Boston Area Heroin Recovery/Cliff Jumping

[Aaro22]

Hello everybody,

I am new to bluelight so please forgive me if this is the wrong spot to post.

First I’d like to say that I’m part of a small group of writers and artists based out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania that produce in a variety of mediums. We are independent have no affiliations with any major outlets or organizations. I’ve come to bluelight in hopes that someone here will have some information as we’re hoping to do a sort of profile or project on this story.

The story: I was in South Carolina chatting with a random guy at a bar when he told me that there’s a group of people in the Boston area that have a very unique way of maintaining their sobriety from heroin. He told me that what they do is they all pack up together and drive to Maine to jump into the freezing cold waters as the rush from the cold is intense enough to match that of heroin. This is all the information I have at the moment.

If anybody here is involved with this group or has any information at all I’d be very interested in hearing from you. Apart from wanting to expand on this artistically, I am genuinely interested in this culture and I would love to know more about it.

Please feel free to message me here or at my CURRENTLY CENSORED BY VT

Thanks for reading!

 

[Xorkoth]

Never heard of this, though I watched a documentary about a guru sort of guy who uses cold water immersion as a way to treat peoples' anxiety and depression and such.

 

[VerbalTruist]

I would be interested to know what you've written in the past. If you're a writer you wouldn't mind posting or messaging me your name so I can look you up? I'll remove the censor on your email address at that point. Mostly just trying to protect the userbase. Past experience has taught that not everyone is super cool about addiction and recovery.

 

[RedRum OG]

I respect your quest here, but the phraseaong the lines of "the jump to coldness matches the high of heroin" is silly. That's a good way to pander and oversimplify things for the masses who like things simple... but it's a silly notion. The only thing that is remotely close to heroin is other opiates. Not sex, not exercise, not an adrenaline rush. They likely do the cliff jumping for much more complex emotional reasons: leaving the comfort zone, cultivating courage, staying entertained, etc. Not to mention, this could easily be an urban legend. Sure, sometimes people do crazy shit to get/stay sober, but it's mostly the boring, banal shit that actually works. If you want to do this story (or any like it) justice, you have to be a lot more familiar with the decades-long emotional journey that addiction usually is. Your story sounds great, but it's naive and silly. I'm not trying to dissuade you or make you feel bad, just change your angle to a more realistic one.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I respect your quest here, but the phraseaong the lines of "the jump to coldness matches the high of heroin" is silly.

It is silly, so are things like saying runner's high is better than drugs. It's not, and it's silly to even compare the two, however I can appreciate the message. You kinda have to read between the lines.

I love running and always chase that runner's high, but it's not heroin. However, aligning with the message running truly is better than heroin and is one of the things I replaced heroin with. Running serves me better, obviously, so in a way running is better than a heroin high. Just semantics, but I can see it from both ways. Both interpretations are correct IMO.



also I really like the idea of cold water immersion, it serves a huge purpose. Sometimes I force myself to take cold showers in the morning. The LAST thing you want to do is jump into that cold water. You have to walk through that wall of fiery fear. But when you do this repeatedly it helps build things like confidence, bravery, stamina, courage, etc... all of which are vital to foster if one wants to beat drug addiction. If you're too scared to take a cold shower... good luck getting sober. I like the idea.