Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
i would honestly get as much help as possible from every single avenue. you don't know in what context someone is gonna say or do something that gives you a valuable insight. down side is it does mean a lot won't necessarily be useful but in early recovery i found treating my recovery as a full time job really helpful, the most activities i did, the more distraction.Thanks for that. I could easily go on a downward spiral with it as I’ve done so many times before. I’m looking for a new therapist. Haven’t gotten involved with the drug services. Trying to deal with it on my own. I don’t live near family, so they don’t know and only have a couple of friends that I hang out with and it’s never come up. It’s crazy that I’ve been using and living this secret life for 10 years.
6 months! Ahhh It seems impossible. I do find some hope in what you said about going a year not even wanting it! Right now I feel like the wanting will never go away.
Thanks for sharing and and I appreciate your encouragement.
Are you in any type of program that has helped you?
the 6 months wasn't like white knuckling it the whole time. i had up and down sides. the first time i laughed was a big thing and that was when i was still in rehab. the major instability let up around the 3 month mark. i'd been horrendously addicted to crack as well so that will have been affecting me too, i don't know which effects were specifically from heroin.
it is possible that your friends know. i didn't exactly advertise that i was a heroin addict but a few friends knew, and they told me a lot of people had been asking what was wrong with me when i'd been out having used a little too much. and then when i got way worse it was fucking obvious, you could tell i was a junkie just by looking.
i did NA for a while but sort of fell out with it. it was really useful early in and i made decent friendships with other people in recovery. also learned addicts are fucking nutters, some people who seemed sound turned out not to be. i also did courses at my local drugs services, classes at local gym, meditation classes at my local buddhist centre, therapy. literally everything someone in recovery suggested that wasn't obviously stupid, i did. i had to own up to the fact that i didn't know shit, given how much i'd fucked my life up, and just listen to other people. i also did a lot of reading about addiction- the anatomy of desire by marc lewis really chimed with me. plus gabor mate's realm of the hungry ghosts and chasing the scream by johann hari.
i actually really wanna get back into NA meetings, less interested in working the steps. i split up with my sponsor cos she didn't like my step 3, as it didn't have the sort of higher power she thought i should have. but i do spiritual work by study at my local buddhist centre. i didn't actually intend to pick up a religion, i was brought up to be massively anti religion. its really not necessary for recovery and don't listen to anyone who says it is. but some sort of spiritual work is useful and i've found the framework of buddhism to work well for me.
cravings can be so intense when you're really early on, but every time you fight through one, you are building up your ability to fight them next time. and just remember, if it was easy you'd have done this years ago, your addiction will use a lot against you but recovery is possible. i have a full time job and a nice house with my partner, mundane as shit but beats using.