• HEALTH & RECOVERY
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules Thread Directory 1 Thread Directory 2
    Mindfulness Links Addiction & Mind
    Sober Living Partner Program (SLiPP)
  • H&R Moderators: VerbalTruist | cdin | Lil'LinaptkSix

Need Help If You Were Watching A Recovery YouTube Channel, what would you...?

O

opioidtolerant

Greenlighter
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
6
What kind of topics would you like to see spoken about the most related to drug addiction recovery?

For some background on myself... I am a recovering heroin, cocaine and benzo addict.
I was a combat medic in the army with a combat deployment to Afghanistan.
I struggle with Anxiety and PTSD
I take Suboxone EVERYDAY ( not hiding anything here )
Just trying to do what I can by sharing my knowledge and experiences with anyone willing to listen.

Thanks everyone. have a great day!
 
I am a recovering addict (mostly heroin, but also have a history of IV coke and meth as well). I agree that there should be a variety of modalities discussed. I am involved in 12 step recovery but my primary path to recovery is Buddhist (something called Recovery Dharma). I would also love to hear about smart recovery. I know nothing about it.
 
ok awesome input thanks guys!
so far what I have been doing is just telling my story how it is not sugar coating anything and telling everything 100% truthful. I have actually never been to NA or any 12 step stuff. The way I found recovery has been through positive thinking like law of attraction type stuff. And ive been finding new hobbies like camping and I made videos on things like that. As well as just the classic speaking to the camera about some real stuff.
 
opioidtolerant said:
What kind of topics would you like to see spoken about the most related to drug addiction recovery?

For some background on myself... I am a recovering heroin, cocaine and benzo addict.
I was a combat medic in the army with a combat deployment to Afghanistan.
I struggle with Anxiety and PTSD
I take Suboxone EVERYDAY ( not hiding anything here )
Just trying to do what I can by sharing my knowledge and experiences with anyone willing to listen.

Thanks everyone. have a great day!
Click to expand...

There's so many topics you can talk about.

You can talk about how society reacts to recovering addicts, how they think of us. You can talk about 12 step fellowships and how they help some people but not others, how every group is autonomous and can vary in quality.

How their insistence on abstinence only is problematic, but how good it is that you can use them to find other sober people who know what you're going through for support.

You can talk about the maintenance therapies. Subuxone and methadone and why you chose subuxone and other options you had and how they're better or worse than other options.

You can talk about what addiction is like and the tricks addiction plays with your mind.

These are all things I'd find interesting in a youtube channel like you describe. There's also the subjects specific to you, like how military culture handles addiction and its frequent overlap with PTSD. both in the context of veterans and how many other addicts have ptsd from their own civilian trauma.

The sky's really the limit.
Also I know it's super cliche and over said, but I also wanna quickly say thank you for your military service. <3
 
Last edited:
JessFR said:
There's so many topics you can talk about.

You can talk about how society reacts to recovering addicts, how they think of us. You can talk about 12 step fellowships and how they help some people but not others, how every group is autonomous and can vary in quality.

How their insistence on abstinence only is problematic, but how good it is that you can use them to find other sober people who know what you're going through for support.

You can talk about the maintenance therapies. Subuxone and methadone and why you chose subuxone and other options you had and how they're better or worse than other options.

You can talk about what addiction is like and the tricks addiction plays with your mind.

These are all things I'd find interesting in a youtube channel like you describe. There's also the subjects specific to you, like how military culture handles addiction and its frequent overlap with PTSD. both in the context of veterans and how many other addicts have ptsd from their own civilian trauma.

The sky's really the limit.
Also I know it's super cliche and over said, but I also wanna quickly say thank you for your military service. <3
Click to expand...
thank you for that you are awesome! those were seriously some good ideas im actually going to talk about the 12 step programs not accepting everybody like you said basically and how they look at people on MAT and things of that nature.
 
opioidtolerant said:
thank you for that you are awesome! those were seriously some good ideas im actually going to talk about the 12 step programs not accepting everybody like you said basically and how they look at people on MAT and things of that nature.
Click to expand...

That could be really cool. It might be a good idea to ask for other people's impressions of 12 step groups too. I've found 12 step groups can vary a lot in their opinions. Even by geography and NA vs AA.

For instance I've heard some groups really getting on people's cases for being on maintenance therapy. Whereas the ones I went too were really cool about it. The 4th tradition tends to result in unique cultures appearing at different groups. Often influenced by the wider culture of the area.

So what's accepted in one group might not be at another.

Just a thought. <3
Good luck. :)
 
yeah NA groups vary massively. I went to one in rehab that we left at half time because we were so disgusted. there was a guy who was gouching in his chair, and they put newcomers time in the start, first some douchebag who was obviously not a newcomer came in, and then the guy gouching. his grandpa who'd brought him up was dying and he was about to lose his home, and these people were rolling their eyes and tutting while he was sharing and obviously not interested. no one talked to him at break until i went up and started chatting to him. nobody talked to us either. it just seemed like a

the support worker who took us put a complaint in and the meeting got shut down, then he pulled some strings to get the guy into rehab.

in norwich i was smoking crack in the toilets or gouching in my chair and no one was ever anything but welcoming to me. in warrington the fellowship is amazing and i'm so lucky that's where i did y early recovery.

in the women's meeting there is a girl who often turns up drunk and goes for top ups in the toilets, and some of the old timers bitch about her and think she shouldn't come if she's going to come loaded. thankfully they don't say that to her face but they offer her no support either.

now i am in long term recovery i have found my local buddhist centre to be more useful than NA, though i still attend meetings too, it is more focused on how to live a good life without being overly dogmatic or moralistic. the fact that doing bad things makes you feel bad was a revelation to me (we did this exercise where we had to think about a small good thing we'd done, and then a small bad thing we'd done, and note the differences), because i had switched off my conscience for so long in my addiction. so i'd be very interest in buddhist content. i go to a buddhism based recovery meeting based on this book.
 
chinup said:
yeah NA groups vary massively. I went to one in rehab that we left at half time because we were so disgusted. there was a guy who was gouching in his chair, and they put newcomers time in the start, first some douchebag who was obviously not a newcomer came in, and then the guy gouching. his grandpa who'd brought him up was dying and he was about to lose his home, and these people were rolling their eyes and tutting while he was sharing and obviously not interested. no one talked to him at break until i went up and started chatting to him. nobody talked to us either. it just seemed like a

the support worker who took us put a complaint in and the meeting got shut down, then he pulled some strings to get the guy into rehab.

in norwich i was smoking crack in the toilets or gouching in my chair and no one was ever anything but welcoming to me. in warrington the fellowship is amazing and i'm so lucky that's where i did y early recovery.

in the women's meeting there is a girl who often turns up drunk and goes for top ups in the toilets, and some of the old timers bitch about her and think she shouldn't come if she's going to come loaded. thankfully they don't say that to her face but they offer her no support either.

now i am in long term recovery i have found my local buddhist centre to be more useful than NA, though i still attend meetings too, it is more focused on how to live a good life without being overly dogmatic or moralistic. the fact that doing bad things makes you feel bad was a revelation to me (we did this exercise where we had to think about a small good thing we'd done, and then a small bad thing we'd done, and note the differences), because i had switched off my conscience for so long in my addiction. so i'd be very interest in buddhist content. i go to a buddhism based recovery meeting based on this book.
Click to expand...

The groups I went too had people who looked high quite often. Either high on heroin or just nodding from too much methadone. They didn't share they just listened, I never saw anyone complain.

I had a women's meeting too. It was my home group for quite a while when I was still going to meetings. Nobody was remotely judgemental. A lot of em had obviously been clean for many years, but a few of us like myself barely made it a day without using. Again I never felt any judgement at all.

It can just vary a lot.
I can't personally speak of AA since I haven't been, but I've heard more negative experiences about AA than NA. but that could absolutely be perception bias. The 12 step fellowships are all so similar I'd imagine it's very much alike.
 
lol i think i'm prejudiced against AA too, but i did go to a few while i was in rehab cos it was the only option for leaving the site.

i'm glad you didn't experience any judgement i can't imagine how damaging it must be to people's recovery to go to what is supposed to be a place where you're safe to be fully honest and meeting a negative reception.
 
Just talk about your journey, whatever that was and is. Recovery doesn’t have to fit into a formula or preset ideals which have been laid out by so many programs over so many years, including our own harm reduction ethos. They are all tools to be used and a means to an end but all in all YOU are the one who is recovering and if you can impressed that human struggle into me in a way that feels real and I can relate as a fellow addict, whatever the content is between I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Don’t do an AA drugalog. Don’t be a freewheeling, didn’t do anything and just found the sacred stone and got over it either (lol), just share your story and if AA or the sacred stone came along the way I’m all for it, my take!

you be the focal point of your story, not just your method is what I mean.
 
I personally find anyone who repeats a lot of 12 step stuff pretty pedestrian. I like more original thoughts.

Backstory/humanizing yourself goes a long way. Not falling into the traditional arc of using vs recovery, e.g., it's all the same path, and there are struggles the whole way

I find that all addict memoirs leave out the most important part. Usually suddenly ending the book with "I went to rehab and got better and rode off into the sunset " huh... ok... how did you stop hating yourself? How did you stop hating other humans? How did you stop being afraid? How did you make your horrible memories stop crippling you with flashbacks? How did you deal with all the shameful things you did? How do you wake up every day not in emotional pain? How do you deal with emotional pain that has been with you since you were 3 or 4 years old? How do you remove parts of yourself that were made to keep you safe? How do you leave the only thing that has made you feel comfortable in your skin, day in and out, for 10+ years?

I generally dont like what the masses like, though, so it depends if your goal is a wide audience or an intimate audience
 
RedRum OG said:
I personally find anyone who repeats a lot of 12 step stuff pretty pedestrian. I like more original thoughts.

Backstory/humanizing yourself goes a long way. Not falling into the traditional arc of using vs recovery, e.g., it's all the same path, and there are struggles the whole way

I find that all addict memoirs leave out the most important part. Usually suddenly ending the book with "I went to rehab and got better and rode off into the sunset " huh... ok... how did you stop hating yourself? How did you stop hating other humans? How did you stop being afraid? How did you make your horrible memories stop crippling you with flashbacks? How did you deal with all the shameful things you did? How do you wake up every day not in emotional pain? How do you deal with emotional pain that has been with you since you were 3 or 4 years old? How do you remove parts of yourself that were made to keep you safe? How do you leave the only thing that has made you feel comfortable in your skin, day in and out, for 10+ years?
Click to expand...

In my experience... You don't.
 
Youtube recovery channels are like the new rage. They are all lame and all monetized. I don't watch any of them since well....every one has the same damn story...and better to get a job :)

If you really want to help people, join AA / NA and become a sponsor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top