Anxiety With Substance Abuse

Desperate101 · ‎11-08-2016

Hi - I am new to the online forum and am desperately seeking a different form of help for an adult sibling who has a very long history of anxiety, depression and alcoholism. She is medicated and her psychiatrist who she has been seeing for about 12 months is chopping and changing each time she returns to the psychiatric hospital. Her story goes as far back to more than 10 years. A few rehabilitation facilities around the country have been tried, some lasting for months however no long term recovery has been had for years. Originally our family felt that her alcoholism led to the anxiety and depression but her psychiatrist and her tell us that it is the other way around. Currently, she is not lasting any longer than 10 days to 2 weeks before anxiety builds up and she drinks again and its not always because she has missed prescribed medicines. We are at a loss as to what to do next. If she goes back to the psych hospital, its only temporary. Sometimes its only for a couple of weeks then she comes home and we just wait for it all to happen again. She appears to not put into practice what she is supposed to and we wonder whether she is giving up on overcoming her illnesses. Now she is not eating. One minute she says she wants help and the next she doesn't. She is on her own however has older children still at home. Ive come to this forum in the hope that some advice might be given that may make a difference and help our family save her life.

Guest_322 · ‎11-08-2016

Welcome.

You're understandably very worried for your sister. I think she is lucky to have you in her life- you clearly love her very much.

I'm just wondering if she has tried something like AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) before. Maybe she could benefit from regular contact with a group of people who understand her experience first hand?

I noticed you mentioned that the depression and anxiety are fuelling her drinking problem. Although I imagine it can work the other way too- especially after one has developed a drinking problem.

I wonder about the extent to which her psychiatrist has addressed her underlying issues of depression/anxiety- or does s/he mostly focus on prescribing medication? If it's the latter, I was thinking maybe your sister could benefit from seeing a counsellor/psychologist/othermental health professional because while the alcoholism can be devastating, it will be hard to recover without fully addressing the underlying reasons that the alcoholism developed in the first place.

I'm not sure if my message was very helpful as I have to admit that I don't know too much about addiction. Hopefully the other lovely people here will post replies soon.

In the mean time, I hope you remember to take care of yourself too. I think that it would be very emotionally draining when someone you love is unwell so please take care of you too 😊

geoff · ‎12-08-2016

hi Desperate, I am sorry that this keeps going for your sister and that no resolution can be found.
At the moment she has 3 issues to address so I don't think it matters whether the alcohol came first or her anxiety/depression because now they are all linked together, so when her anxiety kicks in she then needs to drink, so perhaps her anxiety/depression she was hiding from everyone so that's why you think the alcohol was the cause, but going on my history I do believe that her anxiety/depression was what caused her to drink.
People go into rehab but where I went there were 2 sections, 1 where substance abuse people were separated from those suffering from depression, where supposedly no alcohol was allowed, but this didn't stop people from signing out to go for a walk so they can then buy alcohol and scull the contents before returning to rehab and this quite often happened where I was.
The idea of people going into rehab always seems to be the way she can get help, which she may while in there, but the real test is when she is released, and it's up to her to stop, she has to make up her mind that this is what she whants to do, but if she is undecided then it will start again, especially when she feels anxious.
Each time she goes into rehab or a hospital there will be another psych who will try and help her, and each one will have different ideas, maybe it might work but she has to establish some sort of repoire with the psych.
By her saying that she wants help is only to appease the family that she is attempting to stop, but she needsto put into action something to replace the anxiety, easier said than done, but to try and get her involved in helping out at her kids school canteen for example.
I would like to know a bit more about her if that suits you, so please get back to us. Geoff.

Desperate101 · ‎28-08-2016

Thanks Geoff for your post. At the moment she is in a psychiatric clinic and has declared that her psychiatrist has told her not to listen to what her family want her to do and that he has a plan for her this time which is supposedly different than the 10 times she has been in before. ALL of the family are wanting her to attend a residential facility which has a duration of 3-4 months and she does not want to go. She wants to do what her psych is allegedly saying to her. So, now she isn't answering texts nor phone calls and the next I will know is that she will be coming out and going back to the home environment where she can't cope and it will all happen again. Her children are out of school and she has not much responsibility.

Cornstarch · ‎28-08-2016

Oh man. I feel your pain. I know the swings and round abouts roller-coaster with people refusing treatment and banging your head on the wall. It's exasperating, and nerve racking. Everyone else becomes anxious because they are so worried. I have no experience with addiction, touch wood, but I do with the up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down.......and the inability to communicate.

It takes it's toll especially if you are living with regular suicidality as you referred to in your first post. That doesn't just take it's toll it starts to break your spirit.

This may sound silly but I agree with geoff in the sense that the alcohol is just her portal of choice to. It sounds like there are addiction problems with food as well. The addiction loop is the same for food, shopping, alcohol, gambling, online surfing, drugs. She needs help to learn what drives the loops.

Why doesn't she want to go to a residential treatment centre? She's really lucky she has people in her life that can afford that to begin with.