So I went to a behavioral health specialist to get the ball rolling on quitting drinking. The doctor suggested inpatient treatment to detox before he can do anything due to the amount and duration I’ve been drinking. Unfortunately the VA only offers a 2 week or 4 week inpatient treatment. I cannot be out of work in that long. Is it possible for me to safely detox myself? Not sure where to go from here besides finding sobriety support groups.
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I’d really suggest you take your doctor advice. Every one here has there own experience but we’re not doctor’s. I know it’s hard to take time off work but at least your be in a safe place to detox. Then you can get on with recovery and rebuild your new life x
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If I can get into a short (5 day) inpatient detox program I can swing that. Unfortunately I only have VA medical for health insurance unless I can get VA to cover detox outside of the VA. I’ll be making phone calls tomorrow to find out what my options are.
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Good luck I really hope u get the help u deserve. Have u tried aa meetings they are a great way to meet soba friends and have people around us to help with recovery x
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Thank you. Just found an aa meeting I will be going to Sunday.
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Thats great news . Your get so much help and support from aa meetings. They really did change my life x
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It’s hard to say definitively; only your doctor would really be able to tell you. Most people can detox safely on their own, but some need medical supervision. Medical detox rarely takes more than 10 days, and 5 days is more common. Beyond that time frame I imagine the services offered are more for addiction and not so much medical detox. I hope this information helps.
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I’ll take any info I can get. Thank you
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If you do end up detoxing yourself which I cannot recommend as a doctor has advised you otherwise then please make sure that your have a responsible person watching over you in the first few days.
As your probably aware in severe alcohol detox seizures are possible, I have seen a chat posted on this forum before now that gives a timeline for alcohol withdrawal which shows on what number days that seizures are likely to happen and what to look out for. You can’t mess about with these things so if you do do this then have someone with you who is aware of the timelines and what to look out for. They can then call the emergency services of needed as you may not be in a state to do so.
I hope none of this happens to you and I’m not trying to scare you in just making sure that your aware of the reasons your doctor has recommended you do a medically supervised detox. 
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How bout you do the 2 week one but leave after 9 days? That’s one weekend, all week, then the following weekend.
That will get you safely detoxed and introduced to recovery
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Here in AZ, there’s places like Community Bridges that will take you in for the 72 hour hold and detox you for free.
There’s resources out there, if the doctor recommended a medically supervised detox that’s what I’d go with.
If you won’t, I’d have someone over to watch you and be able to call EMS if you’re in dire straits. Lots of water, lots of vitamins, lots of rest.
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And let’s not forget that alcoholism is a disease and recognized as such by the American Medical association and all state and federal agencies. That means that you cannot get discriminated against or retaliated against for taking time off work to deal with it.
So you can’t get fired for going to impatient/rehab. If you did, you can sue. Lol. But for real.
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Dont try and detox yourself, you can die from it. Plan and simple. I could have died from it years ago. Had my mom not taken me to the hospital I was about a day or less from death. While at the hospital I was put into an induced coma for 6 or 7 days, just to detox safely. I spent a total of 10 days in the hoapital. You’d think that would have been enough to make me stop drinking… well, it wasnt.
So, from my personal experience DON’T DO IT.
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Ive tried to do it many times and succeded i tried it last night and was hallucinating and had a seizure ended up in the hospital this morning. I think 2 to 4 weeks is worth saving ur life. Fuck the job put that on the back burner. U cant work if ur dead. I just told my job i gotta go get help or im gonna kill myself soon and then i wont be worth a cent to you. They were mad. But youre health should be above all else. Im slowly learning lol
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Ur right we arent doctors just shooting my expierence. We used to be soba twins natnat damn
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Ah Sean I often wonder how you are I messed up myself back in September it happens hun … you can fix this I know u can . I know your going through hell at moment it must be horrible for you . Please keep in touch with me and every one here at least we can talk to u and encourage you to get better. I totally believe in u x xxx
Hey man were here. Im so glad i went to the hospital. I mean i dont feel great but last night was hell. Im sore as hell im just chuggin water eating crackers and peanut butter. Glad ur here honey thank you
Your so welcome. When can you go to detox? X
The only free place here is par detox. I have a prescription to get through that part now. But once thats done i need a long term program to help me stay sober. I have to ive tried it on my own. So thats what im trying to figure out
I cant go back to that shop ive been fixing cars at i can just do whatever the hell i want there so naturally i abuse it. I gotta get to the root of the problem
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