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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

sobriety and depression whats the answer , aa ???

Time heals all wounds.

There's no easy way to deal with it, but an enjoyable and distracting hobby is an excellent start. As is exercise, as others have stated. Muscle building / fat burning will get those dopamine receptors doing their job again, and get you feeling better.

Best of luck!
 
I'm looking at Jake's Posts with Volumes of experience wanting to help/say the right thing. My own Experience, life experience makes it so the higher power thing was NEVER an issue. No need to convince another and a whole lot of experience with the addiction and suboxone/methadone. Yeagh I agree though the mood of this area isn't what I expected nor why I came to blulight. A Pleasant surprise
 
Jake thank you for reminding me to call my sponsor. I can not count how many I have had before my present one. I just did 1 MG. of sub maybe have half that left then I am out. I have put enough energy into those rooms that I have some tools to deal with the depression that comes with withdrawl. First thing my sponsor told me was that recovery is all about 2 states of being we are ei9ther restless irritable and discontent or we are Happy Joyous and Free. All the "work" is about increasing the Happy Joyous and Free part. Relax take it easy and don't struggle. From experience let me say that a small amount of suboxone is infinitely better than none. I remember the hopeless days before it's availability. There is a fellowship within the fellowship. There is also the opposite what I have heard accurately described as the "outriders of death" If just hypothetically speaking there is a Higher Power, Do you think it matters whether or not you believe? What is oh so helpful to me is to look around at recovered alcoholics and realize that if they can stop drinking, lose the desire to drink, and find happiness when Alcohol is legal everywhere almost expected to be used, Maybe I can recover from my Opiate challenge. You can as well. You can be happy once again.
 
All I can say is that YOU have to want it, not mom or dad or your girlfriend or wife etc. I've been through recovery so many times for someone else and it never lasts, in fact I think it makes it worse. But i've had a few friends who have stopped drinking even though we're all drinking in front of em, and I've had a lot of friends who have died from drinking and a lot who are dieing right now because of it, mostly it's the combination of heavy drinking ad Hep-C but I have a friend who is 26 with liver cancer and he can't get another one so he is going to die, and another friend (30) who has had pancreatitis 9 times in 18 months and they keep telling him he's going to die if he doesn' stop drinking. I don't know man I can't do the AA/NA shit for two reasons, one I don't want to hear war stories, all that makes me want to do is get fucked up after and 2 if my life was as miserable as most of the people in those meetings... well why not be all fucked up jesus.
But think of yoru friends and family who miss you because of your problem and the ones who will miss you if you die, that might help some just the idea that there are people who care, even if they don't seem to now. I've lost a lot of friends this last year from alcohol, and they probably never thought about it but I miss them a lot.
 
Let me share some of my experience with AA.

I have found the members of AA to be some of the most depressing people on earth. I think you need to do whatever works for you. Staying sober will make you happier, but only if you work at it. You need to give it time and talk with people who are important to you. People in AA are generally not happy. Surrounding yourself with these people may not be the best thing for you, I know it wasn't for me.
 
I agree, but the way I looked at it was like this. I will get sober just so I never have to see any of these people again.

It's like they've given up drinking but they go to a place and talk about it everyday. Those meetings are messed up if your not even a real drinker and into drugs.

You need to surround your self with positive people. Stay clean however you can. At least for long enough to clear your head out. Deep down inside i'm sure you know things are not the way there supposed to be. Then it seems like the only way to fix it is to go and get high. But that's not how you fix it. You fix it by fighting everyday to keep your sobriety so you can feel good again without drugs.

Look at it as a challenge. Aim for 1 month, then aim for 2, then 3 and so on.
 
chitown rollin said:
Let me share some of my experience with AA.

I have found the members of AA to be some of the most depressing people on earth.
Click to expand...

OP: I have found them, for eight years, to be some of the most intrinsically happy, exceptional and intelligent people I have ever co-mingled with. Honestly, as with any public social gathering, there are going to be better groups than others. But there are so many that there isn't even the slightest hint of an accuse not to be able to find one with people that can absolutely empathize with you and make suggestions that just may well have been responsible for driving your life and thinking around. It's incredibly hard to be willing and to grasp the notion at first. Believe me, I know this. But it doesn't take long to recognize the rewards man. In the past three months (since November 5th 2011) I've risen from 23 pounds underweight to a nice 164 (6'3" so still thin but not... well, that's something else), begun to learn to love myself and accept that many difficult challenges lie ahead, knowing all the while that I'm capable of achieving my goals if I remain clean, found great employment despite dismal prospects... I could go on, but bottom line I am proud of you for sticking with this. One of the toughest things in the world. Lots of people, unfortunately, have to white-knuckle it through the first weeks, but it *will* become easier. Your psyche has to detoxify before one truly begins to realize that completely.

Keep on keepin' on. You're not alone.

Much love,
~ vaya
 
I know how you feel man, I have 61 days sober today. It does get better, life still sucks sometimes, or alot of the time, but its still better than when I was using and drinking everyday. I have been using for 10 years, and have been to rehab/aa before but couldnt stay sober. I never liked aa because I have really bad social anxiety and panic attacks. Recently I detoxed myself again then checked into rehab, but it wasnt a clinical treatment, it was aa based and focused on alcholism being a symptom of a spiritual problem. that helped alot. I think what it comes down to is peoples interpretation of the big book and aa. I'm not going to go on singing the praises of aa as thats not my intention. but for me, realising the drinking is just a symptom of my illness was a huge help. take away drugs and alcohol and im still sick, its a problem with my thinking. the alcoholic mind.I would deffinately recomend reading the aa big book ( with another recovering alcoholic) . I'm still depressed and anxious most the time and life happens but being sober I can think clearly and address the problem and I have faith that it will get better with time and for me going to a meeting every day even though I dont want to. ( just going to meetings doesnt keep me sober though). the main thing that keeps me going is I can help other addicts/alcoholics just as they have helped me and thats deffinately a good thing. If you ever want to chat about anything pm me man. I cant believe im even writing this as i hated aa, i hated the people and meetings, but being with other recovering addicts and alcohlics is really cool as we can help each other.
 
I should add that I moved in with some guys I met through rehab/meetings and I am enjoying life alot more now, the first 3 weeks I was sober I was extremely depressed and having suicidal thoughts all the time. but as time goes on, it really has got better. I can go to bars/go raving and not want to drink. I enjoy music (house/techno/progressive trance) so much more now, from a production point of view and even have more money to spend on music equiptment and production instead of on benzos/opiates/alcohol. Soon I will be ready to start looking for a new job. all of this because im going through this with other people who have the same problem and we help each other, i think that being with people who have experienced the same things and you can relate to them. exercise also helps me alot but its difficult when im feeling shit. peace
 
Vaya said:
OP: I have found them, for eight years, to be some of the most intrinsically happy, exceptional and intelligent people I have ever co-mingled with. Honestly, as with any public social gathering, there are going to be better groups than others. But there are so many that there isn't even the slightest hint of an accuse not to be able to find one with people that can absolutely empathize with you and make suggestions that just may well have been responsible for driving your life and thinking around. It's incredibly hard to be willing and to grasp the notion at first. Believe me, I know this. But it doesn't take long to recognize the rewards man. In the past three months (since November 5th 2011) I've risen from 23 pounds underweight to a nice 164 (6'3" so still thin but not... well, that's something else), begun to learn to love myself and accept that many difficult challenges lie ahead, knowing all the while that I'm capable of achieving my goals if I remain clean, found great employment despite dismal prospects... I could go on, but bottom line I am proud of you for sticking with this. One of the toughest things in the world. Lots of people, unfortunately, have to white-knuckle it through the first weeks, but it *will* become easier. Your psyche has to detoxify before one truly begins to realize that completely.

Keep on keepin' on. You're not alone.

Much love,
~ vaya
Click to expand...

^this
 
Another great thing to remember - It likely didn't take nine days, or two months, or even just one year, for you to have found yourself in a position of struggling with chemical dependency and those psychiatric issues that inevitably tag along with it. I recall, the first time I got sober (2006-2008 ) I became so easily fed up with myself, my perceived lack of progress, my unwillingness to live sober and be happy with what I had. It was miserable!

It did a number on me to take a step back and consider that, at that point, my disease had been evolving for like six years, and here I was thinking that if I invested a month of not using drugs, that I'd be able to leap up and enjoy the world as it was meant to be perceived. This was really ill-thinking, and it landed me back into a devastatingly twisted three-year relapse. Just like the growth of dependency, deconstructing it will take an equal or perhaps even greater amount of your time. Don't beat yourself up! I've found that people who struggle with chemical dependency issues, such as myself, are egomaniacs with inferiority complexes, meaning that I hate to think about myself, but I'm all I think about! Today, it's all about minimizing the range I allow myself to travel along either side of this continuum of thought. Remember, if you want to emerge from this for real, you've got to stop and praise yourself for the things you've done correctly - and these are numerous so far, from what I can tell - instead of just beating yourself to death over the smallest incorrect things.

Remember to tell yourself that you deserve to be free of this pain. We all deserve this, and you are no exception to that rule.

~ vaya
 
jake99 said:
today is like day 12 i think . im in this program which is real expensive and they give you all your meds every day . (outpatient) i wanna get out of it but im on suboxone and would have to get it from another dr. and there are barely any in the area im lilving in. my last relapse i totaled a 08 car and my family has cut me off . i have a little money in bank to live on but no job . i go to AA every day but i get so sick of it and the same stuff over and over I dont believe in a higher power and my depression is making it hard for me to do much
Click to expand...

Alcoholics/junkies don't like being told what to do! Are any of the meds for your depression or are you just on sub?
 
yeah im on depression meds too. im still clean but having troublle with girl problems......................they get me real twisted in my head
 
jake99 said:
...but having troublle with girl problems......................they get me real twisted in my head
Click to expand...

....no shit ;) ;)

More seriously, though, I'd suggest maybe sticking to working on yourself during these troubled times. I've found that I am unable to manage another's emotional universe when mine is actively imploding.

That's an admittedly difficult decision to make, though, since relationships are another outlet that sometimes afford us the ability to be "out" of ourselves; if you're struggling psychologically, this can be a very positive experience. It can also powerfully detract from the healing experience. Just something to think about.

~ vaya
 
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