Congrats to everyone fighting the good fight, even if you are still tapering you have to appreciate that you got the process started at all. A special shout out to Captain.Heroin because I know from reading posts in other forums how much of an uphill battle this can be for you at times; and yet you always manage to remain extraordinarily supportive of others through this process. While I have said that AA/NA is not for me I don't want to discourage other users from attending because it may be the most valuable resource you have on hand, especially considering that it is technically free. If you can't afford to put a dollar in the basket, don't be guilted by the looks of others, if others judge you that is their problem.
I also heard people talk about developing other addictions, yes I've seen people develop addictions to sex, working out, video games, gambling, Books & Comics & Manga, move & entertainment including TV, volunteering & such, obsessing on others (akin to stalking but it's different), food, work, and I personally essentially got addicted to Magic The Gathering during my last sobriety.
Many of these are not harmful to those who engage in them or the people around them so it should probably be left alone, but if they become something harmful obviously someone ought step in and either say something or force a behavioral change to something less harmful or better yet more positive.
I was living in Los Angeles a year ago when I was just getting clean and their were many celebrities and super-wealthy people. My point is that a lot of the newly sober people would try to attach themselves to celebrities or rich people if they could... even if they didn't really like them. It was really shitty because the rich and famous people that the newly sober had access to were also newly sober themselves and it sort of compromised their sobriety and definitely made it harder for them to trust people. I know I was pretty good friends with two really wealthy people and one really famous guy, and a guy in our group of friends relapsed and did a bunch of things that made one of the wealthy guys and the really famous guy nervous about being friends with any of us newly sober people, at least in a really close way. I mean I used to text these guys everyday and after the other guy in our group of friends relapsed and behaved really creepily they were both really distant from everyone else in the group which sucked, cause we all had spent 4 months meeting at an AA meeting every weekday morning and getting breakfast afterwards, not to mention volunteering together almost every Sunday. I guess my point is that it's really shitty when people obsess over people as a way to make up for their addiction because if the person is newly sober themselves then it puts them at risk for relapse as well. Not to mention famous and rich people are more likely to be the objects of someone's obsession. At least I'm still friends with one of the wealthy guys and the other guy in our group who wasn't famous or wealthy. Idk people obsessing over other people does lots of damage and is a bad thing to take up in sobriety.
Either way I went on another rant that wasn't intended. It's just good to make good friends in sobriety who have your back.
im happy to hear you are free from opiate enslavement.
