This is my official day #1 even though I checked in yesterday. I guess the first day gives staff an opportunity to determine the patient's status. This place handles all types of addictions so you might imagine some of the poor souls in here. I've heard all types of comments of various addictions to include amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, oxycotin, heroin, and of course my personal favorite – alcohol. Each day starts at 6am with a wake-up call. They take our blood pressure and ask everyone to weigh in. Various vital signs are monitored since the therapies are fairly extreme. The aversion therapy includes either violent vomiting (referred to as the "Duffy") or shock treatment. A pre-aversion visit with a physician determines which type of aversion therapy will be used but with my relatively good health, I'm pretty sure it will be the Duffy. The other treatment is the sedation therapy. Since this is a heavy sedative, the patient's health must also be closely monitored.
So far this morning I've had an orientation meeting and a counseling session. Next is my visit with the physician. Other than that, it's pretty quiet so I'll probably start digging into some of the material we've been given. I already have two short books (The 4 Agreements and Emotional Sobriety) and the book my brother-in-law lent me (Skeletons of the Zahara). Given my busy calendar today (just kidding), I'll likely have time to read all of them.
Here's my second post of the day:
As I mentioned previously, today is a relatively quiet day. Was able to get a fair amount of reading in and get a run in on the treadmill. Ran my usual 10K and had moderate energy. Today included a counseling session, meeting with the Medical Director, relaxation session and two separate group sessions. Seems like a busy schedule but when you're stuck inside all day the time just sort of creeps by. My big event tomorrow is my 1st Duffy. Apparently they serve multiple drinks of whatever your favorite drink was...in my case it will be Vodka. Not because I actually liked it but because I thought it was the one I could conceal from the family. Little did I know that it's impossible to conceal being a erratic alcoholic. Should be an enlightening day!
My roomate is scheduled for his 5th Duffy tomorrow. He's a bit nervous on the one hand but also pretty proud to be on the backside of his treatment.
More to share tomorrow...
