Treated with respect

Hello Vol Fan,
Don't let the way they treat you at your clinic get to you. You are not pure trash because you are an addict. I'm sure that you have worked very hard to get to where you are today.
Out of curiosity I looked your clinic up just to see who owns it.
The clinic that you go to is owned by CRC. More often than not CRC owned clinic patients feel the same as you.
Who is it that treats you the way they do? Is it the counselors, nurses other staff members? It really doesn't matter who it is.
You have the right to be treated with respect.
I can never understand why people work in the occupations they do if they don't believe in what they do.
I'd like to ask you to go over to the Rate Your Program section of the website and post there about your clinic. Don't forget to mention the name of your clinic. It is up to the patients to get the word out about different clinics good or bad. The link to follow is: Rate Your Program
Dee

Hello Vol Fan,

I am so sorry to hear that you are made to feel that way at your clinic. While we all know that you should NOT be treated that way and that you could file a complaint, tbut we also know that usually just makes things worse rather than better.

I too get so frustrated with medical professionals who work in addiction medicine and then turn their noses up at an addict. If that's the way they feel, they shouldn't be working with addicts. They may not be addicted to drugs, but I would be willing to bet money they have things in their closet that they should be ashamed of so they have NO legal or moral RIGHT to be looking down their nose at someone else. But that still doesn't keep them from doing so and it still doesn't make it any easier for you to deal with.

I agree with Dee about posting your clinic experience at the MAT of America site. If you would feel more comfortable, you don't have to leave your name so you can speak freely without worrying about reprocussions....whatever but it is very important that you do post your experience at the website. This is the only way we are going to ever be able to do something about these problems is when people actually speak out about the shady treatment and other things going on.

Lastly, if you take nothing else from what I have said PLEASE TAKE THIS! I want to reinforce to you that you are not trash and you are not scum of the earth because you are an addict. You are not bad! (WE ARE NOT BAD PEOPLE TRYING TO BE GOOD, WE ARE SICK PEOPLE TRYING TO GET BETTER........see my "thought for the day 8/19/09")You are getting help, THAT is the main thing and do not let some narrow minded idiot make you feel bad about yourself and screw up your sobriety! We as recovering addict reap enough guilt and shame on ourselves without having someone else do it too so you DO NOT give her/him/them the satisfaction.

Hang in there!

I know it is easier said than done but you hang in there, keep your cool and then you can come vent to those of us on the forum and together we will get each other through this.

When I first attended this clinic about a month ago, every body was pretty nice on my intake day they were very helpful and compassionate. I had taken my TB skin test and it came back positive so the health department that I needed to get the chest X ray from the doctor was going to be out of town for like 2 wks so I had to wait. The nurse flaged me one morning and said that until I could get the X ray I would have to dose in the car which was fine I understood that they had to take caution. So my boyfriend and I go at the same time together in morning before work they had told me to call them when I got n the parking lot but no one ever awnsered so luckily my boyfriends test was negative so he would go in wait in the long line and pay for both of us, well they would tell him he had to get in the back of the line to get dosed because they only did one at a time which I dont understand, some nurses did that some didnt. Well Saturday we got there at like 10 30 they close at 11 and my boyfriend left his lock box in the car i was sittin in car waiting for him to tell them I was outside by this time the phones are down so there was no getting thru, I walked up to the door where some counslers were there telling people they were late and couldnt dose as I am walking up to her to explain that he had left his box she sees me walking torward her and she says loudly and rudely to other patients and counslers outside "OH LOOK ITS 11 02" Did she really have to say that that way she didnt even know what I wanted I didnt want to go inside she could have been a little more professional and she could have waited until I got up the steps before she made the comment, there was a guy running to the door before me and she tells him hes 30 seconds to late, I understand you dont need to wait untill the last minute to get there and they want to go home but 30 seconds and they would rather someone relapse because they were 30 seconds late. I just dont uderstand that. And getting this x ray has made my dosing very difficult I cant tell my job I go to a methadone clinic and I cant be late I just got my career back, so when the doctor got back to the health dept I went to get my x ray and had told my work I was going to be late so when I got there the xray machine was down, so I went again on wedneday and the lady said that the girl that usually turns the x ray machine on wouldnt be there untill 8 30 so I couldnt wait I had to go to work, since I hvae needed this xray they havent been understading at all that I have a job to go to, they assume that I come to the clinic to dose and after that i will be going home to go back to bed to do nothing. Why do they have to be so judgemental? Saturday they werent even going to dose me. My boyfriend dosed and paid for both of us I was in the car after he dosed she told him to pick a spot back in line, he was like what do you mean I just cant pick a spot in line, he motioned for me to come inside I could see him from the car thru the window, so I walked up to the window and the nurse was making such a big deal out of it. She was like "he doesnt understand that two nurses have to go out and dose you and we only have 2 here" anyways she went on and on so I said what do yiou want me to do she said "here here" and handed me my methadone so she already had my info pulled up and instead of just doing that when i first walked to the window she went on and on. So thats just afew things that have been an issue there's other things I hope this makes since its hard sometimes to explain things by typing. I will definately go to the rate your clinic and do that.

Thank you litlegrllost that is very true what you said I bet they do have things in their closet, and your rite I am not a bad person, Its like you need to be reassured sometimes though, especially when people like this are always looking down on you.

Do you think they could do something to me if they knew I gave them a bad rating?

Wow, what craziness. They do seem to act like "holier than thou" and nit picking about things. That is just terrible they act like that!

If you don't want to put your name on the rating, put anonymous on it and they will have no way to know it was you but you are not the first person I have heard say those types of things about the clinics owned by CRC. Several ppl complain about being treated that way and looked down upon so you are no imagining it (like you asked in your first post) and you DO NOT deserve it!

Is your clinic a free clinic?

Sometimes to me it feels like the clinic are "legal" drug pushers. They get you dependant on something that they AND ONLY THEY have. Then after that, they can go up on their price, they can give you less for your money or more for your money. They can make you meet them at their convenience and if you can't make it by that time, well you are the one that will be hurting the rest of the day not them. They know that they can do whatever they want to you and you aren't going to complain because then they can retaliate against you and make it even harder for you to get your meds. Again, it is us who will suffer all day without the medication, not them so it doesn't bother them one bit. It is so frustrating that they have so much control over our lives!

I could go on and on about this forever so I will quit now. But you hang in there! Do NOT let them bring you down ok?

If you need anything else, please let us know!

wow This makes me angry about these clinics treating people the way they are.
The clinic I go to is great, they treat us the way they would want to be treated. Thats just not right.
why is it that some people dont want others to know there on methadone? It saved me, Im not ashamed of that, and Im not ashamed of
being a addict. More than half the population are addicts or alcoholics.

Floyd..
It is good to know that there are some clinics out there that do treat ppl with dignity, but all too often, so many do not and seem to only have their best interest at heart.

As to your question as to why some ppl don't want others to know they are on methadone, I can only speak from my own experiences on that, but I am sure the answers will all be similar.

1. There is the stigma that ppl have about MMT..........I have had ppl treat me so rudely when the found out I was on methadone. They don't realize that MMT isn't just for the homeless, prostitute strung out on heroin anymore so when you tell them you are on MMT, they automatically think the worst about you without hearing how you came to be on MMT.

2. Some ppl don't understand how MMT works......My own mother thinks I should have been off MMT years ago and can't understand why I am still on it. She thinks it is only a matter of "will power" to control my cravings and addictions and that I am using MMT as a crutch.

3. I can't even begin to tell you of the problems and the way I have been treated by MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS when I tell them I am on MMT. I could go on all day with my horror stories there but to give you an idea.......I have been denied ANY pain medication after major surgery because I was on MMT, I was denied pain mgt when I was dealing with kidney stones because of MMT, I have had a dentist refuse to treat me STRICKLY BECAUSE of MMT and I was even denied pain meds during LABOR! When I tried to tell the doc that I couldn't have the only meds he would allow me to have (stadol, nubain and talwin) he treated me like I was a lying dope seeker and I was in the later stages of LABOR! I have been coming out of surgery and heard the staff bad mouthing me because of MMT and I have been denied my daily dose of methadone as a pregnant woman in the hospital because they thought I shouldn't have it. The list goes on and on.....

4. Another situation I have run into, if my husbands employer found out I was on methadone, he could lose his job even though it isn't HIM that is taking the medication!. A line of work he has been in for over 22 yrs now. What's really sad about that is they gave him more "leeway" and understanding when I was a pain pill addict getting caught stealing pills and forging scripts then they have now that I am on methadone. If THAT isn't crazy I don't know WHAT is!

So that is just a few of my own personal reasons as to why I don't tell many ppl I am on MMT now. It is a little easier for me to "hide" since I only have to go to the clinic once a month now, so I can just say I am going to the doctor for my diabetic check up if someone asks why I go to the doc so much.

yea you are right ,Ive been thinking about some situations and they were judging me, and my family does ask me all the time shouldnt I be off it by now. so its true. there is alot of ignorance when it comes to methadone.
The ones I dont understand is the Doctors that dont get it.