There was a man who came into the hospital quite often. He was an alcoholic looking for some IV Ativan to help make him feel better when he was withdrawing from alcohol because he could not afford any. When he first started coming in, he would be violently puking. We would give him some ativan and haldol, but he would continue throwing up. He just kept saying he needed more Ativan, more Ativan. Eventually, I noticed he frequently went to the restroom and when he came back he would be violently puking. I looked at the bucket he was puking into and it looked like straight water. This man would go into the bathroom, chug a bunch of water, then forcefully throw it up to make himself look more sick than he was to get more Ativan. After we found this out, we always had our eye on him and told him to use a urinal instead of going to the bathroom constantly. He started trying to chug water out of the sink in his room. I went into his room and wrapped up the sink completely so he could not drink water from it. Lo and behold, he was no longer throwing up. When he came into the hospital, I knew him, and followed the no bathroom privileges and wrapped up the sink as soon as I saw him. This patient did not puke at all when I did this. He was perfectly stable, just did not feel well because he couldn’t afford any more alcohol. This patient never had a seizure from withdrawing or had anything dangerous happen to him. He could be safely discharged home on Librium or Tranxene. Any time this patient came to the hospital and saw me there, I could see the look of disappointment on his face. However, I am not taking time away from my actual sick patients to deal with this man who just wanted to be knocked out from Ativan for hours. Alcoholism is a terrible thing, but I cannot let it take me away from acutely ill patients.