My Sobriety and Medical Negligence: A Journey Through Mistakes and Recovery

The journey to sobriety is often the most difficult fight of a person's life, as you make yourself vulnerable and admit your downfalls. When seeking medical care for sobriety, someone in recovery places immense trust in healthcare providers, as they can give best advice on how you can go about it safely. However, in my experience, my trust was broken by medical negligence, which directly threatened my sobriety journey and mental well-being.

Medical negligence in the context of sobriety often involves a serious failure to uphold the expected standard of care. For individuals like myself, the margin for error is extremely thin as a rough recovery programme can make it much harder to go sober and start a new life. I will take you through my experience of medical negligence in this article, so continue reading to find out more.

How My Sobriety Was Mismanaged

Mismanaged Medication

Despite my clear warnings about my alcoholism, a doctor prescribed benzodiazepine, which is a highly addictive sedative. I was assured it was safe and non-addictive if used as directed. They failed to recognise that for someone with a history of AUD, swapping one highly habit-forming depressant for another is simply moving the goalposts of addiction. 

I quickly developed a psychological dependence on the pill. The terror of feeling that addictive switch flip again wasn’t great and made me doubt my own progress. I wasn't drinking, but I was chemically dependent, and the stress of weaning off that drug put me under such immense pressure that the urge to return to alcohol became overwhelming. Luckily, I was able to divert my mind and avoid picking up an alcoholic drink again.

Ignoring My History

My biggest frustration and source of harm was the failure to incorporate my sobriety history into the basic standard of care. I repeatedly told doctors and nurses I wanted to become sober from alcohol, but often, that critical detail seemed to be immediately ignored. I was once assured that medication given to me was safe. The doctors failed to properly screen me, failed to offer non-addictive alternatives and failed to monitor the prescription carefully.

I often felt the judgment and dismissal from professionals. When I expressed concern, I was sometimes met with skepticism, as if my history made me unreliable. This forced me to stop taking needed medication, as I disengaged from the healthcare system altogether, making me less likely to seek necessary treatment for fear of being harmed.

The Psychological Blow

The first injury I suffered that affected my sobriety was the physical dependence itself, forcing me through another round of detox. The second was the psychological trauma and the direct threat to my alcohol sobriety. The self-depreciation, the profound sense of betrayal and the burning rage at the doctor’s oversight were almost unbearable. 

Alcohol had been my lifelong escape from overwhelming emotion and the first few months without it were a struggle. The negligence didn't just cause suffering, it forced me to fight for my sobriety all over again, often resulting in a complete relapse and the devastating loss of my clean time. While I luckily was able to recover and become sober, this negligence slowed down my progress.

Reclaiming Advocacy and Recovery

In the end, I realised that I couldn't outsource the protection of my sobriety. Pursuing legal action for negligence became a critical step, as I wanted to receive compensation for the poor care I received from medical professionals. Medical negligence solicitors at Been Let Down recognised that my sobriety had great value and that the professional's carelessness had destroyed the potential of my achieving my goal.

My journey through medical negligence has become an unexpected chapter in my recovery story. It forced me to be my own fiercest advocate.This experience taught me that recovery is not just about avoiding the first drink, as it's about protecting my boundaries and demanding that healthcare professionals honour the vulnerability inherent in the sobriety journey.

My Conclusion

My experience revealed that a patient’s history needs to be fully considered into their basic treatment plan. Due to my medical professional mismanaging my medication, it made it very difficult to recover and become sober. This made me feel dismissed from professionals, which kickstarted my negligence case as I feel that I was owed compensation for the lack of care.

The negligence I endured forced me to set boundaries and demand that medical professionals respect the fragility of sobriety. Pursuing legal action for negligence became an essential part of reclaiming my story, recognising that the professional's carelessness had directly undermined my goal and caused me to second-guess myself during the whole process.

For those in recovery, protecting your boundaries and demanding non-negligent care is essential for maintaining your willpower and achieving your sobriety goals.