PuristLove
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2000
- Messages
- 1,694
You use drugs more often than you are comfortable with. Perhaps every day, maybe a couple of times a week, your drug use has progressed beyond what you wanted it to be. Its taken the position of most importance in your life or maybe just begun to intrude into other areas that you find important.
It isn't like your using addictive drugs, you just smoke cannabis, or use ecstasy, or trip on acid. But even so, it feels like your use is building momentum and your unable to do anything about it.
You've started spending more money than you should on them, perhaps your selling them now in order to afford to do them more often. You can never think of anything fun to do anymore if it doesn't involve getting high. Things that once held your attention have been pushed to the background, or forced out of your life entirely.
Perhaps you've tried to quit before. Making resolutions or swearing to your friends. But then, when a few hours or a few days role around and someone offers you that joint, or that roll, you cave in and take it.
So what's going on? You have friends that use these same drugs and they don't seem to be having a problem. All you know is that you want to get high as much as possible as often as possible.
Maybe you're dependant.
People dependant on drugs aren't necessarily addicted to them. They've just allowed drugs to begin filling some need in their life, and the drug itself has become a need.
You don't want to quit doing drugs all together, and you've always heard that "if you stop and start back, you'll go right back to how you were."
Well, that old cliché isn't entirely true. While it is harder for the dependant person to moderate their usage than others, it isn't impossible. You just need a strategy.
So let's look at what works.
Setting a Goal
We've seen the way swearing them off for good falls apart. Forever seems like such a long time, and most of us just don't have that kind of willpower.
What's much easier to do is decide to take a break. At this point you need to decide how often you would like to be using drugs. Once a month, once every couple of months, twice a year?
Now, decide on a reasonable length of time to go without for your first break. It doesn't have to be the entire length of time from your first choice, but it needs to be long enough to form a substantial change in habit. Perhaps a week, two, a month?
Set this goal very firmly and make the decision that you are going to give this break a chance no matter what. Mark the date and tell yourself that that is the next time you're going to get high.
Now stick to it. You'll find that once the decision has truly been made its far easier to stick to than you thought it was going to be.
Introspection
Use this time to think about what it was that you were replacing in your life with drugs in the first place.
Were you depressed? If so get treatment. There are millions of programs to help people overcome depression and all of them are much more effective than self-medicating with feel good drugs.
Do you have low self-esteem? Explore that issue and figure out why your self-esteem is low and what you can do to change that.
Are you bored? Lonely? Do your problems simply overwhelm you? For each and every one of these issues there is an appropriate solution. Now that your time and brain cells are freed up, find ways to resolve your problems.
Doing Things
When you first decide to slow down you are probably going to be stuck sitting around, feeling like there is nothing to do. The best solution is to find some constructive way to spend your time.
Better yourself by getting involved in something you've been wanting to do but haven't had the energy or motivation for.
Push your breaks farther and farther apart until you've reached a level your happy with. Then keep it there. You'll find that each usage is more fulfilling this way, and that something that once felt magical may just start to feel that way again.
This was written with no intention to condemn drug use, or even people that use drugs often. Each of us know ourselves better than anyone else, and only we can decide how we want to spend our short time on Earth. I only hope that I've been able to help those that truly wanted it.
Nor is this advice appropriate for addictions, as those are generally physical and require different strategies to defeat.
For more support, check out The Dark Side, here on Bluelight.
[ 03 February 2002: Message edited by: PuristLove ]
It isn't like your using addictive drugs, you just smoke cannabis, or use ecstasy, or trip on acid. But even so, it feels like your use is building momentum and your unable to do anything about it.
You've started spending more money than you should on them, perhaps your selling them now in order to afford to do them more often. You can never think of anything fun to do anymore if it doesn't involve getting high. Things that once held your attention have been pushed to the background, or forced out of your life entirely.
Perhaps you've tried to quit before. Making resolutions or swearing to your friends. But then, when a few hours or a few days role around and someone offers you that joint, or that roll, you cave in and take it.
So what's going on? You have friends that use these same drugs and they don't seem to be having a problem. All you know is that you want to get high as much as possible as often as possible.
Maybe you're dependant.
People dependant on drugs aren't necessarily addicted to them. They've just allowed drugs to begin filling some need in their life, and the drug itself has become a need.
You don't want to quit doing drugs all together, and you've always heard that "if you stop and start back, you'll go right back to how you were."
Well, that old cliché isn't entirely true. While it is harder for the dependant person to moderate their usage than others, it isn't impossible. You just need a strategy.
So let's look at what works.
Setting a Goal
We've seen the way swearing them off for good falls apart. Forever seems like such a long time, and most of us just don't have that kind of willpower.
What's much easier to do is decide to take a break. At this point you need to decide how often you would like to be using drugs. Once a month, once every couple of months, twice a year?
Now, decide on a reasonable length of time to go without for your first break. It doesn't have to be the entire length of time from your first choice, but it needs to be long enough to form a substantial change in habit. Perhaps a week, two, a month?
Set this goal very firmly and make the decision that you are going to give this break a chance no matter what. Mark the date and tell yourself that that is the next time you're going to get high.
Now stick to it. You'll find that once the decision has truly been made its far easier to stick to than you thought it was going to be.
Introspection
Use this time to think about what it was that you were replacing in your life with drugs in the first place.
Were you depressed? If so get treatment. There are millions of programs to help people overcome depression and all of them are much more effective than self-medicating with feel good drugs.
Do you have low self-esteem? Explore that issue and figure out why your self-esteem is low and what you can do to change that.
Are you bored? Lonely? Do your problems simply overwhelm you? For each and every one of these issues there is an appropriate solution. Now that your time and brain cells are freed up, find ways to resolve your problems.
Doing Things
When you first decide to slow down you are probably going to be stuck sitting around, feeling like there is nothing to do. The best solution is to find some constructive way to spend your time.
Better yourself by getting involved in something you've been wanting to do but haven't had the energy or motivation for.
- Take a class. Most community colleges offer cheap classes in all sorts of interesting subjects, as do many other programs. Learning can become a drug in its own right if you let it.
- Exercise. Nothing will make you feel better about yourself, or healthier than tackling an exercise program. You'll discover new energy and ways of feeling great, using the bodies natural opiates- endorphins.
- Make new friends. Meet people that don't use drugs, or don't use them as often as your other friends do. This can give you somewhere to spend your time when all of your old friends are out getting high. Perhaps now would be a time to call that person you've been avoiding since you got so wrapped up in drugs. I bet they miss you.
- Explore spirituality. Take up meditation or yoga, start going to church again. Many of the things we experience while high on drugs, especially psychedelics, can be experienced through other outlets. Meditation, prayer, and a connection to a Higher Being can also help us feel more alive, and more in control of our own lives.
- Family. If you have open-minded relatives, talk to them about what you've been going through. Explain to them the decisions you've made. They can be an incredible support, and well most likely volunteer to help you in any way they can. If you don't have such open-minded family members, instead of discussing these things with them, just give them some of your time. Most likely they love you and have been wondering why they haven't seen as much of you.
Push your breaks farther and farther apart until you've reached a level your happy with. Then keep it there. You'll find that each usage is more fulfilling this way, and that something that once felt magical may just start to feel that way again.
This was written with no intention to condemn drug use, or even people that use drugs often. Each of us know ourselves better than anyone else, and only we can decide how we want to spend our short time on Earth. I only hope that I've been able to help those that truly wanted it.
Nor is this advice appropriate for addictions, as those are generally physical and require different strategies to defeat.
For more support, check out The Dark Side, here on Bluelight.
[ 03 February 2002: Message edited by: PuristLove ]
