Quote From: jackdanksthis lady who says no one comes before her beer. wow, how sad. since she is a threat to her-self and her children, the authorities need to step in here. no intervenion is going to help her, in my opinion, she will resist rehab, maybe not on the surface if she choses to enter just to show she does not want her children taken away for good, but the minute she is released she will head for the nearest beer. Re-hab and AA are good tools but are not the means to an end for some people. (I, remeber the ending to the movies "THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES', this sounds like that kind of ending). she is to be pitied. she is weak. in much need of coping skills. needs to know where her priorities lie. again my opinion, maybe she needs shock treatment. redirect the braines thinking. open channels that r alcohol clogged.
it is so easy to get caught up in this mess of alcohol. in my case was there without knowing it just by having those drinks. not realizing i was dependent on alcohol til it was too late. i, was a drunk. am one lucky guy that re-hab and AA worked for me. just past my 16th AA birthday. am now 73 years old, and would not be had i continued on as i was. this lady is young. whole life ahead of her. Dr. Phil, my hat off to u if u pull this one off. but but but. JACK DANKS
Howdy! And congrats on your sobriety!
Your comments seemed a bit surprising, however, and I even wonder if you were truly an alcoholic. For one thing, when the lady says that "no one comes before her beer" -- why does this strike you as unusual? It's the textbook definition of a chemical dependency! I have 15 years of sobriety, but during my drinking days, I was the exact same way. It does not mean the situation is hopeless, as you seem to suggest. It means she's definitely an alcoholic.
Also, you seem to think that rehab doesn't work for people who aren't begging for it. The truth is, most people in rehabs aren't there because they woke up one day and decided they needed a better life. They're usually there because someone has "forced" them into it - either a spouse, other family member, an employer, the courts, etc. In both of my rehabs, I was just about the only one there who had made the decision all on my own, and in both cases it was a medical issue.
And when you call her weak and say she's to be pitied -- this doesn't sound like someone who has been to AA! Since when does this make someone weak? Of course, she is fully responsible for her bad choices, but when someone is in the grip of a chemical dependency, they lose their ability to think rationally. And that's because their body is screaming for the chemical! If loved ones get in the way, the love gets trampled every time - that's the whole horror of addiction. The love may be genuine, but that's irrelevant.
Finally, on your earlier post, you called rehab humiliating. I had a totally different experience. Both times, especially the second one, the experience was really awesome and, even in an odd way, fun. I went through far worse hell before rehab than anything that happened in the facility, and I ended up making good friends.
The first rehab didn't work for me and there's one easy reason for that: I wasn't ready. I hadn't hit that "bottom", where getting and staying sober was the most important thing in the world to me.
It's an epidemic that is out of control. This year, Americans will spend more than $90,000,000,000 on beer, wine and spirits. Jake and Shellye know firsthand about alcohol addiction. This suburban couple seems to have it all, but they're hiding a dangerous secret. Their excessive drinking threatens to cause serious harm to them and their children. Jake is a heavy drinker who has abused Shellye both physically and emotionally. Dr. Phil stages an intervention with the couple, who confess to risky behavior while under the influence. Will they take his help before it's too late? This important prime time special airs at 8 p.m. (ET/ PT) on CBS. 
