Confidential Drug Rehabilitation

Question by Michelle: What happens when a patient tells their counselor they did something illegal, like having used illicit drugs?
Do counselors or other mental health professionals have to keep EVERYTHING you say confidential? Are their exceptions to this? Assuming the patient is an adult and the focus of their mental health treatment is not drug related. Could their counselor/Psychiatrist/etc report them to the police? Testify in court? Would this be recorded in their medical record? If they are currently being prescribed potentially addictive medications and admitted to occasional use of street drugs would they be forced to stop taking these medications? Thanks!
Do counselors or other mental health professionals have to keep EVERYTHING you say confidential? Are their exceptions to this? Assuming the patient is an adult and the focus of their mental health treatment is not drug related. Could their counselor report them to the police? Testify in court? Would this be recorded in their medical record? If they are currently being prescribed potentially addictive medications and admitted to occasional use of street drugs would they be forced to stop taking these medications? Thanks!
**update* * I understand the legal part better but is this bad to have on my medical records. If everything is supposed to be kept confidential, but when seeing a new Dr. they make me sign that release to see prior treatment information from other drs. I understand concerns about coordination of care and interactions, etc. My new Dr. refused to fill 2 of my (potentially addictive) meds. She quoted my medical record, my ex told (incorrect) info to a previous Dr. Help!

Best answer:

Answer by Ben
Wow that’s some good paranoia. The counselor is there to help, not play crime fighter plus the “crimes” committed with drug use are too non specific. Its the same reason that cops need to have drug busts with lots of evidence. Was it weed?

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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My boyfriend and I both went to Rehab. I went first and he went a week after I got home. When I came home I told him about the patents I had met and the phone numbers I recieved both male and female. And I told him about the conversations that I had the few times right after I came home with the males. there is no cheating in our relationship or secrets. I did this to make everything public to my boyfriend so he would feel secure in the relationship and trust me.

However when he got home he mentioned a few folks that he got numbers from. None female. We don’t have a home phone, but live together, and use eachothers cells from time to time. I grabbed his to call my cousin about a week ago and there was several numbers that I didnt know. And some incalls from those numbers that he never mentioned from the same area code as the town we went to treatment in. The two that worry me are Milisa, and ! entries.

I offhandedly mentioned last night what someone had said to me while there. My boydfriend said oh I know her she was outpaitent while I was in there. I said I wonder who else was there when I was there that was still there when you got in. I mentioned this girl I didnt like. Then he said well that cant be the same Milisa. He then spoke of her in glowing terms, said that they sat around and talked about a lot of shit the whole time he was there, and that she was his little buddy. And that she was one of two that he wanted to call. ….. he Never mentioned her and hes been home for over a month.

Infact I do even remember this girl. She came right before I left… and in my opinion she reminds me of a better more anorexic version of me…
that’s even more disconcerting. She’s pale, long red hair, very nice and very quiet, just like me. Blue eyes and all… Shes just even younger, even prettier and stick thin. I am thin but I have curves. He once told me, Well I always used to date anorexic looking women thats what i like but then I realized i didnt want to be with someone who was hurting themselves or killing themselves….but I used to exclusivly date scrawney girls.

So i know he finds her both easy to talk to. “buddy”, he cares enough to want to call her, I know he finds her attractive (fearfully more than he does me], and he never mentioned her… Im guessing because he feels guilty for feeling something for her… or worst case senario he has far more to hide than just scoping out another option….

Further now I am even more worried about the entry titled !
Every other entry has a name of some kind… why title it that unless he knows I use his phone occasionally and didn’t want me to see the name.

Does something seem fishy in all of this or am I just paranoid
what should i do if it does seem like a red flag

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Basically my dad became a drunk, and he drinks everyday, he injured his knee and hes been missing work and i did not go to school at all because all he would do is drink all day long. Me and my mom have been fighting his alcoholism for about two years now but after new years he heavily relied on strong liquor and he was a totally different person. He would say that he is going to go work in the basement because our basement is not finished meanwhile he gets drunk down there. He is a really hard man to understand and to speak with, when hes drunk hes is unstoppable. He would drink every single day and would play fight with me and sometimes take it to the extreme. One time he got really drunk, my mom got mad and started crying yelling about divorce and such and she tried to put him in bed but he would say that he needs to go into the basement to “work” and get up again, my mom would stay in his way and that time was the worst i have ever seen him. He pushed my mom against the wall, and i had to step in, I pushed him slightly onto the bed and told him to sleep, he would still get up it was like 3 in the morning and he finally fell asleep. My mom would cry and would have finger-print bruises and i would never forgive my dad after that. Its an instant cycle, he asks forgiveness and does it all over again. No matter how many times i would look into his drunken eyes and tell him all sorts of stuff that he is doing, he would say, i dont give a $%^& i dont care about you, and i would say ive been your son for 19 years he would say i dont care. An instant #$%^ing cycle, divorce, alcohol etc.. And it got worse i would go to bathroom or go to take a shower he would momentarily go and get drunk. There were times we fought, and i have bloody knuckles and he would also. He is not my dad he is a monster, without any sense of remorse or sense of feel when he is completely plastered. Next morning he would wake up, and wonder why me and mom are looking through apartment ads and are mad at him, as if he did not do anything at all. My mom would often give in and forgive him, cut him slack and such. And it would never finish positively. Infact she cuts him so much slack that he gets to drink some liquor and almost finish the bottle meanwhile my mom is somewhere else. I told my mom i will hide the bottle and i will not tell her where its kept. We tried everything we took away his money, his cards got rid of all the alcohol, and yet it still happens. Whenever my mom drinks wine and gives him some too he drinks much more much much more than she does. He always drinks beer, when he doesnt have any liquor. Right now that ive been watching him and taking care of him at home, he changed tremendously but he still craves liquor. Maybe now i can start to go to school. The reason im saying so much detail is that i need to cut the most uneeded pieces for the explanations to my profs so that the profs dont call the cops on my dad or something like that and effection, any ideas? Thanks for all the input!

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Look at this:
Writing in the journal Pediatrics, the CDC team said they analyzed data from 15,214 high-school students (aged 14 to 18) who completed the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

They found that 45 percent of the students admitted having drunk alcohol in the past month. Of these, 64 percent were binge-drinkers.

And the binge drinkers were not simply experimenting — 69 percent reported having done so more than once in the past 30 days.

Teen drinkers in general were more than twice as likely to be sexually active as non-drinkers, the researchers found.
here is one of the sources:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070102/hl_nm/teens_drinking_dc

So why wast time (and our tax money) arresting them and hiding marijuana from them, when we have a drug that is hurting some of the teens who abuse it?

I sense a lack of parenting. People are so close minded nowadays.

Aaron

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Now, don’t get me wrong I don’t think I’m bigger or better than anybody else in this world in any way.

I get this feeling that I know plenty of other people get that I’m meant to do something big in this world, but I can’t figure it out. My parents, my Probation Officer, my teachers, even some of the kids that were (temporary) close friends in my last rehab I went to (just for marijuana/alcohol) said “dude, you need to straighten up because I have a feeling you’re going to do something big and I’m going to see you on TV one day”.

I mean my knowledge from studying Psychology, Linguistics, Hypnotism, History, and Network Security/Programming on my own has given me a lot of insight on the world, and none of it is good and all of it is deceptive and I don’t know if I’m supposed to expose it or use it to my advantage or what.

I mean I suppose a lot of people think that to feel better about themselves but not only do I think it, too many people have said it without anyone else mentioning it. Call me crazy but I need someone that can relate or something, not a bunch of nay sayers. Now, please, share =D
EDIT: I know they’re lies that help people, but the lies are unimportant in that people should believe in themselves, not someone elses idea that sounds good. And whether you knew it or not you just used Neuro-Linguistics there, and I believe people should know how they’re coerced into doing things in their daily lives but I suppose you’re right. I do agree with you to some extent. Especially the scientific theory and atoms and all of that. The knowledge behind it is just so…. stupid? I don’t even know. I’m glad there are people like me on here though.

Best of look to you too.
EDIT2: Luck* lol

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