Drug Addict Mindsets and the Road to Recovery

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:47:47 +0000

Drug addicts don’t start out abusing chemicals by falling into a hole. They start by jumping in. This guide offers personal solutions for the drug addict trying to defeat the social, family, mental, and physical health problems of addiction after the fact. It builds upon positives, and starts with a philosophical note.
Forgive Yourself:
The first step on the road to recovery is simply to forgive yourself. Most families will be willing to help you turn over a new leaf, but more often than not society and families are only willing to forgive after you forgive yourself. In philosophical terms, this means building on the positives—you quit—while also remembering the negatives. That means, no matter the drug or pain it caused, you can’t entirely forget that you used. Why? It’s said history is society’s way of not making the same mistake twice. In terms of drug abuse, it’s the same.
Defining Drug Addiction:
According to many studies in print and online, you can define drug abuse (or substance abuse) as “the repeated and excessive use of chemical substances to achieve a certain effect” (Helpguides.com). What does that mean in basic terms? It means you’re using marijuana to be higher, happier; you’re using cocaine to feel invincible; you’re abusing prescriptions drugs to go lower. You are zoning out of the world and of society. What are you trying to forget?
Forgetting:
Again, remembering isn’t a bad thing. It’s part of life to remember mistakes only so you don’t do it again. As different drugs have different effects, and no two drug users are trying to escape the exact same thing, you need to start exploring what you’re trying to forget from the past. This is far from easy, especially for highly experienced drug addicts. Addiction is powerful, and it disrupts everything in your life. However, what happened before? Again we are at philosophy and therapy: you need to bring the skeletons out of the closet and deal with them.
Road to Recovery Help—Using Family, Doctors, Friends:
Recovery is definitely not something to do by yourself. Don’t! This guide isn’t the finale to defeating drug addiction, to escaping marijuana or cocaine, crystal meth or pain killers. One of the most powerful tools you will have is the help of friends, family, and doctors. If you are lacking in positive people to help you, and many are, you might consider reaching out. There are many 12 step programs, some for specific drugs like cocaine and marijuana addiction, while others go broader and help with physical abuse and all narcotics (like Narcotics Anonymous, a 12 Step program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous). It’s important to find the cause of your drug abuse so you won’t repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

New Ideas on Addiction:
Finally, there is a wealth of sources on defeating addiction in today’s modern world, whether you live in New York or Shanghai. These ideas are becoming powerful as more and more governments are seeking to help people beat drug addiction. This article itself uses notes from many top agencies like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. By exploring solutions like this, you are expanding your knowledge. There are also new ways for you to combat drug abuse via addiction counselors, and even many homes across the country that aren’t entirely rehab clinics but more living spaces for addicts to find positive environments. You are not alone in this, but you will often feel like it.
The road to defeating addiction can be long and dark, but it will almost always make you a better person to your family, friends, and society.

After Drug Addiction: A Survival Guide

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:55:26 +0000

In a nutshell, post drug addiction is as hard to experience as actively using drugs. You fear the pill, fear the joint, and fear the line of cocaine. You may see it in your dreams: marijuana or another drug is so close you can taste it. Other than that, there will be a struggle. To survive drug addiction you need to do more than “white-knuckle” it, a term used when you just try to beat it on willpower. This is also a problem of the mind. Drug addicts tend to be the depressed; they use to get rid of the pain. My experience is that a doctor who specializes in substance abuse can remove this pain over time. You may find that you need to take medication (for a short or long time) to help with mood problems.

Gain Perspective:
Are you willing to quit? Can you see the big picture about your drug addiction? These are some important questions, but let’s go to the nuts and bolts. You will be healthier, live longer, and save money. You won’t destroy your life. You will regain confidence, perhaps, from friends and family. Life will have a new meaning for you. It will be a struggle, sure, but see all these things, look to them whenever you have a doubt, and the answer will be clear. Staying clean works.

And it Does Work:
The next step is to look at this in the short term. This article won’t bring in a lot of 12 Step material here, but there is a saying, “One day at a time.” You could also say, “One step and the next gets me where I am going.” You will be surviving a day at a time. Staying clean usually will work out for you. There will be changes in your life … big changes. There is more than perspective—there is happiness.

You will be Happy Without Drugs:
Can you really be happy without drugs? Sure, but it is a process that takes time, there is no quick fix. But, overtime your life will dramatically improve and you will be much happier. Drug addiction stays with you. The marijuana made you happy at first, but at some point it became an addiction and that is where the fun began to wear off or completely ended. Drug addiction is in your hand and if you make the right moves you will be happy again.

Happiness without drugs tends will be a struggle at first. In fact, a lot of people are very happy for the first 30 to 90 days of sobriety. This will wear off and there will be some ups and downs, but in the end you will be very happy that you stopped using drugs. It is also common for some people to experience a brief relapse in the beginning of recovery. However; a head full of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) tends to make drinking or using again not very fun. By this time you have realized that a sober life style is a much happier life style.

Out of the Storm:
You can be happy by putting some work into it. Just like money comes when you work for it, recovery works when you put time and effort into it. You can go to 12 step meetings, for example, so you can share your thoughts. There are thousands of doctors who specialize in substance abuse, use them to help you. Friends and family will listen to you. Drug addiction will never be a fun process to go through, but once you are out of the storm, once you reach the end, it will be so much better, and you will see the world in a different way.

Say No To Pot » Recovery

Drug Addict Mindsets and the Road to Recovery

After Drug Addiction: A Survival Guide