H Be Gone...

i didnt read all the replies, but oh my gawsh you've been through alot, i hope your feeling better the longer you abstain from hammer. you will be better for it. somehow i see that ill be better for not using also.

remember A) just for today, im not going to use..

and B) life is not a destination, its a journey..

bless,
nathan
 
oh, that shitting being painful thing - try 'diastop' (sorry dont know chemical name but ill bet u hav it in ur country)
that or 'immodium' (loperamide)
both hav helped me big-time during suboxone withdrawal, the 3 times i detoxed from opiates
cos i know that is an AWFUL feeling!
 
Chlordiazepoxide is a benzo. Or was it that they stopped giving you it right away?
 
pharm said:
Yea I feel great today. I took about 1200mg of gabapentin and I'm pretty much at ease right now. I'm going back to work tomorrow and hopefully hitting the restart button on my life.

My addiction is something I'm going to have to fight the rest of my life but NA helps a lot. I've got a lot of old friends in the program who have managed to stay clean for years.

I've surrounded myself with positive people who know my plight and got my back. I've completely cut off my dope ties and I have no way of getting h at the moment. I deleted all the numbers and my using friends are all in detox themselves.

So tomorrow's a new day and I can't wait.
Wow mate your story is so inspiring, stay strong!! You WILL get through it all! <3
 
Wow, congratulations man. That is true determination. I am glad you made it out of that mess without being hurt or killed.

Count your blessings for having all those people in your world who love you.

Take it one day at a time man, you'll get through. Each day will be easier than the last. You can do this. You can get your life back on track in no time.

If you ever need to talk or anything, pm me.
 
Keep at it man, the program works if you put your effort into it! Your life will get so much better that you'll wonder how you ever were involved in that stuff.
 
strangely beautiful...

on another note melatonin helps me sleep. not sure how safe it is for you though.
 
Keep coming back, Sean, it works when you work it!

Try to make 90 meetings in 90 days. If you're not working then IMHO you should attend TWO (!!!) meetings a day, once AM, and once PM.
Do you have access to a full 28 day program?

Remember, never get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
 
things will keep getting better if you let them. and get a sponsor, meeting makers don't make it... some do but many don't. Listen to the promises your hearing, those WILL happen if you follow the simple program, they're happening for me right now.

keep comin back it works if you work it - not a more honest line has ever been spoken
 
Update.

Well since I first authored this post I have relapsed about 5 different times. I am beginning to think that I truly cannot win this battle. Am I so weak? So worthless?

I told my girl (who is sill with me) that it's almost to the point of not even being about the drugs anymore. I just love being a piece of shit. I love playing the victim. I don't know what it is. Drugs are an extremely easy way to put myself in that bottom, horrible position that I love to wallow in. I keep telling myself that I am worthless and that I don't deserve a good life.

I have always wrestled with the idea that my being adopted has seriously fucked with my head. Someone in a AA meeting I attend (I mostly try to hit NA) spoke about feelings of worthlessness because of being adopted. I have always told myself and others that being adopted is a non-issue, but maybe it isn't. I never knew the story of why I was put up for adoption, but I think there's this underlying feeling of abandonment and worthlessness because of the mystery surrounding the circumstances of my adoption.

It's almost like I love pushing people away from me preemptively before they have a a chance to reject me for some unlikely reason. I say things that push away my girl even though, deep inside I am screaming at myself to NOT say these words. I feel like I don't deserve to be happy, so I put myself in situations that I can guarantee failure for myself. Then I can wallow in self-pity and give myself justification for using again.

A long time ago I used to romanticize about my heroin addiction. Reading books like Junky by Burroughs, Trainspotting my Welsh, Requiem for a Dream by Selby Jr fueled my obsession of being a person of the underground. I finally was able to "fit-in" with my other Junky use-buddies. I felt just too fucking cool for school. Especially since I cannot really drink alcohol. I wore my opiate tolerance like a medal around my neck. Sure I can't do a keg-stand, but watch me bang a gram of dope without blinking. Fuck you frat boy, I can't drink more than 2 beers without puking, but I can fucking blow a line of K the size of this table asshole.

After a while, however, the cool-scene turned real. Real fucking ugly. There is nothing pop, nothing sheik, nothing honorable about laying in my bathroom floor laying in a pool of my own vomit, piss and feces. There's nothing even remotely edgy about shaking at work until I eventually just leave in the middle of the day to drive up and meet my dealer. Nobody will think your cool when you can't even make it to a Dunkin Donuts or Exxon station to use their bathrooms as a shooting gallery. Instead, pulling over on the side of the road immediately after copping to blast-off as soon as humanly possible.

I am currently going through withdrawals for about the 6th time since my first post in March and I'm quickly running out of time. I'm running out of time with my girlfriend, who I love so fucking much, a girl I want to grow old with. I'm running out of time with my job, constantly not showing up, being completely immobilized to my bed, too lethargic, too dopesick to even get up and take a piss.

I still attend as many AA/NA meetings as I can, they truly help. I'll admit that I have gone to many a meeting high, but I'm still going right? It is so cathartic to spew my guts to a room of strangers, but who all share similar stories of addiction. I finally kinda, somewhat, in a round-about way tried to ask a person to be a temporary sponsor for me. I need someone who I can call that isn't a friend I've known forever, or someone like my girl, who is compassionate as hell, but who lacks the first-hand experience of being a heroin junky.

All in all, I am starting to gain a positive outlook on my soon to be sober life. My boy came by today who I love as much as a brother. There are only a very few number of friends like that who I can consider to be closer than family. He told me that he loves me and will always sick by my side to see me get well. I ma truly a lucky person to have such a friend.

Speaking of lucky, I took a long thought-process today to think about all of the things in my life that I have taken for granted over the last year of so of my addiction:
* My girlfriend. My girl is an amazing person. Incredibly intelligent and has such a good life ahead of her I constantly tell myself, and now her, that she deserves someone so much better than myself. Somehow she disagrees and tells me that I am the only person she loves and she still wants to stay with me even after all of the lies and all of the drug use. I don't want to lose her, but I continually choose drugs over her and it seriously breaks my fucking heart.
* My parents. Since I dropped out of UMass Amherst back in 02 I have been living at my parents house ever since. I graduated from another school since then and they are very proud of me. Since I started using heroin, however, (started around summer 06) I have done nothing but lie to them and at the very end I ended up trying to steal from them. Stealing from my parents is something I would have never done to them prior to my heroin addiction. I have demolished the trust I had with them and it's going to take a very long time to win them back.
* Myself. Ever since I forced myself to enter a detox in-patient program back at the end of February I have continually failed myself over and over and over again. Seriously, what the FUCK is wrong with me? Why can't I just STOP USING. I am about to cry writing this. I am so tired of feeling like this. I am so tired of wanting things to go back "like they used to be". I was about to type I am a failure and not worth saving. But that's what the old Sean would want to say. He could easily then just feel sorry for himself and continue to use and use and use.

I read this quote from another Bluelighter on this site about heroin:
Heroin embodies all of the souls that have perished before it, alone in the most desolate, hopeless situations imaginable.

For me right now, truer words have never been spoken about heroin addiction. There is nothing romantic, cool about what I have been going through. I wish people who haven't used a drug before could feel what I am going through. I know that I have brought this upon myself, and it is only myself who can make things right.

Well I don't know what else to say. I just wanted to update my story in case anyone at all wanted to know. I am truly blessed to have such close and supportive family and friends. Without them I would probably be homeless, in jail, or dead.
 
I think you are so f*cking strong for going back and back and back to try and get clean. Be proud of that.
<3
 
it doesnt matter how many times u relapse - its the end result that counts
my friend is adopted and shes an addict too - she seems to feel all the things u talk about, even tho she sees her birth mother and her adoptive parents r more loving to her than my dad will ever b to me
i think adoption is hard for a LOT of ppl to face
but thats beside the point
i want u to know that i think ur doing a great thing
ur not just wallowing, even if u think u r
u do keep going back
i relapsed countless times before i got it and i still havnt got it 'guaranteed' - i cud still relapse any time if i let down my guard
keep at it, im thinking of u :)
 
i'm going through something somewhat similar. i just wanted to say that i found your story very inspiring and you should be proud of your progress and determination. i hope that i can be strong like you are <3
 
Pharm, thanks for posting this. It completely explodes the myth that the only thing that prevents an addict from being 'normal' is the w/d. You making this thread is helping other people, it really is.
 
That was a good story pharm. I'm not a junkie or a drug addict, but I came to this site after my BF died with the hopes of understanding things like you have described. The weekend he died, he was supposed to come see me to talk about issues he didn't tell me about through email, but he said he was embarrassed nonetheless. Instead, he canceled and stayed home to binge. I was angry with him for canceling too (I didn't know he had relapsed into full blown addiction again). It's one of those things that really bothers me. I can't talk to his friends because I don't think they like me and get upset when I say that he was depressed.

Your story helps me understand better. I keep thinking that he really didn't give a shit about me, but this site has helped me understand that for an addict it's all about the next high. At least I hope your story is similar to his - that he loved me dearly and was out of control. I'll never really know, but I wanted to tell you that your story is inspiring for the people on the other side of the fence who are hurting from drug addiction. The emotional pain is just as real.
 
Well, it's almost been about 4 weeks since I've used heroin. I'll admit I've blazed a couple times and drank at a couple dinners but overall I am feeling amazing.

I ended up going to detox at the same hospital I went to in March. It was pretty embarrassing seeing the same faces only a few months later, but to be honest I was hurting too bad to really care that much. I chose this place because they don't believe in Suboxone or Methadone as a form of detox or stabilization. Even while I was hurting to the point where I was about to literally rob my own mother I knew that a "clean" detox would be better for me in the long run.

I was lucky enough to receive 20mg Valium daily for 3 days or so which I basically have no recollection of and by about day 5 I was feeling almost normal.

My caseworker (who handled me during the previous detox) made a suggestion that I go to a inpatient rehab for about a week. I had previously tried an outpatient day program, in which I stayed clean for about 48 hours. Anyways, I ended up going to this place on the Cape which turned out to be exactly what I needed. The place was great, awesome staff, awesome food and a fully planned schedule of meetings and groups.

I don't know what happened to me during my short rehab bid but I got the most "healing" just through the endless hours I spent chain-smoking butts and chatting with other druggies. Sure, a lot of the conversation turned into addict dick-waving contests involving what drug and how much, but there where these rare moments when the chat would turn into something innocent. There were times we would talk about golf or the History Channel (to my surprise an astonishing percent of junkies like the History Chan, Discovery, Travel Chan...). There was even a good 10-mins of reciting Dumb and Dumber quotes.

I forget where I heard the saying "You'll never laugh as hard as you will in rehab", but it's 100% true. I've never laughed so hard in my life than during those countless hours outside smoking, and it was that laughter that truly changed me. It was during those moments of laughter over something non-drug related that made me feel normal. For a couple minutes I completely forgot about being an addict, or that I was at rehab or my anxiety problems or any of my issues and I felt happy.

I had a small taste of what my life could be like without heroin and I loved it.

I've only been heroin-free for about 4 weeks but my quality of life has improved so much already. My girl stayed with me throughout my entire fight with dope and she's still by my side today. I don't really know how to thank her for that. At the end we basically weren't going out but she just wanted to see me get well so she stayed through my recovery.

I ended up losing my job but it turned out to be a great opportunity for myself. I basically got paid to leave and I can collect unemployment. I'm a real big turning point in my life where I get to choose what I want to do with my life. If I was still in active addiction I would've used my layoff as a reason to use.

Don't get me wrong, going to rehab gave me a head-start on some clean time, but it was only a jump start to my recovery. After rehab, I realized that I was the most fucked up when I was sober! I've never taken the time to truly analyze myself or open up to a therapist to my own issues. But what I did learn this time around is that there is no magic pill that will make me feel as good as banging dope did. The majority of my recovery is going to come from myself and whoever I talk with.

Sorry for my long, somewhat jumbled post. I took my sleep meds (Amitriptyline + Seroquel) about an hour ago and I'm getting really drowsy. I just wanted to post an update on my condition for anyone that cares.
 
i care :) and that's so good to hear! Keep being strong mate, sounds like you are going absolutely brilliantly. cheers to you!
 
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