PsychedelicWizard
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2014
- Messages
- 243
1. Make sure you are serious about quitting.
Admitting you have a problem is not the first step to recovery, the first step to recovery is asking what you want to do with your life, and in truth, you can do as you desire. Many people feel pressured to stop using certain substances by loved ones, friends, colleagues, enemies, even random strangers off the street. Whether it is a legal reason, a financial reason, a physical or mental health reason, or a spiritual/philosophical reason of some kind, many people are against using substances recreationally, even some against using them medicinally or spiritually.
If your main or only reason to quit using a substance is because someone else wants you to, then continue to use it, as you will not be successful. Anyone who lives their lives in the way other people think they should, invariably become depressed and live horribly negative lives full of cynicism and resentment. Indeed, the real root cause of all evil in the world is from people taking their suffering out on others, thus, many who claim to want to help you, in fact want you to be miserable like them, because they are too afraid to pursue their own happiness, so they get a rush out of denying other people happiness.
You probably do not have a drug addiction, a mental illness, or anything wrong with you. If someone thinks so, what they are really telling you is their life has problems and they need help, but they are too afraid to ask, so they project it onto you. Remember this if you quit for someone else, as even if you succeed, they will soon find some flaw in you that they will claim to want you to fix, when in reality, again, they actually need your help but are afraid to ask.
Getting that out of the way, if you personally want to quit, have good reasons that only concern you. Quitting because you are getting sick from a drug, cannot afford it anymore, it is causing you to neglect other aspects of your life you wish to focus on, or because you simply want to try a new substance, these are all legitimate reasons for quitting. Notice none of them concern other people, because again, what you put in your own body is your business and nobody else has a right to comment on it.
Now write all the reasons you want to quit down, then, write the reasons you do not want to quit down and spend a few minutes, maybe an hour, comparing and really reflecting on what you write down. Do you still wish to quit, realizing all you are giving up? Does it seem that quitting will make you much happier and better off? If you reflect properly this should tell you whether you are serious or not. Here you have to be honest, and most people aren't, which is why rehab usually fails.
Someone who says they want to quit will just have been pressured into quitting by someone else and they will be a in a good mood and want to please -OR- they will have just had a horribly bad drug-related experience which caused an immediate gut-reaction without critical thought, either way, these statements are not sincere and will fail. The truth is drugs do both good and bad things for us. We do NOT live in a black-and-white world where drug use is always wrong or always right, it is always right in some ways, always wrong in others, that is the truth most users and non-users cannot accept.
You won't be happier or sadder if you quit or do not quit, you will just experience a different reality. Again, what reality you chose to experience is your life purpose, your destiny, your free will. So make the choice, and remember, you can always change your mind later, and you can always try a new thing to replace the old one.
2. Taper, do not stop cold turkey.
It seems popular to try to "cold turkey" the use of a substance by simply stopping in some heroic ego-driven bravado manner. The truth is, there is no good reason outside of ego to ever quit using something you are seriously dependent on all at once and expect to succeed. If you do, you will go through pointless hardships to gain a bragging right that only those based in their egos will appreciate, the very people who are not happy by this definition.
The only time to cold turkey anything is if what you are doing is an immediate emergency, such as you have severe liver failure and thus need to stop heroin immediately, beyond this, or some situation you are cast unto a desert island or some third world battlefield, it is always a better plan to slowly change your habits, then expect and suffer to make a huge change stick overnight, that is not how our brains learn new behaviors.
The best way then is to taper slowly. Calculate your usage (again, you have to be honest), then do slightly less than that from now on. After a period of time passes that is reasonable (the slow tortoise wins this race, you are talking about repairing your brain and body, which time is the most important healer), then you reduce the amount you use, and you keep this process up till you are at an amount so minute that you can safely stop using.
Aside from just slowly reducing the amount you do overtime, the other major thing you can do (depending on your Drug-of-Choice, of course), is to not only reduce dosages, but either/or (again, do not go too crazy or you will relapse) increase the time interval that passes between using. Like if you are trying to break a cocaine addiction and regularly snort about a line every four hours, try waiting for six hours. As you can see, just by making small adjustments like this you can eventually break an addiction without a hellish withdrawal period.
If you do it in small enough increments, you actually will barely notice you are even using less, and by the time you are down to a small enough amount to just stop, you will have adapted so much that you will be shocked where you began, much like the frog who dies from being tossed directly into boiling water, but if put in a pot and slowly heated, survives the boiling by slow adaptation, that is how we truly learn.
3. Use medications acutely to treat symptoms of withdrawal, do not replace one addiction with another.
For heroin users you have methadone, for meth users you have dexedrine, for cannabis users you have cannabinoids, for tobacco users you have nicorette gum, and the list goes on. These things can really make the journey a smoother transition for you. If you follow all this information, you can safely become no longer dependant on pretty much any substance, but remember, the more you used, the longer you used, the longer and harder it will take, the less you used the shorter you used, the easier, so remember that as inspiration if you are putting off quitting, the more you procrastinate the harder it will be.
While some of the substitutes I listed are obviously questionable, the point is that if you have a serious addiction, it makes it a lot easier if you find a similar substance that is less potent and slowly wean off unto that, as it would be a lesser problem to deal with, trading a more serious for a less serious addiction is an option, but do not for example try to wean off heroin with meth or coke with PCP, it just doesn't work (obvious, but many forget this and while in withdrawal take other things to ease their pain, it works, but they soon just change addictions).
What does work is using medications to treat specific symptoms of withdrawal. Benadryl can help with opioid sickness, benzos can help with anxiety and restlessness from meth withdrawals, there are even more specific ones like Naltrexone for alcohol addicts, but instead of just trading one drug addiction for another, a better path if you followed the previous point's advice and slowly tapered (thus mitigating much of the withdrawal already), is to spot treat symptoms as though you weren't a drug user at all. People in withdrawal tend to blame EVERYTHING wrong with their health or life on the withdrawal, which usually is not the case.
If you are feeling depressed one day, eat some chocolate, get sunlight, consider anti-depressants if it is a chronic problem, anxious from withdrawal then spot treat it with kava or benzos as needed, if your nose is damaged or throat is sore, get some lozenges and a first aid anti-biotic for the nose to heal the injured parts.
The truth is many things are attributed to drug withdrawal, when in reality they are something else, but when they are specific to it, and it is chronic, then a treatment plan for the longer term is advised, but if one is just having a single bad day, don't go get on antidepressants when you will be over it in the morning. Again, treat each day one at a time, and address each symptom as though they are independent of each other.
4. Realize the importance of diet, exercise, sunlight, sleep, and cognitive behavioral therapy.
It should come as no surprise that most drug addicts who want to quit using a substance have poor nutrition, either from a lack of money to buy proper food, cravings for the wrong kind of food, or simply the drug itself taxing the body and brain, the best way to really repair the body is feeding it well. Getting adequate water (make sure you have some sodium if you are drinking a lot at a time), protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, potassium, sodium, and all the different micro-nutrients is very key.
Drugs often cause deficiencies in certain areas, so refueling the body with an assortment of macro and micro nutrients will make you recover much faster than just eating whatever you can find, in some cases, just by improving the diet you can prevent various withdrawal symptoms. The hard part is eating food you might not crave, eating less if you are eating too much, or more when you have no appetite, so be realistic and try to eat foods you enjoy, just take some conscious effort to get the nutrients you need, but do not take some ridiculous health diet when going withdrawal, because unless you have the iron will of Superman, doing that will make you crave the drug a lot more, food here can be a comfort to get you through it, you can always get healthier later, so don't underestimate eating junk food as part of psychological recovery.
Exercise is also super beneficial and will make the process MUCH easier. Just do some simple cardiovascular exercise like walking everyday a few blocks or going to a pool and swimming. Once you can do that more and more, try some strength training in the form of lifting weights or calisthenics. Building muscle mass, reducing body fat, getting your heart and lunges working from exercise instead of drug use, and the endorphins released, the cortisol dropped, the overall health benefit here is massive. But again, don't take some hellish program when in withdrawal, get discouraged and relapse, just do small steps and work your way to a regular fitness program.
Sunlight and fresh air are crucial things people overlook. One of the best things a recovering addict can do is leave civilization and go out into nature and hike around or even camp for awhile. This gets you away from negative drug-advocating influences, allows you to not worry about offending anyone when you are in an agitated dope-sick state, plus the fresher oxygen from trees and especially bright Vitamin D from the UV and UW rays of the sunlight help you more than you can realize. Think about it, if you are quitting something that taxed your lunges like smoking meth or heroin, think how much faster they can repair in an area with higher rates of oxygen and lesser rates of carbon monoxide and other pollutants? Vitamin D is huge for example in overcoming MDMA depression, as it directly energizes your entire being on a cellular level, something no drug can even come close to doing.
Of course I'm not saying the sun will get you high, but rather, laying in the warm sun for half an hour a day (use sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, of course), can do wonders in healing your body and brain, just look how plants and solar panels can derive such power from it, think what it might do for your body? Finally you have sleep. Getting say 12 hours a night isn't a bad thing if you are used to getting 3 every few days. After you reset your circadian rhythm and your body gets used to not havings its internal clock constantly changed, you should aim for a consistent schedule, eight hours a night is good, but do whatever is realistic for your life, again, sleeping at night is better because it keeps you away from nightly temptation, but also the vitamin D is a big asset here.
The final tool you have in your fix-my-body-and-brain-toolbox is cognitive behavior therapy. Whether you chose to meditate, do hypnosis, do exposure-response prevention, cognitive behavior therapy, or some other neuro-scientific, philosophical, or spiritual aid, re-training your behavior is as important as physically healing the body and mind with the other methods and time. If you do not change your behavior, you will never beat an addiction, because 99% of the addiction is psychological. Even the case of the worst heroin addicts, they can relatively easily (in comparison, of course) quit using over-time, but never relapsing, never going back to the needle is much harder than it seems. Just getting cleans for months or years can be completely taken away in one emotional night. Maybe the wife is cheating on you, maybe you lose your job, maybe a loved one dies, then what? A relapse. Even if you get fully clean and fully heal the body, brain, (and if you believe) spirit, and soul, if you don't fix your psyche, don't change your behavior and worldview, you will never, ever beat the addiction.
But with the right mental tools (research them, there are tonnes of ways), and constantly every day, every hour, even every minute, consciously correcting negative thoughts with positive ones, analyzing and improve your behavior, you can change anybody to become anything, if they are truly willing. Indeed, no matter the horror stories about benzo withdrawal or whatever time period it takes to heal neurotransmitters, nothing compares to the battle against the psyche, the battle against the self, because all it takes is one bad day, one bad event, to trigger memories of drug-induced bliss, which is why if one really wants to quit something for good, they need to really make a concious effort for the rest of their lives, but there is hope! After the physical withdrawal ends (if there is any), after the brain and body heal themselves completely, it then becomes quite an easy task to keep the psyche motivate to a happier life, as all one needs to do is instead of associating good times with the thing they are trying to stop, remember the pain it caused, and remember the good things you gave it up to accomplish, and if tempted by relapse, remember what you give away if you go down that path.
But if you do relapse (and most will), it isn't the end of the world, and if you just keep relapsing, maybe reflect again and realize you just like a certain drug or drugs, then you just need to accept yourself, and stop being afraid and guilty about it and starting loving to get high. If that makes you happy in life, then do it! It is when it no longer makes you happy you quit, but if you are really fighting to quit because you think it will be better, but all your intuition tells you not to quit, then don't! You get one life to live, have fun and enjoy, drug free or constantly high!
5. Utilize a social network of support, it is crucial to get family, friends, and/or community volunteers & mental health workers involved.
I wasn't sure about this point, because if you are really connected with a bunch of anti-drug using types, then you really need to reflect and make sure they are not why you are quitting. If you quit for others, it will never work, remember point 1, but if you are quitting because the drug(s) take up more of your life then those loved ones or a beloved community, then that is a fair reason to quit. Not having money to go on a trip with your family because you spent it on down is a reason to quit, as it isn't just for others, but yourself as well. Missing out on your dream career because you cannot pass the piss test is another reason to stop, as is simply trying something new and seeing what it will do for you (you can always go back to it if you don't like sobriety).
Anyway if you are sincere and really are doing it for yourself primarily, then get loved ones involved. If they truly care about you, they will be very glad to support you, regardless of their opinion on your drug use. It doesn't matter if you are getting the help of other junkies, drug dealers, church leaders, parents, lovers, friends, cops, whoever, the point is the substance is making your life unhappy and you cannot beat it without the emotional support of those who care about you. Real friends and family will be right there to support you, and they won't rejoice at your decision to not use (as then they are just peddling their own shallow beliefs), but will instead rejoice you asked them to help you, that you want and need their love, that's what people really care about (and it doesn't matter if it is a drug addiction or depression, we are a social species, and valuing and communicating with each other makes a massive difference in someone's happiness and success rate of quitting).
Do not however "get rid of all my junkie friends and equipment", because what somebody puts in their body is not your business, and if you judge them by this, you are just a hypocrite because would you want judgement on you when you used to use? Instead, if you have friends who use, have them hold onto your drugs and paraphernalia. Don't go crazy and flushing everything and break your expensive pipes and the next day be suicidal because all your shit is gone and you are depressed, instead, either hide it somewhere or give a trusted friend it to use and/or keep safe incase you relapse. No point in relapsing and buying new gear multiple times as many people do, that will just make it harder as it stresses your financial situation even more.
Anyway do researching, see a doctor and/or psychiatrist and get a physical done, get sound medical advice and make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with you that you may have neglected, then construct a recovery plan. Don't just see one, get a second opinion, mention the drug use to one, but not to the other, see if they treat you differently, visit spiritual or philosophical leaders of some kind, draw help from unusual sources, even drug dealers or junkies can help you quit by encouraging you (strangely they often are the most encouraging, because basically all dealers are also junkies and all junkies know the pain of going up and down), the more people you consult, the better chance of being successful, as you will get tips and advice you never would have considered.
Finally, reward yourself if you do succeed at various milestones, this will help keep you motivated AND re-wire your neurochemistry with a new form of positive reward system (like have a cake for doing 20% less this week, go on a vacation for being 3 months clean, etc), keep the rewards going after you get clean to keep you on that path.
Hope this helps...
I will create a mental health guide sometime in the future that adds follow-up to this.
Admitting you have a problem is not the first step to recovery, the first step to recovery is asking what you want to do with your life, and in truth, you can do as you desire. Many people feel pressured to stop using certain substances by loved ones, friends, colleagues, enemies, even random strangers off the street. Whether it is a legal reason, a financial reason, a physical or mental health reason, or a spiritual/philosophical reason of some kind, many people are against using substances recreationally, even some against using them medicinally or spiritually.
If your main or only reason to quit using a substance is because someone else wants you to, then continue to use it, as you will not be successful. Anyone who lives their lives in the way other people think they should, invariably become depressed and live horribly negative lives full of cynicism and resentment. Indeed, the real root cause of all evil in the world is from people taking their suffering out on others, thus, many who claim to want to help you, in fact want you to be miserable like them, because they are too afraid to pursue their own happiness, so they get a rush out of denying other people happiness.
You probably do not have a drug addiction, a mental illness, or anything wrong with you. If someone thinks so, what they are really telling you is their life has problems and they need help, but they are too afraid to ask, so they project it onto you. Remember this if you quit for someone else, as even if you succeed, they will soon find some flaw in you that they will claim to want you to fix, when in reality, again, they actually need your help but are afraid to ask.
Getting that out of the way, if you personally want to quit, have good reasons that only concern you. Quitting because you are getting sick from a drug, cannot afford it anymore, it is causing you to neglect other aspects of your life you wish to focus on, or because you simply want to try a new substance, these are all legitimate reasons for quitting. Notice none of them concern other people, because again, what you put in your own body is your business and nobody else has a right to comment on it.
Now write all the reasons you want to quit down, then, write the reasons you do not want to quit down and spend a few minutes, maybe an hour, comparing and really reflecting on what you write down. Do you still wish to quit, realizing all you are giving up? Does it seem that quitting will make you much happier and better off? If you reflect properly this should tell you whether you are serious or not. Here you have to be honest, and most people aren't, which is why rehab usually fails.
Someone who says they want to quit will just have been pressured into quitting by someone else and they will be a in a good mood and want to please -OR- they will have just had a horribly bad drug-related experience which caused an immediate gut-reaction without critical thought, either way, these statements are not sincere and will fail. The truth is drugs do both good and bad things for us. We do NOT live in a black-and-white world where drug use is always wrong or always right, it is always right in some ways, always wrong in others, that is the truth most users and non-users cannot accept.
You won't be happier or sadder if you quit or do not quit, you will just experience a different reality. Again, what reality you chose to experience is your life purpose, your destiny, your free will. So make the choice, and remember, you can always change your mind later, and you can always try a new thing to replace the old one.
2. Taper, do not stop cold turkey.
It seems popular to try to "cold turkey" the use of a substance by simply stopping in some heroic ego-driven bravado manner. The truth is, there is no good reason outside of ego to ever quit using something you are seriously dependent on all at once and expect to succeed. If you do, you will go through pointless hardships to gain a bragging right that only those based in their egos will appreciate, the very people who are not happy by this definition.
The only time to cold turkey anything is if what you are doing is an immediate emergency, such as you have severe liver failure and thus need to stop heroin immediately, beyond this, or some situation you are cast unto a desert island or some third world battlefield, it is always a better plan to slowly change your habits, then expect and suffer to make a huge change stick overnight, that is not how our brains learn new behaviors.
The best way then is to taper slowly. Calculate your usage (again, you have to be honest), then do slightly less than that from now on. After a period of time passes that is reasonable (the slow tortoise wins this race, you are talking about repairing your brain and body, which time is the most important healer), then you reduce the amount you use, and you keep this process up till you are at an amount so minute that you can safely stop using.
Aside from just slowly reducing the amount you do overtime, the other major thing you can do (depending on your Drug-of-Choice, of course), is to not only reduce dosages, but either/or (again, do not go too crazy or you will relapse) increase the time interval that passes between using. Like if you are trying to break a cocaine addiction and regularly snort about a line every four hours, try waiting for six hours. As you can see, just by making small adjustments like this you can eventually break an addiction without a hellish withdrawal period.
If you do it in small enough increments, you actually will barely notice you are even using less, and by the time you are down to a small enough amount to just stop, you will have adapted so much that you will be shocked where you began, much like the frog who dies from being tossed directly into boiling water, but if put in a pot and slowly heated, survives the boiling by slow adaptation, that is how we truly learn.
3. Use medications acutely to treat symptoms of withdrawal, do not replace one addiction with another.
For heroin users you have methadone, for meth users you have dexedrine, for cannabis users you have cannabinoids, for tobacco users you have nicorette gum, and the list goes on. These things can really make the journey a smoother transition for you. If you follow all this information, you can safely become no longer dependant on pretty much any substance, but remember, the more you used, the longer you used, the longer and harder it will take, the less you used the shorter you used, the easier, so remember that as inspiration if you are putting off quitting, the more you procrastinate the harder it will be.
While some of the substitutes I listed are obviously questionable, the point is that if you have a serious addiction, it makes it a lot easier if you find a similar substance that is less potent and slowly wean off unto that, as it would be a lesser problem to deal with, trading a more serious for a less serious addiction is an option, but do not for example try to wean off heroin with meth or coke with PCP, it just doesn't work (obvious, but many forget this and while in withdrawal take other things to ease their pain, it works, but they soon just change addictions).
What does work is using medications to treat specific symptoms of withdrawal. Benadryl can help with opioid sickness, benzos can help with anxiety and restlessness from meth withdrawals, there are even more specific ones like Naltrexone for alcohol addicts, but instead of just trading one drug addiction for another, a better path if you followed the previous point's advice and slowly tapered (thus mitigating much of the withdrawal already), is to spot treat symptoms as though you weren't a drug user at all. People in withdrawal tend to blame EVERYTHING wrong with their health or life on the withdrawal, which usually is not the case.
If you are feeling depressed one day, eat some chocolate, get sunlight, consider anti-depressants if it is a chronic problem, anxious from withdrawal then spot treat it with kava or benzos as needed, if your nose is damaged or throat is sore, get some lozenges and a first aid anti-biotic for the nose to heal the injured parts.
The truth is many things are attributed to drug withdrawal, when in reality they are something else, but when they are specific to it, and it is chronic, then a treatment plan for the longer term is advised, but if one is just having a single bad day, don't go get on antidepressants when you will be over it in the morning. Again, treat each day one at a time, and address each symptom as though they are independent of each other.
4. Realize the importance of diet, exercise, sunlight, sleep, and cognitive behavioral therapy.
It should come as no surprise that most drug addicts who want to quit using a substance have poor nutrition, either from a lack of money to buy proper food, cravings for the wrong kind of food, or simply the drug itself taxing the body and brain, the best way to really repair the body is feeding it well. Getting adequate water (make sure you have some sodium if you are drinking a lot at a time), protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, potassium, sodium, and all the different micro-nutrients is very key.
Drugs often cause deficiencies in certain areas, so refueling the body with an assortment of macro and micro nutrients will make you recover much faster than just eating whatever you can find, in some cases, just by improving the diet you can prevent various withdrawal symptoms. The hard part is eating food you might not crave, eating less if you are eating too much, or more when you have no appetite, so be realistic and try to eat foods you enjoy, just take some conscious effort to get the nutrients you need, but do not take some ridiculous health diet when going withdrawal, because unless you have the iron will of Superman, doing that will make you crave the drug a lot more, food here can be a comfort to get you through it, you can always get healthier later, so don't underestimate eating junk food as part of psychological recovery.
Exercise is also super beneficial and will make the process MUCH easier. Just do some simple cardiovascular exercise like walking everyday a few blocks or going to a pool and swimming. Once you can do that more and more, try some strength training in the form of lifting weights or calisthenics. Building muscle mass, reducing body fat, getting your heart and lunges working from exercise instead of drug use, and the endorphins released, the cortisol dropped, the overall health benefit here is massive. But again, don't take some hellish program when in withdrawal, get discouraged and relapse, just do small steps and work your way to a regular fitness program.
Sunlight and fresh air are crucial things people overlook. One of the best things a recovering addict can do is leave civilization and go out into nature and hike around or even camp for awhile. This gets you away from negative drug-advocating influences, allows you to not worry about offending anyone when you are in an agitated dope-sick state, plus the fresher oxygen from trees and especially bright Vitamin D from the UV and UW rays of the sunlight help you more than you can realize. Think about it, if you are quitting something that taxed your lunges like smoking meth or heroin, think how much faster they can repair in an area with higher rates of oxygen and lesser rates of carbon monoxide and other pollutants? Vitamin D is huge for example in overcoming MDMA depression, as it directly energizes your entire being on a cellular level, something no drug can even come close to doing.
Of course I'm not saying the sun will get you high, but rather, laying in the warm sun for half an hour a day (use sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, of course), can do wonders in healing your body and brain, just look how plants and solar panels can derive such power from it, think what it might do for your body? Finally you have sleep. Getting say 12 hours a night isn't a bad thing if you are used to getting 3 every few days. After you reset your circadian rhythm and your body gets used to not havings its internal clock constantly changed, you should aim for a consistent schedule, eight hours a night is good, but do whatever is realistic for your life, again, sleeping at night is better because it keeps you away from nightly temptation, but also the vitamin D is a big asset here.
The final tool you have in your fix-my-body-and-brain-toolbox is cognitive behavior therapy. Whether you chose to meditate, do hypnosis, do exposure-response prevention, cognitive behavior therapy, or some other neuro-scientific, philosophical, or spiritual aid, re-training your behavior is as important as physically healing the body and mind with the other methods and time. If you do not change your behavior, you will never beat an addiction, because 99% of the addiction is psychological. Even the case of the worst heroin addicts, they can relatively easily (in comparison, of course) quit using over-time, but never relapsing, never going back to the needle is much harder than it seems. Just getting cleans for months or years can be completely taken away in one emotional night. Maybe the wife is cheating on you, maybe you lose your job, maybe a loved one dies, then what? A relapse. Even if you get fully clean and fully heal the body, brain, (and if you believe) spirit, and soul, if you don't fix your psyche, don't change your behavior and worldview, you will never, ever beat the addiction.
But with the right mental tools (research them, there are tonnes of ways), and constantly every day, every hour, even every minute, consciously correcting negative thoughts with positive ones, analyzing and improve your behavior, you can change anybody to become anything, if they are truly willing. Indeed, no matter the horror stories about benzo withdrawal or whatever time period it takes to heal neurotransmitters, nothing compares to the battle against the psyche, the battle against the self, because all it takes is one bad day, one bad event, to trigger memories of drug-induced bliss, which is why if one really wants to quit something for good, they need to really make a concious effort for the rest of their lives, but there is hope! After the physical withdrawal ends (if there is any), after the brain and body heal themselves completely, it then becomes quite an easy task to keep the psyche motivate to a happier life, as all one needs to do is instead of associating good times with the thing they are trying to stop, remember the pain it caused, and remember the good things you gave it up to accomplish, and if tempted by relapse, remember what you give away if you go down that path.
But if you do relapse (and most will), it isn't the end of the world, and if you just keep relapsing, maybe reflect again and realize you just like a certain drug or drugs, then you just need to accept yourself, and stop being afraid and guilty about it and starting loving to get high. If that makes you happy in life, then do it! It is when it no longer makes you happy you quit, but if you are really fighting to quit because you think it will be better, but all your intuition tells you not to quit, then don't! You get one life to live, have fun and enjoy, drug free or constantly high!
5. Utilize a social network of support, it is crucial to get family, friends, and/or community volunteers & mental health workers involved.
I wasn't sure about this point, because if you are really connected with a bunch of anti-drug using types, then you really need to reflect and make sure they are not why you are quitting. If you quit for others, it will never work, remember point 1, but if you are quitting because the drug(s) take up more of your life then those loved ones or a beloved community, then that is a fair reason to quit. Not having money to go on a trip with your family because you spent it on down is a reason to quit, as it isn't just for others, but yourself as well. Missing out on your dream career because you cannot pass the piss test is another reason to stop, as is simply trying something new and seeing what it will do for you (you can always go back to it if you don't like sobriety).
Anyway if you are sincere and really are doing it for yourself primarily, then get loved ones involved. If they truly care about you, they will be very glad to support you, regardless of their opinion on your drug use. It doesn't matter if you are getting the help of other junkies, drug dealers, church leaders, parents, lovers, friends, cops, whoever, the point is the substance is making your life unhappy and you cannot beat it without the emotional support of those who care about you. Real friends and family will be right there to support you, and they won't rejoice at your decision to not use (as then they are just peddling their own shallow beliefs), but will instead rejoice you asked them to help you, that you want and need their love, that's what people really care about (and it doesn't matter if it is a drug addiction or depression, we are a social species, and valuing and communicating with each other makes a massive difference in someone's happiness and success rate of quitting).
Do not however "get rid of all my junkie friends and equipment", because what somebody puts in their body is not your business, and if you judge them by this, you are just a hypocrite because would you want judgement on you when you used to use? Instead, if you have friends who use, have them hold onto your drugs and paraphernalia. Don't go crazy and flushing everything and break your expensive pipes and the next day be suicidal because all your shit is gone and you are depressed, instead, either hide it somewhere or give a trusted friend it to use and/or keep safe incase you relapse. No point in relapsing and buying new gear multiple times as many people do, that will just make it harder as it stresses your financial situation even more.
Anyway do researching, see a doctor and/or psychiatrist and get a physical done, get sound medical advice and make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with you that you may have neglected, then construct a recovery plan. Don't just see one, get a second opinion, mention the drug use to one, but not to the other, see if they treat you differently, visit spiritual or philosophical leaders of some kind, draw help from unusual sources, even drug dealers or junkies can help you quit by encouraging you (strangely they often are the most encouraging, because basically all dealers are also junkies and all junkies know the pain of going up and down), the more people you consult, the better chance of being successful, as you will get tips and advice you never would have considered.
Finally, reward yourself if you do succeed at various milestones, this will help keep you motivated AND re-wire your neurochemistry with a new form of positive reward system (like have a cake for doing 20% less this week, go on a vacation for being 3 months clean, etc), keep the rewards going after you get clean to keep you on that path.
Hope this helps...
I will create a mental health guide sometime in the future that adds follow-up to this.
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