Are You or a Loved One a Real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? - Staff Blog

When I was 16 years old I had the privilege of going to one of the finest drug rehabs in the country and the two things I remember most was a Dr. speaking to me on two different occasions.

On the first visit I remember trying to convince the doctor that the treatment program was only a attempt to brain wash me, and I will never forget what he said without skipping a beat, he said “ Son your brain needs washing” I did not get it at the time.

On the second visit,  I remember  that at the end of my 28 day stay, there I was with the Doctor again and he was explaining to my father that his suggestion was that I go to long term treatment. (Today it is called extended care). Well, I would hate to try and defend the reason why I did not go now. But to make a long story short, I spent the next 22 years trying to prove that doctor wrong. I had great enablers and I was a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is "sweet as pie" for stints of time and then whamo – Mr. Hyde would appear and pull all the structures down again. What a vicious circle it was. Though through the years as my "dis-ease" progressed, Mr. Hyde came much more frequently. Eventually,  Dr. Jekyll was hardly ever seen.

22 years later I was at a point in my life where I certainly didn’t trust myself or a word I said. Suggestions from the doctor came back to me; it was a moment of clarity. By then I had been reading the book of Alcoholics Anonymous for several years and a couple paragraphs jumped out at me as if I had never read them at all.

The great fact is for reasons yet obscure we had lost the power in choice In drink. Our so called will power had become practically none existent. We were unable at certain times to bring into consciousness with sufficient force the memory and the suffering and the humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without a defense against the first drink.

The second part was:

What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration will gradually become a working part of the mind.

It finally dawned on me was that   I was a serious alcoholic and I needed a defense against the next drink and it would gradually become a working part of the mind.

That was almost seven years ago. For over six  years I have been working in treatment at Sober Living by the Sea.

I had been a patient or client my whole life ... who would of ever thought I would be working in a treatment center.

Mr. Hyde is sober now he pops in from time to time – though he knows he is not really wanted around here – at least until his attitude changes.

It took a quite a while – but I finally have a defense – feels like I may of gotten a much needed brain washing too.