<p>"Secondly, I can’t imagine an insurance policy that doesn’t recognize that any kind of treatment usually lasts longer than a month or 6 weeks. "</p>
<p>not true!</p>
<p>^^ Whether or not they will pay for it is not the same as them recognizing the length of typical treatment. </p>
<p>However, a bill was recently passed that addresses this very issue in terms of mental health. I think it says something like mental illness and drug and alcohol treatment are to be treated as any other illness. So if they aren’t covering it in accordance with the policy, you probably have grounds for appeal of coverage. On the other hand, we have a policy that is reflective of my husband’s self employed status. Our deductible is 4K a year, so we’d still be paying until that number was reached.</p>
<p>OP- physicians have a very high rate of substance issues. The last study I saw noted the irony that the group with the highest propensity to abuse drugs are anesthesiologists… they believe they can handle the higher and higher dosages given that they know more about the pharmacology of substances than anyone else on the planet. Which is true until they lose their medical license.</p>
<p>I mention this not to scare you… but to point out that the fact that your D is a high functioning student has nothing to do with whether she drinks, how often, and how much it may or may not interfere with her academics.</p>
<p>Let me pose a slightly different issue to you- given how tough it is to get caught… the fact that your D did must surely raise the suspicion in your mind that she got caught intentionally, i.e. the proverbial cry for help? And if so- are you going to ignore her need for some adult intervention???</p>
<p>The only thing is my daughter is on a pre-med track and I dont want her to not be able to graduate on time</p>
<p>there are priorities and then there are * priorities*.
I have a feeling this situation has come up before.</p>
<p>I once heard this quote: “For every rat you find there are fifty you don’t.” She’s been caught 4 times, she’s probably used hundreds of times. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine being a parent and attempting to “rescue” my child from substance abuse counseling. If this is actually the parent and not the student, I shudder to think what’s going to happen down the road now that her child knows she can count on her Mom to help her escape the consequences of her bad judgment. Most likely it’s not the first time the parent has attempted to circumvent an adverse consequence.</p>
<p>By the way, just because the student is not a full blown alcoholic doesn’t mean there is not serious cause for concern. I couldn’t live with myself if I had been warned, didn’t listen, and my child went further and further down that path.</p>
<p>Notice that the OP has disappeared now that we didn’t give her support on this one?</p>
<p>Whether the OP is the student, as I suspect, or the parent, the whole situation puts me in mind of that young Cornell student on CC a few years ago who posted many times about how his drinking was under control. Other posters here saw warning flags, but he in his confidence ignored them. Then he went down to UVa to party, passed out from alcohol poisoning and never woke up. </p>
<p>Someone who was <em>caught</em> for drinking four times must have been drinking all the time. She obviously ignored all the warnings the first three times. Maybe she’s been sober for a few weeks, but a few weeks of sobriety does not mean her alcohol problems are at an end.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to an article about the CC member who in 2006 died of alcohol poisoning. He was a stellar student, and was convinced that he didn’t have a drinking problem even though parents on CC, his own parents and others tried to warn him that his heavy drinking was putting him in danger.</p>
<p>"“In my mind, the best way to prevent a kid from screwing up in college (which, incidentiallly [sic], can be caused as much by slacking off and playing videogames with fellow dormers as it can by alcohol or drugs) is to give him/her more freedom in [high school],” lucifer11287 wrote Jan. 15 on collegeconfidential.com, a college admissions message board. “Contrarily, if a kid is used to drinking/partying and doesn’t consider it novel, then they will probably know how to fit alcohol into a successful lifestyle.”</p>
<p>Lucifer11287 would probably have concluded that Matthew Pearlstone, a Cornell freshman who died of alcohol poisoning on March 17, the morning of St. Patrick’s Day, while visiting the University of Virginia, was a novice drinker. But Matthew Pearlstone was lucifer11287…"</p>
<p>[In</a> postings, a tragic portrait of defiance - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2006/04/14/15232/]In”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2006/04/14/15232/)</p>
<p>I am amazed when I hear people say that someone is not an alcoholic or has no problem with alcohol because they’re not drinking every day or every other day or even every week. The frequency is just one part of it. A key is whether it interferes with any part of your life - that indicates an inability to turn it down or an ability to justify it. If this is the mother, she’s either in denial or just doesn’t get it.</p>
<p>That article should be mandatory reading for the OP, whoever she is.</p>
<p>My SIL and I know someone who abused prescription drugs and lost her pharmacy license. For an addictive personality, going into a profession where the opportunities for self-medicating/using/dealing can be lethal – for the person as well as anyone she is cahrged with treating.</p>
<p>I had a roommate who was a nurse- had access to the medicine cabinet- she had a lot of problems ( this is when they dispensed qualludes)
I didnt really understand addiction then , otherwise I probably would have not married someone who could not leave any wine in my glass when we paid the check. ( not would not * could not* )
He didn’t always drink often, but when he did it was until he couldn’t drink anymore.
No such as thing as moderation for people who are addicts.</p>
<p>However- I do know young people who tell me their parents get high with them, they contribute in many ways to their addiction. When you are in the middle of it, it is impossible to see it as aberrant.</p>
<p>i read your posts but i stopped posting because i found it to be a complete waste of time because i could not extract an single bit of information that I found useful. </p>
<p>in my opinion, college is a place to learn, and as long you accomplish that proficiently i dont care if my kid has a few drinks on the weekend
by a few drinks, i mean a amount that doenst make you act like an ass or to the point where you have trouble walking. </p>
<p>I do care if my kid develops serious depence and addiction- no one wants a kid that has to drink 3 shots just to act “normal” in the morning nor an addict that cant function without their fix. </p>
<p>if you are fixated on fact that my kid is an serious addict and needs help then fine but if you dont have any suggestions on how to fix my situation dont post anything. if you have something “constructive” to say then post it</p>
<p>To try to be helpful: counselors are usually both well-trained and have lots of experience in assessing both the the intensity of need for their services, and the length for which they should be offered. Without any more information, I would trust their judgment in this matter.</p>
<p>OK. Here’s something constructive:</p>
<p>Don’t come here posing as an adult and then have the unmitigated gall to lecture the real parents on what we can and cannot post.</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
<p>Something “constructive” (and I’m glad that you put it in quotes): how about telling the counselor that your insurance won’t pay and you can’t afford to pay and asking if the counselor would take your D on as a pro bono client? That would probably be the kiss of death for any further counseling sessions.</p>
<p>That is SO not a parent posting! Not even a good imitation of one.</p>
<p>We have a suggestion on how to fix the situation. It’s just that you’re ignoring it. The practically unanimous suggestion from the panel of parents here is: keep on with the counseling. The further observation is that since alcoholics deny they are alcoholics, and parents are not always aware of the extent of the alcohol problems of their children, we hear you say there is no problem but we don’t necessarily believe you.</p>
<p>Or, to put it another way: the poster says there is no problem. The poster’s counselor says there is a continuing problem. We are inclined to believe the counselor.</p>
<p>If this student is already unable to handle the stress of her premed curriculum without resorting to drugs and alcohol, she will NEVER be able to handle the academics of medical school or survive the emotional stress of seeing death and suffering or being unable to save someone in a crisis situation.
We caution all medical students who are considering an acute care specialty like emergency medicine,surgery, critical care and anesthesiology that they have to have some well developed coping skills and stress relieving hobbies or they are at high risk for suicide or drug abuse.
The last thing this girl should be doing is considering a career in medicine.</p>
<p>northstarmom, That is absolutely heartbreaking. </p>
<p>I also believe that yorker88 is a student but I did want to add that in an effort to hang on to their denial I’ve seen otherwise rational parents act completely irrational. With addiction it’s often not clear what is going on, with the whole family.</p>