I'm starting to think that pain is a trigger.
Pain is always a trigger. It is for every addiction. Probably the root cause of them too in most cases. Pain comes in various forms of course. As far as physical pain goes, in relation to opi-addiction it's a major trigger. Opies are painkillers so it's the most natural thing in the world to crave painkillers when in pain. You don't even have to have been addicted to opies to want painkillers when in pain. The difference is that once you've been addicted to opies your perception of pain multiplies exponentially. What for a person who's never used strong opies would be painful but bearable is completely unbearable for a person who has used strong opies. I can't tell you what you feel but becoming hypersensitised to pain is a very common - perhaps inevitable - side-effect of prolonged use of any opies. And yes, it is a shitty side-effect that's rarely mentioned.
Anyway I think I'm going to stop going to the recovery group. I'm not an addict like them. I've never been an addict. I wanted the codeine today it wasn't some force taking over me. I take responsibility for it. I wanted it.
Spoken like a true addict
Don't take that the wrong way - it's not mocking it's relating. That's the way more or less all of us will feel. I hate to admit it but admission and acceptance really is the first step towards recovery. You are an addict. I have no qualms stating it so bluntly because it is a fact. You had to go on to a Suboxone script to deal with opioid addiction - that makes you an addict by definition. It makes no difference which opioid brought you to your script - the fact that you need a script confirms addiction.
I can understand what you mean when you say you are not "like them". There is a certain... type of addict who makes the rest of us cringe and want to distance ourselves from them. From what I've seen you post about your recovery group it sounds like you know a few of those. We all do. But we are not all like that. You don't have to be that way to be addicted. You don't have to be sitting around talking about how grateful you are for having been rescued or how terrible your addiction was and how you could never go back to being that way. There are many of us with very mixed feelings about the whole thing. There are positives in addiction. Not necessarily over the longterm but there is obviously a good side or nobody would ever get far enough down that road to reach addiction. It's perfectly natural to be conflicted - to remember your addictive behaviours fondly, to gloss over the less good aspects and focus on what kept you going throughout that period. Addiction is a very powerful force and it is incredibly seductive. It does seem to solve problems and it does seem to be harmless and it does seem to be a choice. It is and does none of those things over the longterm but it does and is all of those thing over the short term. That is the part we all tend to remember best and focus on most clearly.
Addiction is nothing to be ashamed of or nothing to feel bad about and in no way a failure of anything. It's what happens when you take addictive substances too often - often intertwined with personal and/or social issues but not necessarily. You take opioids every day and they are a big part of your life in one way or another. You couldn't currently live without them, I suspect. At least it doesn't feel that way to you - or to me or to anybody in that situation. Don't feel ashamed and don't feel guilty and also don't try to avoid reality. You are an addict - I am an addict to and have been for many years now - neither of us have a damn thing to be ashamed of. The important thing is what you do with that knowledge. You can spend years going around in circles or you can try to take control and face it head-on. It's a struggle and not an appealing thought. It does seem far simpler to go back to previous behaviour patterns - to go back to using codeine in your case. In the short term it is easier, I hope you don't have to go too far down the road to see how much harder it actually becomes when you do take that path. Take control when you can - sooner rather than later - cos it gets worse. It gets very much worse and it doesn't care whether you realise or accept your status as an addict or not.
Whilst I'm talking on addiction, saying stuff like "Alcohol isn't the same as opiates. It makes me make a fool of myself. Alcohol will this horrible pain away." worries me slightly. That's pure addict talk - taking the pain away. Replace 'alcohol' with 'codeine' or 'heroin' or 'cocaine' or any other drug of addiction there is. There is pain in all aspects of life. You can't take it away completely. There are ways of mitigating it - alcohol and other drugs can even play a part in that without it being a problem - but relying on booze and pills and powders and potions to do that for you is a dangerous path. It's not sustainable. Those things start to take over and then they become the pain you try to escape only you have no escape capsules left. There are better, more sustainable ways of dealing with pain. Pain from a tattooed arm will fade soon enough - use OTC painkillers and maybe a bottle of wine too. But try not to think of these things as being ways to escape pain - they really will cause you far more pain than they ever relieve over the long term.
Apologies if that comes over as... not quite sure what it will come over as but probably won't go down too well. I can promise you it's because I give a shit and nothing else. There is no personal attack or slight here. There's no accusation. There is observation and there is personal experience and there is hope that you will pull back from the brink of a very dark place indeed
