How did YOU quit heroin?

[laughingdead]

I managed to cut down significantly on my usage after being in a horrible rehab for 45 days. I have dreams of traveling the world, starting my own business making functional art of of recycled material, going to grad school, and publishing my writing among other things. These goals are what keep me going whilst living in a slightly abusive home. I'd much rather do all these things than use dope. And yet once a week I find myself skipping my suboxone dose and buying dope. Usually after experiencing a situation that causes me high anxiety or sadness. I'm proud of myself for cutting down although no one else sees it that way. For them its all or nothing. I am hoping to.get off the sub's soon as I don't want another addiction. I'm trying to incorporate exercise, work, volunteer work, school, and art back into my life. All of these things suffered during my dope habit. I feel that exercise will play a huge part in my getting off the shit and make me feel confident.

Muay Thai used to be my addiction and I started to love myself and my body. I'm a female by the way. If I could learn to balance my hobbies with responsibility I could learn to love myself and that could be my way out.

So for all you exheroin addicts out there... How'd you quit? Why? What helped the most? Tell me did you figure out why you used and go from there?

BTW... I still plan on experimenting with different plants used by different cultures and drinking wine at parties and tasting. I just can't do opiates. They've hurt my mind body and soul.

 

[totach]

How'd I quit- pretty much cold turkey cuz my few days in detox did not put a dent in my opiate/Benzo withdrawl
I couldn't take active addiction anymore it was killing me I've felt like that many times before but this time it's bin 5 months and I hope to never look back and at the same time never forget where I came from
What helped me the most- I would have to say loosing everything was what made me wake up. When I say everything I mean everything. I thought many times in life when I lost my girl my money and apartment I lost it all but I still had friends and family. This time I lost them also and I was in such a dark place in life with no one to help or even talk to me. That is when I decided enough was enough that was a little over 5 months ago.
I do still have a drink or smoke some pot socially but I'm cool with that and do not want to do the whole abstinence thing.
All the best

 

[Phase0)))]

How did I quit?

Well at first went to jail a couple of months, the first month withdrawing from heroin and methadone. Then got released to a rehab, got kicked out after like 6 days.

Asked drug court to send me to a program in another town. Went to different program, 120 people there, all court ordered, 2/3 of people were on parole and had done multiple prison sentences (I learned how to make a shank out of a bar of soap, and how to fish things on a line from jail cell to jail cell).
Did my 3 months there, moved into a sober living home. Started going to AA meetings, got a service commitment, got a sponsor and started working the steps. (my higher power are Heathen Pagan Gods of the North, no Christianity for me).

Because of this intense program, I was able to celebrate 1 year clean on June 26th. Good luck brother!

 

[Crankinit]

I pretty much did it the way you are, honestly :/ I got onto subs, spent the first year swapping from subs to H and back every week or two, but eventually I got more and more sick of spending a day in withdrawal before and after each weekend, and the time on the subs allowed me to develop interests in and become invested in more healthy activities, and after a particularly bad w/d after a longer break than usual, I decided getting high just wasn't worth it anymore. After that I'd get high once every 6 months or so because I'd forget how shitty the withdrawals were, but after 3 times I guess it stuck, and now I've gone 18 months without taking any opiates and have nearly halved my sub dose (down to 14mg from 24mg).

For them its all or nothing. I am hoping to.get off the sub's soon as I don't want another addiction.

Whoever "they" are, fuck em. If you're healthier and happier using weekly and taking subs the rest of the time, then stick with that, at least for now. You might find like I did that eventually the appeal of H pales compared to the stability of subs. If you don't, worry about getting off the subs then. While you don't want to be dependent (not addicted, which I think is an important distinction) on subs for the rest of your life, stopping the treatment simply because people are imposing their own notion of "sobriety" on you isn't a good idea. Do what feels best for you - though I think it's worth pointing out that if you're using H even on subs, it's quite likely that you'll go straight back to your H habit if you got off them.

 

[laughingdead]

How did I quit?

Well at first went to jail a couple of months, the first month withdrawing from heroin and methadone. Then got released to a rehab, got kicked out after like 6 days.

Asked drug court to send me to a program in another town. Went to different program, 120 people there, all court ordered, 2/3 of people were on parole and had done multiple prison sentences (I learned how to make a shank out of a bar of soap, and how to fish things on a line from jail cell to jail cell).
Did my 3 months there, moved into a sober living home. Started going to AA meetings, got a service commitment, got a sponsor and started working the steps. (my higher power are Heathen Pagan Gods of the North, no Christianity for me).

Because of this intense program, I was able to celebrate 1 year clean on June 26th. Good luck brother!

So without jail would you still be on opiates today? Congrats on your year. I'm glad to hear NA helped someone. I just hope that you realize that you are responsible for your recovery and YOU are the awesome person who made it happen.

 

[laughingdead]

I pretty much did it the way you are, honestly :/ I got onto subs, spent the first year swapping from subs to H and back every week or two, but eventually I got more and more sick of spending a day in withdrawal before and after each weekend, and the time on the subs allowed me to develop interests in and become invested in more healthy activities, and after a particularly bad w/d after a longer break than usual, I decided getting high just wasn't worth it anymore. After that I'd get high once every 6 months or so because I'd forget how shitty the withdrawals were, but after 3 times I guess it stuck, and now I've gone 18 months without taking any opiates and have nearly halved my sub dose (down to 14mg from 24mg).



Whoever "they" are, fuck em. If you're healthier and happier using weekly and taking subs the rest of the time, then stick with that, at least for now. You might find like I did that eventually the appeal of H pales compared to the stability of subs. If you don't, worry about getting off the subs then. While you don't want to be dependent (not addicted, which I think is an important distinction) on subs for the rest of your life, stopping the treatment simply because people are imposing their own notion of "sobriety" on you isn't a good idea. Do what feels best for you - though I think it's worth pointing out that if you're using H even on subs, it's quite likely that you'll go straight back to your H habit if you got off them.

I definitely agree that after a while the high is no longer worth the trouble or the money. I'm just starting to make money and seeing it spent on drugs depresses me. I can't wait to have a significant period of time clean from opiates.

I now wonder what I liked so much about heroin. So what are your new interests and how much of a role do they play in your sobriety? Did you have any support from friends or family when you felt like you wanted to use?

 

[Crankinit]

I definitely agree that after a while the high is no longer worth the trouble or the money. I'm just starting to make money and seeing it spent on drugs depresses me. I can't wait to have a significant period of time clean from opiates.

Yeah the money thing is tricky. It's great having money to actually spend on stuff, but personally I've found that an adult life dominated by drug use has kinda warped my perspective on finances - I'm still learning how to budget properly, I waste it on stupid shit because I'm used to dropping large amounts of my income on drugs, stuff like that. But yeah, it was depressing to see it go to waste when I did get high, which was another motivating factor.

I now wonder what I liked so much about heroin.

Yeah I wonder the same thing sometimes. Sometimes I find myself sitting there trying to remember what it actually felt like to get high, other times I catch a whiff of something that smells like crushed oxys and I can almost feel my brain light up. I'm also pretty sure if I wasn't on subs and someone walked into the room and offered me a bag of H or a few oxys or w/e, I'd accept on pure reflex. I don't want to get high on a conscious level, but that instinct becomes pretty deeply ingrained.

So what are your new interests and how much of a role do they play in your sobriety?

Mostly martial arts and meditation. It's funny because I took them each up to help with the problems drugs caused (meditation to help with the anxiety leftover from meth use, martial arts to lose the weight I put on while on opiates), but I became fascinated by them in their own right and maintaining my training schedule has become a huge motivator to stay sober. I'd like to go back to Uni and take up writing again as well, but I want to get back into a good place physically/mentally before trying to study again, and I always did my best writing while high (or maybe just felt the most motivated the write while high), so I'm not sure how to approach that yet. The great thing about the martial arts and meditation is that they're activities I only took up after getting (mostly) sober, so there's no association between them and the drug use in my mind. Gets me into a different mindset, around a different crowd, although it takes a bit of adjusting and it gets awkward hanging around "normal" people who've got degrees, jobs, families and so on when they ask me about my life.

Did you have any support from friends or family when you felt like you wanted to use?

It wasn't really an issue - my friends at the time were all drug users as well, so they didn't give me a hard time. My family have almost always ignored my drug use, so it didn't come up.