How to stay strong

[madog11]

I'm trying a 2 week detox so I can go back to using recreationally. My friend brings me pills occasionally this is unpredictable. He showed tonight, I took them from him because they are few and far between. How do I stay strong until the end of next week?

 

[SececaRD]

You don't, as long as you have tose pills.

And good luck on using recreationally, let me know how that works out for ya

 

[effie]

I think there are two steps to something like this - one is to make sure temptation doesn't cross your path while you are vulnerable and unlikely to be able to resist, and the other is to reach a state of mind where you don't want to take them. The second is ultimately more sustainable and desirable of course, but until you reach that point it might be wise to speak to your friend perhaps, and ask them not to come round with any pills? What do you think?

Recreational use after addiction is a real minefield and very few people can achieve it - have you thought about how you would be able to use recreationally without slipping back? Do you think it is realistic if you are entirely honest with yourself?

Good luck with the detox

 

[Anomaly88]

I have never heard of a recreational drug user... but hey, that's just me. Sooner or later you fall into the cycle of addiction. & it has an easy way to sneak up on you. But if you can manage then good luck to you and more power to ya! But sooner or later it takes some of the strongest people it doesn't matter who you are.. we aren't invulnerable to addiction. There's my 2 cents.. and this is coming from someone who was a "recreational drug user" the "only on the weekends" thing only works out for so long.. Do you think we became drug addicts in one day? Hell noooo! We all started somewhere... Iv'e been fighting drug addiction for like 3-4 years now. Hard drugs that is.

 

[madog11]

The reason i fell into a pattern is because i started getting withdrawals when i stopped, if i stick to once a week once i'm totally clean i wont have withdrawals the next day. I've only been using a couple of months and it's only dihydrocodeine, so it's not a strong habit. I got through last night without touching them, so far so good!

 

[herbavore]

When you say you want to go back to using drugs recreationally, what do you mean? Were you using them to have fun, to enhance an experience every now and then, to create an experience? I think that using the term recreational when in fact it is more self-medicinal is an important distinction. If you are using, even moderately, to try to escape feelings of emotional discomfort, then you might be fooling yourself that your use is for recreation and setting yourself up for addiction. I think it is worth examining. You seem to have a sense that what you are doing is not without danger, hence the detox. I would really pay attention to that voice within.

 

[madog11]

Yeah, this week has made me realise i won't be moving upto anything stronger even 'recreationally' because if this feels bad I can't imagine how bad it can feel. I use i suppose to self medicate, not mentally, phsyically. I'm 23 and am a chronic pain patient but i've got that under control, what is left is aching and uncomfortable feelings that are nothing to do with my chronic headaches.... probably something to do with my lung surgery 3 years ago, but my doctor says physically i'm fine so it's probably just something i'm stuck with.

Getting high takes away every ache my body has and I feel comfortable, thats why I enjoy them, i just was stupid not to realise that if i use everyday i suffer when i don't, i'd like to use everyday but am proving that i don't need to. 2 nights in counting and apart from a brief thought that it would be nice to get high i haven't gone near them!

 

[lars90]

The reason i fell into a pattern is because i started getting withdrawals when i stopped, if i stick to once a week once i'm totally clean i wont have withdrawals the next day. I've only been using a couple of months and it's only dihydrocodeine, so it's not a strong habit. I got through last night without touching them, so far so good!

I thought the same with DXM now a month past since the last time I have taken it and the cravings are only getting stonger each time I think about it but I have to stay strong! What helped me was jsut getting rit of the stuff telling my freinds not to bother asking me if I wanted some of theirs and just to cut it. Finally the short term memory is going slowly away after the month. I know you wont listen but I can only say stay away from drugs espeshially the legal ones that really cant be made illegal because their used for medicin. Hell stick to weed if you really want to get high anything else is jsut not worth the risk man !

 

[madog11]

Never liked weed. I know what risks i'm taking and how stupid it is. I used to be quite into cocaine, i could stop and did intermittantly, never became addicted. Hadn't touched any drugs properly for 2 years before finding opiates, had even had morphine and fenytal for a surgery i had 3 years ago without noticing the recreational effects they can have. I didn't crave anything all week last week, had WD's but it didnt come with cravings.

I did end up taking a couple last night but paid for it with getting sick today, should keep me clean until at least next weekend!

 

[Znegative]

I'm going to be straight with you Madog11, cause you're cool.

It's really fucking hard to "stay strong". For me, it's pretty much impossible. If I have some heroin, or some pills lying around, I am going to end up using them. I know that you've only been messing around with opiates for a littlt while, but if you continue to use them regularly (even once a week), you will wind up with at least one hell of a psychological Dependance (if you havnt already). The only people that I know who seem to be able to take opiates recreationally without developing an addiction, never seek them out, and only take them when they're offered freely.

The thing about opiate addiction, is that it is a subtle beast. When I first attempted to stop using heroin, my freshman year of college, I thought it would be no problem. I didn't have a real physical Dependance back then, so I could stop when I wanted. But it was only when I really tried to stay stopped, that I realized the hold that the drugs had on me.

It is possible of course to keep yourself from getting physically addicted, and of course, I really do hope that you can achieve using your DOC only once in a blue moon. I just know that for myself, I would almost rather go without than trying to dedicate myself to using only once in a week, because it would seem like such a daunting thing to do.

 

[RedLeader]

^ He's correct about the psychology of it. Opiate addicts, especially those on their first big run, tend to understand the downside of the drug as "this horrible physical addiction and it's awful withdrawal symptoms." And then it's easy to think that once I detox and am no longer physically dependent, I can easily use one or twice a week and not escalate because of fear of that physical addiction. And sure, we're smart enough to outsmart the physical dependency with our little "chipper schedules" and whatnot, but it's impossible to outsmart the psychological hold.

When you were in the middle of your addiction, you didn't have a lot of downtime to really think about how it was affecting your mind as well, probably because you were always busy trying to figure out your next fix. But once that's removed, and say you're using twice a week, that gives you five whole days to think about how much better the other two are. And the longer you follow that 2x/week schedule, the worse those 5 days become. "They'll never be as bad as being dopesick!" you might say, but that doesn't mean that they won't be awful in their own way.

If you can take this advice and try and go as long as you can without opiates and see if the cravings start to go away, that's great. And if you can't, then I hope through experience you figure it out on your own and don't end up in detox (or worse) again. The only time I was able to use like this was when I first started off. I don't even kid myself into thinking I could use once a week these days, so I don't.

And ya, that's no friend bringing you pills like that. Ask 'em politely to not do that out of respect for your recovery, and if that does not work, tell them to screw off. Why is your friend bringing you pills anyway?

 

[madog11]

Because he can get them via his job and i didn't tell him i was recovering. Thank you for all the advice and you're right Redleader, I should try going as long as i can without them. I have been managing well so far. Oddly i don't crave them everyday, haven't felt like it at all since friday night. Which must be good right?

I like doing them so how do i combat the psychological dependance so that i can use occasionaly?

 

[herbavore]

madog11, I think the key to combating the psychological dependence is to understand all the complex reasons you needed the drugs in the first place. If they help with the chronic headaches, there are many solutions that are non-drug based for those (acupuncture is one). As for the other psychological factors those are maybe more difficult to identify but will probably be the key to your freedom over the long run. I don't know what your specific issues are but I do know that I am a bundle of issues (LOL!) and I find that while it takes lots of investigation and hard work to find ways to unstick the old bad patterns it is the intention to do so that holds all the power. Not undermining ourselves and being proactive is tedious work sometimes. It seems like house work: you can clean the hell out of a room and by next week it is dirty again! It can appear pointless until you realize that it gets easier to keep it clean the more you do it. Identifying what needs to change inside you and what you need to just accept is more than the first step--it becomes a way of life. Good luck. It sounds like you are doing really well so far.