10
Friday, May 4, 1979
University Daily Kansan
Alcoholics fight bottle at center
Staff Reporter
By DOUG HITCHCOCK
ATCHISON—"I thought I was an alcoholic, but I wanted the doctors to find something else wrong when I went into the hospital."
Jim, a state corrections officer, had been drinking as much as a quart of liquor a day for nearly seven years before doctors told him he was an alcoholic in need of treat-
"I wanted them to find something wrong with my heart or my liver or kidneys. I didn't want to be an alcoholic; I knew what that meant."
he left the hospital and went back to work,
he did not stop drinking.
"Finally, my boss called me and told me to take a month or so off to get myself together," he said. "That's when I came here."
Jim admitted himself to Valley Hope of Ackerman and drug rehabilitation for 40 miles north of Reno.
counseling sessions.
Most patients at Valley Hope stay for 30 days, the length of the complete program of lectures and counseling sessions, but Jim stavwed an additional week.
HE SAID, "ITS been hard. We've had some tough times. I was about ready to leave two or three times, but I didn't. Now, I'm ready to go home a completely different place."
Alcoholism, considered a disease without cure, is a "special kind of problem requiring
special kinds of treatment," Thomas Book, program director at Valley Hope, said.
Dave Ketter, assistant program director at Valley Hope, said the center used "the softie treatment," compared with some treatment centers that "really blister the patients to get rid of their defenses so they'll admit their problems."
Book said, "Our basic definition of an alcoholic is that he or she is a human being, because whatever else may be true about alcoholics, that fact is first and foremost.
"We sometimes talk of our approach as humanistic reality therapy," he said.
Jim said, "I used to be a real con man. I conned two psychiatrists by telling them what they wanted to hear and what I wanted to believe.
"but, when I came here I felt like I had to stop living that lie and face the facts. I knew that was the only way I could stop drinking."
Patients at Valley Hope are encouraged to open up and talk about their problems in individual counseling sessions, small group discussions, patient meetings, and in the "hot seat"—a departure from Valley Hope's softer treatment.
For the hot seat, a small group meets with a counselor and a person in the hot seat to discuss the issue.
Each patient in the center has written one asset and one liability for the person who is treating them.
All of the patients have to sit in the hot
seat once during their treatment at Valley Hope.
Curt Krebsbach, small-group leader, individual counselor and recovering alcoholic at Valley Hope, said, "The hot seat is an important part of the treatment. Almost anyone who's had one has gotten something beneficial from it."
Patients also must attend lectures, complete readings and take tests.
There is no cure for alcoholism, Book said, but the recovery rate was 59 percent among patients who had stayed at the center a minimum of 21 days.
Book also said the figures used to determine recovery percentages were based on the patients the center could obtain information about.
If a former patient begins to drink, he or she sometimes will call the center. But Valley Hope often loses track of its former patients.
Les, a patient in his third visit at Valley Hope said, "I've been struggling with this for six years. I drank for 20, then realized I had to do something about it.
"After my second treatment, I stayed sober for two years. Then, I took a drink. It worked."
"Finally, I back here back. It’s an end battle, an uphill struggle, but each time I come back here I stay sober a little longer. Maybe this time it stick."
Although the 30-day treatment carries no
Many counselors at Valley Hope are recovering alcoholics, and some were
guarantee, many patients stay sober for years after they leave Valley Hope.
Valley Hope recommends that its patients attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings during and after treatment. The counselors and patients all attend together.
Pauline Hauf, nurse at Valley Hope, said, "They're all encouraged to attend AA meetings, especially after they leave here. In fact, of the ones who come back for more treatment, nine out of 10 are the ones who stopped going to AA."
Father A.I. Krepp, chapain at Valley Hope said, "If they go to AA regularly, they've got a good chance of maintaining sobriety. If they don't, they've lost them that they won't maintain sobriety."
Valley Hope teaches the patients that their problem is incurable, that one drink probably will lead to more heavy drinking. Patients at Valley Hope are aware that they will always be alcoholic. Even when they drink, they consider themselves alcoholics.
ON THE DAY OF his release, Jim said,
"I'm not nervous about wanting to take that first drink, just a little scared. I'll always be a little scared.
"The programs here give you the tools to cope with your personal problems. Alcoholism is usually an outgrowth of those kinds of problems anyway. Once you can deal with your personal problems, alcohol may be a problem in itself, used by a threat."
Athletic Department still accepting applications
There will be a meeting held for men and women students who are interested in being
Host or Hostesses for the Kansas University Athletic Department
on Sunday May 6, 1979 at 6:00 p.m. in Room No.135 of Parrott Athletic Center.
Membership requirements state that you must be a regularly enrolled K.U. student in good standing
Book said some patients who come to Valley Hope chose not to participate in the program.
If the patient still refuses to participate in the program, he is asked to leave, Book
"If someone isn't getting into the program, we confront him with the absurdity, the craziness of coming here to get acquainted with the tools that sobitry renounces," he said.
"Sitting around thinking about getting problems solved doesn't work. There's some insight work involved, but it's better to act. We believe in giving people behavioral assignments, things to do to help them act," he said.
during the 1979-80 academic year.
Sometimes the emotions flow freely at Valley Hope.
Jim said, "It's a funny thing about alcoholics, they really care, even those big, burly guys, the ones who get in fights in the bars. When they come in here they're tough as hell. But they're the first ones to cry. They're really big inted teddy bears."
DESPITE AS many as 20 years of hard drinking for some of the patients, the treatment usually takes effect before the 30-day program ends.
"The progress of recovery is a lot faster than the downward digestion." Jim said. "It was so much quicker."
Continued next page
Stepping stones
Staff photo by BARB KINNE)
George Williams, 500 Illinois, decided to test his aerobatic talents yesterday afternoon as he walked down this stone stairway at a park near sixth Street. George, who is 8 years old, and his sister, Lisa, are both students.
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