Addiction - a lifelong 'disease?'

[popeyes mate]

Great thread, I will have to read in full later though.

I personally feel there might be a part of my genetic make up that makes me use as alcoholics are comon on my dads side, but choice plays a major part. Dad chose not to drink unlike his dad and brothers did. My sister chooses not to use, I chose the opposite. I wont say that my addiction is a disease. I do not have past issues I am using drugs to cope with. I do not have self esteme issues.

What I have is the ability to make poor choices. I chose to party with drugs, and then I continued to do so. And so what I have is a long period of poor choices, with a drug I enjoy, resulting in what I now have. Not a disease. A Habit

 

[Oldred3s]

This is a tough one that's for sure. When some one is addicted to a substance and then gets off said substance the general rule to substance councilers is you can't ever use substances again. The way I look at things is some people have addictive personalities and some don't. I know people that can smoke and shoot ice and do it quite a bit but I never saw them start to use more frequently then they did and seem to just stay recreational users. Me on the other hand, I started out using speed or meth very rarely because I hated the next couple ofdays after the weekend so my mind was like fuck that don't do that to me again plus it didn't really do much for me. I didn't really rate it as a DOC. But when I tried shooting it that was a different story. First time shot I did it with a friend who knew what he was doing so he fixed me up. I watched everything he did cos I was paranoid of being jipped or him fucking up. He shot me up and I didn't feel it do I tried again a few weeks down the track with a bigger dose (2 1/2 points of pure... Yes pure) straight from the cook and boom!!! Shit fuckin smashed me I was on cloud 9!! After that I said fuck that no way am I doing that again that was to fuckin good. A few years down the track and I started dabbling in ice and I had a connect that would swing me a couple of points here and there for giving him my friends business and that's where I went down hill. 8 months later I was getting on it nearly every day and my arms where getting pretty stabbed up. If I went longer than 2 days I'd get saw joints and fevers and basically get the flu. That's when I started to realise I was hooked. I took a week off work and locked myself at home and turned my phone off. After a week I felt good. No more flu no more saw joints and shit but I still had cravings. Weed helped me a lot through it but for about another week and a half I had some pretty intense mental cravings for the shit. I just kept telling myself no.
This was about 2 1/2 years ago. Every now and then I'll have a puff but I won't buy anymore but 1 thing is for sure and that's that still have mild cravings. If its in from of me Its damn near impossible for me to turn down and I always feel a bit guilty having it. But the thing is am I still addicted? I say yes but I have it under control. A councillor would say its a relapse every time I have a puff but I don't binge, I don't buy it and I don't crave it like I used to but if it's there I'll have some but I find it hard to turn down a puff if it's in the room.
I think it is possible for a former addict to go back to being a recreational user but there is quite a few steps involved. I don't think addiction is a disease but more like some sort of self mind conditioning that. An cause other diseases. Mental or physical. Mainly because of the substances you use and how long you use them for you condition your brain so that it relies on those extra chemicals to function in a state that it has become acostomed to and the "sober state" isn't one that the mind is used to after so much abuse so to speak. So once someone has become sober it's like you have taken apart of the mind/ brain away, that is I guess why some people relapse. Because the brain gets that extra additive it used to get when you consumed the substances and kind of remembers that it "needed that substance". Just my theory. Please don't shoot me

 

[Oldred3s]

I still consume other drugs aside from meth these days. I love acid, mda and MDMA, weed etc but meth is a very rare thing for me to have. All other substances I take just about every weekend but I don't think I am addicted to them. I am currently on a break from ecstacy to flush my system and rebuild my serotonin levels. I don't think I am addicted to weed but rather the tobacco I use to spin. I don't smoke tobacco in ciggies anymore. The only tobacco I smoke is in my weed and I have cut down from smoking a half ounce a week to a stick a week so that good for
Me considering I have smoked weed 18 years or so. I won't ever stop smoking weed. I don't want to, I am happy with this out come but I would like to kick the spin habit. Back when I did meth I didn't smoke weed spun but I found that it didn't give me the kick I wanted soni started to spin again. I use about half a ciggie to a 1/16th of an ounce (foil, stick, etc)

 

[Jakeperson]

This statement says it all "I've quit drugs plenty of times" ...

 

[poledriver]

Public urged to 'Dob in a Druggie'

Police in south-west Victoria are encouraging people to report drug users and traffickers, with the launch of a new campaign.

Dob in a Druggie is a joint campaign involving local police, Crime Stoppers and drug addiction referral agencies across the region.

Senior Sergeant Shane Keogh of Warrnambool police says drugs often contribute to road trauma and crime.

He says it is important people with addictions are treated and those selling drugs are punished.

"Traffickers and users and one of the aims with the users is obviously connected to referral services, with the view to give them support to get away from that addiction and give up drugs totally and obviously punish those who get out there and sell the drugs," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-29/public-urged-to-dob-in-a-druggie/4488838

 

[Stevenski]

I subscribe to "addiction is a lifetime deal" scenario. I will always be an addict until the day I die regardless of how long I have sober & I accept that. Addiction is a choice no two ways about it.

I have two choices in life,

Abstinence: Making a conscious choice to not engage in activity that is detrimental to me. This is with my primary addictions at least. If I use non primary habits/substances it is a gradual decline that I can live with or address.
Activity: Making a conscious choice to pick up & destroy my life faster than I have ever done before as I have shown repeatedly. My default setting is to destroy myself.

Once the choice to go active is made there is no off switch for me. Therefore my only choice is to be inactive as once active I am powerless over what will happen due to my addict mindset. With me it is as quick as turning a light switch that is how fast I slip from abstinence to active addiction.

My addiction is not drugs, alcohol or gambling. They are symptoms of my disease but my disease is me. A good friend described it as "your addiction is doing pushups & getting fit as fuck so that when you slip it is ready to do catastrophic damage in a short timeframe". I could not agree more as the addiction is there waiting for you to allow it to re enter your life & it only needs the slightest fingertip hold to break the door wide open.

I spent considerable time doing H&I volunteer work at Herbert St detox in St Leonards. I don't know if anyone has been there as a patient but it is a pretty fucking depressing place. I would go in & share some of my story with whoever was interested. Probably 80% of detoxers attended & there was Q&A time afterwards where I would sit & smoke with them.

I was there to talk about gambling addiction but seeing as I have drugs & alcohol addictions I could relate & not judge the people detoxing. In the 100+ people I met there I was astounded to see that so many shared the multiple addiction theme. So many people told me that someone talking & listening to them as a human being not a "counsellor" or quack helped them realise that their lives had been on repeat. Doing the same old things & having the same old results every time.

Addiction is a lifelong disease but like many diseases it can be managed & you can live a fruitful life. Not that mine is fruitful by any stretch, it is a minging bag of shit in regards to my personal satisfaction & I struggle daily with my demons. It matters not the substance as the substance is the vehicle for the disease in me. That shows me it is a lifelong disease but with some substances I can manage my life in sustainable addiction. Others cause me to be unmanageable in every sense of the word.

I am a far way trashed but hopefully some of this makes sense. This is only my opinion & if you believe otherwise then that is your opinion too

 

[footscrazy]

Interesting point of view, Stevenski. You show a lot of insight into your own circumstance.

Public urged to 'Dob in a Druggie'

This is so, so fucked up