Misc It's all in your head..

The key to beating addiction is understanding addiction and how it affects the body..
Mind over Body and the mind controls the body, the tail does not wag the dog..
Controlling addiction is as easy as pie, all you have to do is make the desire to stop greater than the desire to continue, having willpower really helps..
You have to become one with yourself, being spiritual definitely helps because you have to believe in a higher power..
You're addiction to a drug is nothing more than the pleasure receptors in your head being filled with something else beside dopamine..
When you go clean for a while what you are doing is giving time for the dopamine to start flowing and slowly replace the drug that currently resides in the pleasure receptors..
It really is all in your head and easier to handle once you understand what the actual addiction really is..
I put this out there for all the people with a serious addiction like meth or heroin..
I'm not saying you should quit but if you want too here's some tools to help..

What happens when we tell a lie over and over, we begin to believe it, that's how the brain works..
Now you know that if you tell yourself something over and over, eventually you will believe it..
Use that power in a positive way, it's okay to lie to yourself and say I don't want to do such and such anymore..
You'll still want to do it but you have to resist the urge and keep telling yourself that you don't want it..
Keep telling yourself you don't like it, tell yourself that you hate it..
Basic psychology and understanding how the mind works..
By telling yourself the same thing over and over you're conditioning the mind and brain washing yourself..

Mind
-----
Body

Yes, just believe you don't have a benzo dependency and that will stop the seizures and withdrawals.

The mechanics of addiction are anything but simple and easy to control.

The difference between lying to yourself about addiction and lying to yourself about other things is that you know that it is a lie when you tell yourself you don't want to use anymore. If this worked for you I suspect you truly did want to stop and of course if you really want to stop.. you will.

Becoming one with yourself = lying to yourself

Mind = Body

pbuilder said:

yes, just believe you don't have a benzo dependency and that will stop the seizures and withdrawals.

Click to expand...

qft

pbuilder said:

Yes, just believe you don't have a benzo dependency and that will stop the seizures and withdrawals.

Click to expand...

The diarrhoea, sweats and flu like symptoms of opiate withdrawal can be mediated away I heard

One Thousand Words said:

The diarrhoea, sweats and flu like symptoms of opiate withdrawal can be mediated away I heard

Click to expand...

I can believe that, but how many opiate addicts do you think can do that? Through w/d for 2-7 days for AWS depending on the opiate used.

I see where op is coming from, took it bit far with the brain washing stuff though and this would not help for physical addictive drugs, but I believe you can only stop if you want to, remove yourself from situations in which the drugs are helps a great deal too

If ever a post deserved a "cool story bro" response, it's the OP's

Wrong. If addiction were that simple the FCC would require the malibu treatment ads be removed. Just wrong.

"I was an addict for ten years. Now I'm not."

I think it is in your head though, to some extent. Like when I'm sick, and I KNOW I'm about to go grab something, and I ALREADY feel better on my way driving to get it, before even using anything. Just the fact that I'm going to get it and I already feel a little better physically.

^ that's a well known response among addicts (the mere anticipation of receiving a dose of whatever it is they want making them feel better).

I think the "head body" dichotomy is pretty dumb really...just because addiction largely takes place in your head doesn't mean that there isn't a physiological/neurological process taking place in your brain that you have limited control over. The idea that we have conscious mastery over the entirety of our mental faculties doesn't seem accurate to me (well, not for most people at least).

Well thanks kind bud. This whole time I have been struggling with intense opiate withdrawals, and the inability to sleep is all in my head!

When I'm writhing in bed sweating and cold, I'll keep that in mind and just say "this doesn't exist, I don't want that hit that will make this all go away!" and Poof, I am cured.

It is way more complex than that. Maybe that is the first step. Convincing yourself to quit, but there is still an extremely long difficult road of honest self discovery that takes place when traversing the path from active use to a place of sobriety.

If it were that simple, there would be quite a bit less opiate/benzo addicts detoxing in our detox centers. Many folks have mental illness that they are self medicating for and need a little more help than just "give it time and your brain will go back to normal". If your baseline is depressed or anxious, you need therapy, and psychiatric meds to achieve any sort of quality of life.

I really don't believe in the lie to yourself till you get it model. It is better to work on it till you come to a place of understanding, and actually agree with the idea that you don't want to use. Yeah it takes a very small amount of willpower, but is a greater amount of desire by tenfold to come to this point. You have to want to stop. It is why a lot of addicts have false starts when trying to get clean...I had lots of false starts. Something bad happens, I say I am going to quit, then I get comfortable again and use. This time is different then, I was vigilant enough to not fall into complacency when I started getting more comfortable...I actually turned up the heat and did some real soulsearching.

Remember. To thine ownself be true! Don't lie to yourself. It is just mental masturbation.

Just because it's in your head doesn't mean its not real to the addict..our whole life is in our mind if u really think about it

alot of addicts want to want to quit..if that makes sense

I know that the OP was trying to help people, but as an addict I have to say that everytime someone tries to tell me about how something is all in my head, be it addiction or chronic pain, I just instantly disconnect and immediately tune out the impending lecture.

I didn't even finish reading the OP, and I skimmed the replies, I just saw the thread title and how others were responding and autopilot took over.

I'm sorry just everything in my experience and lifetime has proven that it is WAY more complicated than being "all in your head". You could debate that absolutely everything is all in your head really... $0.02

Or being blind to addiction and think your issues are just a bad day!! Then you live life being a non addict? Diffrent perspectives!!

pbuilder said:

Yes, just believe you don't have a benzo dependency and that will stop the seizures and withdrawals.

Click to expand...

Heh.

He/she kinda picked the wrong forum anyway. Maybe as a reply that'd be okay (their post), but as a Thread, we got the Addiction forum now.

Being healthy helps making withdrawals from benzos not as bad. When I act like an idiot, less and less as time goes, I get to refill day or a day or two before where the insurances will accept renewal anyway, unless one of the bitches non-owner pharmacists are on duty. So scared to lose their jobs, they won't refill benzos a day early. But they'll have you buy 222's, Histantil (OTC prometh 50mg) and Mersyndol all at once without much asking at all (protip for Canadians who are withdrawing from opiates, mersyndols allow for having much less caffeine, they're just way more expensive 1:1 pretty much.

Never had seizures when I was using a strong benzo everyday, at my worst it was 2mg clonazepam twice a day with some beer, everyday, and 24 hours without any was tolerable, but after that, I'd start having spasms in the oesophagus, and my damn WEEKLY (changed by an ER doc when my script was stolen, when I'd have 60 2mg a month) renewal day was on sundays, pharmacy would open at 10 am instead of 8 am. Then delivery time (was living in a student dorm, no car, and fuckin winter here, -30C is a common occurrence, so no way I'd walk up there. That was really fucked up, to have my stomach and stomach tube spasm like that. That's one of the things that made me ask for a partial taper with valium. Valium's pronounced effect do not last as long, but 20mg (3/4 less benzo un-stimulation if we go by conventional equivalence charts. I was pretty proud.

Now after 5 years, almost, stuck there, we're going ashton, he scripted me 10's, 5's and the ridiculous 2's...they're practical for tapering anyway. I'm at 19mg since a week now, 2 more to go then 18...longer than a year process but considering how long I've been using, I had one hell of a time to put fingers at my anxiety triggers and push them away, even if it means ignoring realities, got to live for myself instead of worrying about everyone else. But I'll always use something for chronic insomnia/delayed sleep onset disorder. That, I can't do anything about, but Temazepam every other night is all I ever wanted anyway and now I got it.

What gave me seizures? Ritalin comedown + Trazodone for sleep by the first stupid GP I ever me, I was 17 and no education other than my high school diploma and was starting college and that frightened me as the difficulty curve was steep, I sleepwalked and skipped high school a lot, managed to get 79% average with like 125 no-shows, that pissed some teachers off for sure. But yeah, I thought Ritalin would help..it didn't, Dexedrine worked perfectly though, but I only got to know that later. It's actually the next step here, Adderal XR (only XR exists here) is considered last resort, and Vyvanse even more last resort. Doesn't make much sense when there's Dexedrine as first line ADDI med when one reacts badly to MPH.

So it's not all in the head, how could I know Ritalin and Trazodone is actually a bad mix when you still got the former in one's body.

Maybe but without the opiates to fill that gap the receptors with scream for more. Time heals all wounds, But waiting sucks!

"A Void I'll Do Anything to Avoid" - Gabor Maté

Until a person can fill that emptiness/(void) positively, you know that emptiness we fill with whatever makes us comfortable, "addiction" in any form will remain.
Social media, gambling, shopping, eating etc, are all attempts to fill the emptiness, and drugs are no different.

People with addictive personalities are vulnerable to anything that is most comfortable for them to avoid the "not knowing how else to do this", there has to be an alternative.

The more you push a person who hasn't got a clue of any other way of finding peace, ( OP mentions, many examples that IMO would have the complete opposite effect and addicts (we/me), cannot comprehend these suggestions UNLESS we have found an alternative, eg, Say No To Drugs - Sure, just tell me what to say Yes to first!

That's the only way IMO and IME that I can honestly say, I have no desire to take any substance, at this point in time.

I had to find out for myself what I wanted to be saying Yes to, and I finally did.

There has to be something better that I want to do with my time, and if this doesn't satisfy me, having an addictive personality puts me at risk of going back to the things that used to satisfy me.

An addict cannot brainwash himself into not being an addict or hating his/her drug of choice, they should be heard, understood and hopefully discover that they can choose a different way to fill the void - and only the person involved can come to this conclusion, preferably on their own decisions.

This could take a life time or ten minutes this isn't my 2 cents, it's me sharing what I wish I knew 20 years ago and am only understanding it now.

I found something inspiring that keeps my addiction at bay, to a point. I am still learning and am no angel, but I now know that the alternative to the void is so much better and rewarding for me.

So posting this is reinforcing this mindset for me in a way you wouldn't imagine, so, read into this post whatever you will and I hope that it makes the tiniest bit of sense.
If it doesn't, ignore it.
If it does then there is no more to say at this time.


SL

The father of that crazy bitch Courtney Love ended his book about her (he's smashing his own blood hardcore here, and he's the one with the most facts). He was a friend of the Dead/a Deadhead at some time. Anyway it was funny since it picked at her ex, shitty band, except for the one album Kurt wrote almost all the music : If you have a hole in your soul fill it with love or else it will feel itself with darkness.

Putting the brakes on my brains with benzos was healing, it actually made it possible for me to pinpoint what I should take out of my life aka anxiety triggers. It took a while though, there's just no wishing away physical tolerance. Although my psychological wanting for benzos or opiates is almost zero except on days something really upsets me, but I've learned how to make any event not make me go through the "boiling point". So I'm getting off valium 1mg at a time, bupe 2mg at a time, each at different intervals, intervals that allow for the body to accept in the most gentle way.