them. She's been on suboxone for several months, but keeps relapsing. (This is an experience I had, as well.) So last night, during our "check ins" it came out that she started methadone.
The counselor just lit into her, shaming her like crazy. It started with a pouting, surly "well...you know *our* position on methadone." She said she had talked with her Dr about it and simply felt it was her last best option. Which brought out this fucking tirade from the counselor... "You're not taking your recovery seriously. You're always looking for the easy way out. You're never going to get out of this if you don't take responsibility for your actions." It went on and on, long after she had understandably started sobbing.
Of course, going onto methadone is a serious decision. But I can't imagine *any* situation in which publicly shaming someone in a group therapy setting is even remotely OK. I was stunned...and PISSED.
I think I'm going to call them today and ask to be transferred to a different counselor. None of them are great, and it's late in the game. But I don't even want to be in the same room as this asshat any more.
Anyhow. Sorry for the kinda random post. I just felt like this was going to eat at me if I didn't get it off my chest.