121 days sober today from opiates... question?

[pokepoke420]

Hi there-

You guys have probably seen me posting on other forums throughout Bluelight, but this is the first time I ventured over here. I had a quick question regarding how I feel. Ok, so I can't say I am 100% officially sober. In the past 121 days I have consumed MDMA once, and drank twice. I never had a problem with either of those substances, and I feel occasionally if I want to "take a load off" it shouldn't be a problem.

I am extremely active, I work out 5 days a week, I eat healthy, and over-all I am in great physical shape. I just try to keep my mind occupied over all. I am a writer so my mind tends to wander and venture a lot. I have a great writing job for the NBA, a loving drop dead gorgeous (out of my league) girlfriend, and I feel like all this great karma is a result of my commitment to remain sober.

My question is, even with all this, I still get bouts of "boredom." I am just so bored with my life sometimes, even with everything going on. Is this just a symptom of sobriety? What I want to know is, does this ever go away? The first 3 months I was just so "high" on being sober and how strong I was to get through this alive. Now the reality is sinking in that I am actually sober and I am having sort of a difficult time. I guess the "honeymoon" phase, if you will, has worn off. If anyone could give me some advice how to deal with this, or if what I am experiencing is normal? I never went to a rehab, nor have I ever been to meetings. I stopped cold turkey on my own. Any advice or answers would be fantastic. Thank you for your time.

 

[neversickanymore]

Hey congratulations on the good work. I think that what you are experiencing is normal but I doubt it has anything to do with PAWS. When someone cleans up they need to fill the whole that is left in there life from the removal of the drugs. You may want to examine what role the drug use filled in your life? I mean what did you get from your drug use other than being high. Allot of people get things other than the high from drugs.. a sense of rebellion, a sense of identity, a feeling of belonging associated with the drug lifestyle, the excitement of doing and getting away with something illegal or subversive.

I would look at what you are saying you are missing with out the drug, excitement rite, life seems boring now... well since you have a good job or even if you didn't, you are in luck but especially because you have some money, because you are easily able to add all the excitement you want to your life and don't have to fall back to using opiats or taking up any other drugs to do it.. Here is a list of things that you can try...

Buy a motercycle
take up sking, get good, jump off cliffs
race car driver camp
buy a dirt bike
learn to whitewater kiyak or raft
take up mountain climbing
hang gliding
parachuting or skydiving
travel, there is a whole planet full of insane things to see and experience,
start to hit good live music whenever you can
learn to cook really good
write a novel about a super hero blind stockbroker with an affinity for restored ugos and strawberry blonds with freckles and German food.
restore a car
become a body builder
read some of the worlds greatest books
take a class on elephant training or something else perhaps
get a big fish tank and fill it with all sorts of differnt agressive fish from the amazone and watch what happens
go to burning man
take little two day vacations and fly with your lady to other cities
take a dance class
paint
draw
sculpt
cure a major illness
learn how to give a good massage
volunteer
fix the spelling rules of the English language
fix the american legislature
help clean up the environment
be a big brother
spend 5 minutes a day doing a random act of kindness
clean under your fridge
rotate your tires
learn to be a better partner
be a better friend
help someone in your family out with something
try and make someones day everyday
figure out a solution to urban traffic
see a Broadway play, then see another one if you say you already have
go to a museum
go to a hoarse race
take a train somewhere, but bring your own food because there's is terrible
go to every baseball park in the country and catch a game
write a screen play
help someone on Blue Light
get on a tv game show
write your congressman, depending on which one, you may need to use glow in the dark ink, so he can read it where his head may be at presently
make a candle lite dinner for your lady
take up an instrument
buy a good record player and collect vinyl
get your pilots license
go antiquing..

Alright that's enough for the first day, when it comes time to think of things to do on day two, your on your own.

Your life is how you make and percieve it.. If your boared then make some excitement.. Keep up the sobriety and let me know how that day goes:D.

 

[pokepoke420]

Thank you for the lengthy, and detailed response. I truly appreciate the hospitality and am glad to be a member of Bluelight.

I will definitely take some of these options into consideration .

I just wanted to add; while sometimes I may be bored, I have my heart set on remaining sober. Nothing will get in my way !

 

[neversickanymore]

^^ think about looking into different meditations, they get you very high but have no side effects like chemical drugs.. mantra meditation is the one I enjoy.. check it out I'm not kidding..

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926641001001069

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11958969

http://www.personalpowermeditation.com/forum/general/the-dopamine-release-valve/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/197615-how-do-i-increase-dopamine-in-the-brain/

 

[Lady Codone]

Boredom is my least favorite emotion. Been feeling it a lot lately too. Strange as it sounds, my boredom/apathy correlate strongly w/ the pollen counts in my area. On bad days, nothing feels fun or exciting...I get cabin fever but don't want to go anywhere. Many things can cause those unpleasant feelings though; I'm sure PAWS could contribute as well.

Your strategy of staying busy and creating a well-rounded life is the best thing you can do. Meditation can help you learn to observe your thoughts without attaching feelings to them. Maybe something like that could help? Hobbies are great, but learning to accept negative feelings is vital for staying clean and happiness in general.

After quitting pods, I felt like shit emotionally for over 3 months. Slowly but surely it goes away and you return to your true "baseline" mental state. It can take a really, really long time depending on the extent of your habit though.

Congrats on 121 days!

 

[neversickanymore]

A very important thing to remember when you are getting past the initial phase of recovery is that we have done a great deal of damage to our brains.. with time they heal, but there are an amazing amount of things you can do to both greatly speed up this process as well as make the time during the process much more enjoyable.. I believe it is benificial to think of the mind as a muscle, it order keep it you must use it, in order to repair it you must rehabilitate it, the more you use it the stronger it gets. Also it is important to look at how the brain works and the damage we are trying to fix.. If you do this a really good conclusion may be that we are interested in developing and forming new nuero pathways. You see in drug abuse we have over developed certian neuro pathways associated with drug use and underdeveloped or sacrificed pathways associated with other important life activities. In order to regenerate new pathways we must create a need for them, in order to strenghthen these new pathways we must use them, and in order to heal pathways associated with drug use we must divert those pathways to different results.. buy diverting those pathways, that have lead to drug use, and have them lead to somewhere else an important weapon in that addiction uses to try and get us to use is lost or its power greatly diminished. So one thing you can do is make a conscious effort to constantly create new pathways and develop them buy taking up, pursuing, and developing new interests and activities. I also believe that brain regeneration will be linked to learning, studying, and meditation. You can also work on it in such easy ways as constantly altering your daily habits.. drive to work a different way each day, vary the way you usually travel from A to B.. this will provide a two fold benefit as you will develop the new pathways as well as practice impulse control every time you vary your habit from the norm. A busy brain is rarely bored..

http://www.restoreunity.org/brain_regeneration_in_heroin_addiction.htm
http://biology.about.com/od/Brain/p/Regeneration-Of-Brain-Cells.htm
http://www.whatisneuroplasticity.com/pathways.php

showes the activity leavel in different brains.

Results on the reward center.. dopamine.. in the brains of addicts.. opiates will cause the same thing.

Hope this helps people out

NbOakjITISkjhgfOPaAsEVAHUOkjhlkjhiuygYODREIkghRRACADEnhjmbhjENI <--

 

[mrflowers00]

boredom is just a part of life everyone gets bored just find something interesting/fun to do

 

[jango1]

Please try to find an AA meeting that you enjoy. It takes going to
many to find one that works for you. Another thought is Suboxone
it is good for relieving cravings.