I am thinking about going to an NA meeting this week. I have never been to one before and until recently I never thought I would want to go to one.
Does anyone in this thread have any tips, advice on what to expect etc? I live in a smaller city, about 60,000 with students, closer to 40,000 without. So I am sort of put off at the possibility of someone recognizing me. How long do these things normally last? I know I will be asked to introduce myself, besides that is there usually required active participation? Ahh I don't know how this is going to turn out.
Oh yeah, the reason I avoided these types of things in the past is because I am not fond of the whole religious stuff behind it. But I am willing to overlook that if it means being in the company of supportive people who know what dependence is like.
There are other places to go to get group support. Try contacting addiction therapists in your area to see if they run group therapies. you may not even have to pay and just be able to go to group. The 12 steps always turned me off so I've only been to one being when I was living a normal "clean" life for a couple years and it was just to support a friend. It was super weird for me and I was raised catholic. I'm not much of anything now, an aethiest or maybe deist, but the idea that prevailed was that be giving themselves over completely to god, somehow they will be cured- there is so much more to it than that.
And everyone else, thanks for the kind words. Like I said I never really told anyone about it, but it was like the genesis of my emotional problems, and I think the root of my early fascination with opiates which turned into a bit of a problem at times.
My addiction isn't out of control, although I do appreciate your concern - I've been on the verge before, but have always been able to quit when I needed to take care of stuff, etc. It is quite complicated and have been on suboxone as an alternative to my pain management (which is for a legit injury, I just happen to also like opiates as a sort of escape from my inner damage) - I know this isn't healthy, but I have tried all sorts of anti-depressants, benzos, meditation, bio-feedback, etc, and some of it works OK, but I tried the Suboxone for PM and hoped it would help with depression, but honestly the full-agonist opiates kill my physical pain, and when I use them properly aren't so much of an escape where I''m just "fucked up", but a mental painkiller also. I feel like that's slightly fucked up, and if it just sounds like I'm totally justifying an addiction, someone tell me please - it is hard to look at yourself from the outside sometimes, and obviously nobody knows me personally, but I hope to get to know all you better, and I certainly won't be offended by your opinions.
Alternately, feel free to PM me. I only have one "friend" on here -CH and we have a little bro-mance going on.
Thanks everyone.
Edit: Sorry my posts are so wordy, just haven't been able to talk about this in a long time.
Edit: and Neophyte, I guess what I was saying is that even though I feel like these things led to me sometimes using drugs to escape, I don't feel like I can bitch about it because the people I was in these situations with (my sister, Lacy- the girl I had dated) had shit so much worse and either died, or in my sisters case, is doing well and she manages to not be an adict... if that makes sense.
For a while she had a few clients, but she never really turned it into a full-time practice. I think now she is mostly into EFT actually. 
