The addict thread (2 Viewers)

saintmdterps

Falling feels like flying til you hit the ground.
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In light of yet another of our members admitting to an addiction requiring a stay in rehab, for which I commend him, I'm wondering how many others of us have suffered from an addiction.

saintmdterps raises hand...3 years in gamblers anonymous to begin coming to grips with my adrenaline addiction. While some of my friends sought fixes through drugs, alcohol, and steroids, I got mine though dangerous activity including gambling in the stock market. GA helped me realize it was not about money but about the rush, which I could no longer get through motorcycles and fast cars since I was now a parent.

GA led me to my current Buddhist practice, but seldom a day goes by when I don't offer thanks to the stout souls of GA who bared everything in their own struggles.

I wish all who suffer any form of addiction well in their struggles. Peace be with all of you.
 
i once had a conversation with my boy about the horrors of drug use. incredibly it was he who was telling me what he had seen in his sixteen years of living. i whipped out a mountain of substances i had either tried, mixed, habitually used, or came scarily close to death with and he shrugged them off and told me what was going around in his circle.

there's a million ways to mess your life up----its incredible i survived (thanks to my lovely wife) and our children never took the bait.
 
Definitely the intended spirit of this thread.

Maybe not but watching my mom struggle with my dad's alcoholism, I feel for adult survivors
She often said "I wish the man I went to sleep with was the one I woke up with" (don't be gross, it's my mom)
Luckily he cleaned up - hope the same happens for yetis wife
 
My wife is a pill head. I'm sick of it. Went to rehab and started it back again two weeks later. Hate to say it, but I hope she gets arrested.

I was rammed in the rear end of my Harley by a teen girl texting, she never even saw the red light so she never even touched the brakes.

Long story short, it wrecked my back pretty bad. I had to have several surgeries and became addicted to painkillers. Morphine, Oxi, all of it. I was able to quit cold turkey. I locked myself in the house took a two week vacation from work and proceeded to go through the worst fight in my life.....withdrawal. I am proud of that today, because it was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. When you are so sick and feel like you are going to die at any moment and know that taking a little pill will make it all go away....it is VERY hard to resist.

I can tell you right now, with your attitude towards her addiction she will never stop. the trick to all addiction is making the addict realize they want and need to quit. This is not achieved by threatening them and bullying. If they don't want it, it will never happen. The addict will be more apt to listen if you talk with a caring and nurturing way. Standoffs and screaming matches give addicts the perfect excuse, in their minds, to take the next pill.
 
Anyone with any real experience with Ibogaine, PM me.

I've read about it but no real experience. I've also read and seen some documentaries about LSD having many of the same effects. At one point there were actually some places you could go out of the country into a rehab like facility that uses LSD with a very high success rate. One of the most important factors was taking the LSD in a clinical setting so don't expect it to work from home.
 
I've had the hardest fight with prescription pills for 20+ years off and on, but hardcore the last 8 years or so. At one point I would take 320mg of oxy and 600mg of hydrocodone a day. I've detoxed myself so many times I can't even count but never learned from it, the disease of addiction makes us forget. The core of our disease is self-centeredness, we also are under the illusion that we are not hurting anyone else, that if people would mind their own business everything would be better. A lot of us are "functioning addicts", we have jobs, houses, cars, families and provide. These are all things we haven't lost "YET". We are no different from the drug addict living on the streets, we just haven't gotten there yet.
 
My wife is a pill head. I'm sick of it. Went to rehab and started it back again two weeks later. Hate to say it, but I hope she gets arrested.

Definitely the intended spirit of this thread.

Sometimes arrest is your last hope. My biological father was (is? not sure if he's fallen off the wagon or if he's still on parole or what) an alcoholic and meth abuser. (I know, once an addict always an addict, I'm simply saying I don't know if he's actively using right now.)

Anyway, I know my aunts, uncle and grandparents from his side of the family preferred when he was in jail/prison. They knew where he was every night and that he had a much more limited access to the quantity of drugs and alcohol he could consume. He refused to go to rehab when free or out on parole and manufactured meth. The possibilities were endless as far as what he was capable of or the dangers he faced as an addict and dealer. Jail was a better place for him.

My oldest brother is a raging homeless (living under a bridge) alcoholic just like my dad. He's on the verge of death actually and spent the last 12 days in the hospital due to liver failure.

I often think about the similarities in my father and my brother and wonder how my father managed to make it this long and still in pretty decent shape. I have come to the conclusion that due to the fact that he spent the majority of my life in prison, he's been kept sober/clean for a good part of his life. I'm unsure if he had access to drugs and alcohol while in prison and if he did, to what extent/frequency. But if he did, it certainly wasn't comparable to the quantity/frequency a free citizen would have. And therein lies the difference. My brother has managed to stay out of jail/prison so the continuous duration of his substance abuse is far greater than my father.

I know it sounds harsh but yes, the reality is that sometimes you have to wish jail on a person when nothing else has worked and the person refuses to get help.
 
I was rammed in the rear end of my Harley by a teen girl texting, she never even saw the red light so she never even touched the brakes.

Long story short, it wrecked my back pretty bad. I had to have several surgeries and became addicted to painkillers. Morphine, Oxy, all of it. I was able to quit cold turkey. I locked myself in the house took a two week vacation from work and proceeded to go through the worst fight in my life.....withdrawal. I am proud of that today, because it was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. When you are so sick and feel like you are going to die at any moment and know that taking a little pill will make it all go away....it is VERY hard to resist.

I can tell you right now, with your attitude towards her addiction she will never stop. the trick to all addiction is making the addict realize they want and need to quit. This is not achieved by threatening them and bullying. If they don't want it, it will never happen. The addict will be more apt to listen if you talk with a caring and nurturing way. Standoffs and screaming matches give addicts the perfect excuse, in their minds, to take the next pill.

We've tried everything. When someone takes money from their kids piggy banks and steals it from their mother that's in hospice on her deathbed I think enough is enough!

No excuse for that. Ever!
 
I was rammed in the rear end of my Harley by a teen girl texting, she never even saw the red light so she never even touched the brakes.

Long story short, it wrecked my back pretty bad. I had to have several surgeries and became addicted to painkillers. Morphine, Oxy, all of it. I was able to quit cold turkey. I locked myself in the house took a two week vacation from work and proceeded to go through the worst fight in my life.....withdrawal. I am proud of that today, because it was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. When you are so sick and feel like you are going to die at any moment and know that taking a little pill will make it all go away....it is VERY hard to resist.

I can tell you right now, with your attitude towards her addiction she will never stop. the trick to all addiction is making the addict realize they want and need to quit. This is not achieved by threatening them and bullying. If they don't want it, it will never happen. The addict will be more apt to listen if you talk with a caring and nurturing way. Standoffs and screaming matches give addicts the perfect excuse, in their minds, to take the next pill.

I see your point but:

1. He didn't say he threatens or bullies her. He wishes she would go to jail - which could be a silent wish that he never actually expresses. This is a perfectly rational response from someone married to an addcit who is frustrated and hurt beyond belief by their significant other's addiction.

2. Nobody can make an addict realize they want and need to quit. They have to realize it themselves. The road to coming to that realization is different for everyone. For some, an intervention works. For others, it's coming close to death. Others it may be losing their family. And for some, such as my brother, it's nothing. Losing it all, being on your death bed, getting hit by a car, wanting to see your kids again, jail, reuniting with family, doing it for his health, NOTHING has made him realize he wants or needs help. He is going to die an addict. And I am not exaggerating when I say that every member of our family, his oldest friends and even folks within the community have tried to help him in a million different ways. He wants no part of it.
 
We've tried everything. When someone takes money from their kids piggy banks and steals it from their mother that's in hospice on her deathbed I think enough is enough!



No excuse for that. Ever!


Sounds like you need to take the kids and go or kick her out. She's not going to quit unless she wants to.
 
We've tried everything. When someone takes money from their kids piggy banks and steals it from their mother that's in hospice on her deathbed I think enough is enough!

No excuse for that. Ever!

You haven't tried everything or she wouldn't be using. Everyone is able to become sober, it's all the non addicts that think otherwise.

Also, you must not have been attracted to a person who steals from children and mothers on their deathbed, right? It is not her doing this it is the addiction. The biggest fear of addicts is getting sick, but not only that, it is also the fact that when you detox the physical ailments only take a week or two, but then all of your actions come to you as you get sober and most can't deal with the things they did while high.That is another reason it is so hard to quit, once you quit you have to deal with reality....and that can be very hard. Especially if you are not in a very nurturing environment.

The last thing a recovering addict needs is someone throwing all of their sins in their face while coming out of the fog. The recovering addict DOES have to face these issues, but it is a slow drawn out process or they will definitely relapse.

It's up to you how much you care/love your wife. If you don't care....throw her out like garbage. If you do care for her stick it out and save her life, because it will kill her eventually. It almost always does.
 
I've said this to people that know me and they know it's true but I've been really lucky as far as the addition thing goes. I've done most every legal painkiller and illegal drug you could think of in quantity and for significant periods and have not faced what I considered an addiction. If I ran out I stopped. I didn't take out loans or steal to get money to buy more. I stopped.

With age comes wisdom I suppose but even when I was younger (I'm 57 now) and was learning my limits there were times I woke up and wondered how I survived. Or coming down from what some might call binges on coke and meth (one of the worst things ever invented, if you haven't tried it don't) and feel so bad that I would wonder why I put my body thru that just for the buzz. I had friends that would stay up for 5 days straight and just become crazed. That never appealed to me.

Maybe I don't have the addictive gene or maybe I'm just a stubborn *** but it's just me. I'm trying to quit smoking cigarettes which is my only addiction so I guess I'm not 100% honest and it's hard. I can only imagine what an addiction to a substance would be like. As much as I used to love the pill and beer buzz there is somewhere in this house some morphine and demerol that a friend who has had numerous back surgeries left here. Do I want to go do some? Nah, I've got more productive things to do than lose a day being wasted.

I don't share this story trying to say I'm better than anyone else because I'll be the first to admit that I'm not. I've done a lot of really stupid things in my life but somehow I'm still around. The last thing I want to do is come off sounding self righteous. That is not my intent.

My utmost respect goes to anyone who has dealt with substance abuse issues and took the initiative to get clean. I've been around it and seen it first hand in friends and family and it ain't pretty. My dads wife (not my mom, the 3rd wife) killed my dad by feeding his depression with alcohol for several days while he sat in his easy chair. She was charged with elderly neglect resulting in death or something like that and did a little jail time.

I wish all the best to those of you trying to get away from your addictions and those of you that have rehabbed and are trying to stay away from them and your care takers. It's just as hard on them if not harder.

Keep on keeping on. You can do it.
 

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