Struggles with Alcoholism: A Journey from Denial to Recovery

In an interview with Psychiatric Times, Christopher L. Schenewerk, MD discussed his history with alcoholism and his experiences before entering rehab in 2018.

He said that historically, he had been a social drinker and was usually a very social person. “It wasn’t until I turned 40, when I went through a divorce… that I realized I thought I was prepared for anything in life and apparently I wasn’t,” Schenewerk said. He said the social drinking slowly became daily drinking and began destroying his life. He knew what to do and how to treat addiction but did not know how to treat himself or recognize his addiction.

“I would self-justify that I didn’t have a problem because I didn’t drink at work, I didn’t drink before I went to work, I didn’t drink when I was on call, so I could control it,” Schenewerk said. He pointed out that if he was drinking 4 bottles of wine a night and up until 2 AM, he was legally intoxicated most likely every day he went to work during that time.

Scenewerk said addiction is a disease of insanity, of “unrelenting, continuous poor choices.” “That shame and guilt is what makes you drink about 2 hours afterwards,” he said. Drinking became a matter of survival and impacted his work until his closest advocates noticed something was wrong.

In his last week before entering rehab, a conversation brought him back to himself and he decided to seek help. He took a day off work to study for his 10 year boards, which he said was worthless due to not putting any time in. “My wife was sitting at the edge of the bed and she said, ‘I’m afraid you’re gonna die. You need to go to rehab.’” He said he argued a little bit, but something inside happened and he made the decision that he needed help.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series. You can watch the full interview here.

Dr Schenewerk is a family medicine physician and is the medical director at Illinois Recovery Center.