I’m avoiding Zoom meetings for the moment; I kinda feel out of place at them. Anyway, welcome to the narcotics anonymous thread, courtesy of the forum.
I’m Gene, and I am a narcotics (marihuana) addict. I have 28 days sober from MJ and other mind-altering drugs.
(Although important with any recovery program, please refrain from religious talk)
I was just on the phone with my brother. We were saying how “One Day At A Time” sometimes means making a plan for the future. Today, he was buying plots in a cemetery, that is.
We were talking about “Hold on” and “Let Go”.
I laughed a lot about what he had to say.
Good wishes. Sobriety gave me a higher quality set of problems.
Glass half full kinda statement, I like it.
Today I saw youtube video which talks about narcotics. Unlike South Korea, in America women who just gave birth to baby got easily prescribed narcotics to get rid of the after-pain. But in Korea it seems like moms go to special treatment and care center instead of taking painkillers. So I’d like to know what other factors can lead to narcotics addiction in America.
@cuppabo: there can be many factors that can result in drug addiction. In the big picture, socioeconomic status leads many to addiction. Being poor or wealthy can cause drug abuse.
Speaking about my own experience, I was in college when I experimented with MJ. It was a way to relieve the stress of being a university student. I had a lot on my plate, my studies, a job, participating in school activities, getting involved with another, it was a lot. Add to that I was prodromal sz and it all results in starting drug use and becoming dependent. Now why I’ve stayed a drug addict is a question I’ve yet to find an answer for.
When I was 11 I got introduced to smoking weed at high school. That was a downward spiral that ended with me abusing Cocaine, Ecstasy, Crack, Magic Mushrooms and LSD…
By time I was 16/17 my brain was totally messed up.
It took a dedicated drugs worker to turn it around, that was appointed by court order
Had a couple of relapses after I got properly clean, but thankfully it has been 11 years now since I took illegal drugs
@Joker: so glad to hear of your sobriety time. I hope you celebrate your sober birthday, it’s something to be proud of.
Not even sure when it was. I know the age of the last time, but not specifics.
My court ordered drugs worker made me cut all ties with drugs and the people who did them around me
It was hard, but successful
I have also not been arrested since I was 16, and that happened a lot when I was using.
I have 25 years clean time from drugs and 1 and 1/2 years sobriety from alcohol. I didn’t drink much because I am intolerant to alcohol, just one or two beers every month or two. I went to NA at age seventeen regularly for five years. I went almost every day, sometimes three times a day and got to know many great people. I know the program like the back of my hand. I went to AA for five years regularly but never made the same connection with people like in NA. My pdoc suggested the program because he knew I had used. I was hospitalized for five and a half months as a teenager. I am very grateful for him. I’ve never had anybody in NA or AA tell me not to take medicine. They know they aren’t doctors. I would read some twelve step literature but as I said I know it like the back of my hand just by listening in meetings and going to book meetings. And I can’t relate to the extremes of addiction since I was only 17 when I quit initially. ( My relapses were brief. )My #1 rule is to not use. It doesn’t help. Nothing changes when you use, you just get sicker.
Formed addict of MJ and other things here.
I have an addictive personality in general. What helped me recover the most was adressing what behavior led to those kinds of addictions.
For me, it was being scared to feel/acknowledge uncomfortable emotions, and a wish to just take something to make it go away.
These days I don’t even take otc things like paracetamol unless the pain is really bad.
I do still sometimes feel the addiction feelings returning, especially if I have beer or wine. (Which happens like once a month) It’s like I have to stop at one glass and then put the beverage away or my mind just snaps and all self-control goes out the window.
I think I’ll always be an addict or have those tendencies, so I have a lifelong battle of keeping myself under control ahead of me.
Like I’ve heard in many meetings, it is simple but not easy.
Kudos for 25 years free from drugs and 18 months from alcohol.
Great that you’ve put in the work to get a handle on it. For me, I try and push whatever may be bothering me out of the system. Going to the gym or just screaming at the top of my lungs; once while at work, I was having a tough-go of it, and I began telling my co-worker about a movie clip I saw, knowing full well that I was going to yell, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” After I did, I felt better lol
I tried crack in 1986 and in a very short time I was addicted. I used to get drunk often and smoke pot too. Even went to family therapy on acid.
In 1989 I was right in the middle of a schizophrenia relapse and I was in a temporary group home. Still using at the time. One night I I wandered downstairs and discovered an AA meeting being held in the dining room. It was only about six people and they invited me to join and I sat in and everybody was friendly and cool so I started going regularly.
After two months of meetings one night I got an uncontrollable urge to smoke crack. I was lying in bed and I made plans to get up early the next day and take a bus to our family friends house and borrow a $100 and then go to East Palo Alto and buy 5 rocks and smoke them myself. I got an anticipatory high just thinking about it.
In the morning I woke up and thought, “ That was crazy.” And overnight the compulsion and obsession to use was lifted from me. And has never returned. That was almost 32 years ago on January 1st, 1990. I haven’t touched drugs or alcohol since then. I don’t miss them at all.
That’s awesome, 77Nick77. You were free from the shackles of crack addiction overnight in the most literal sense. I’m guessing going to those meetings had something to do with it. The group conscience will outdo self willpower.
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