How do you balance drugs and life?

[Beings]

Something I heard on this forum many moons ago for fun/party drugs:

7 days in a week: 3 days sketchy*, 4 days sober. Split it any way you like. Congrats you spent most of you life sober, props as it is harder than it sounds.
Sober part includes no booze or g or weed or adderall or ketamine or whatever the fuck it is you justify as sober, with healthy nutrition, sleep and exercise.

*mdma is an obvious exception, plus whatever other drugs you cant do weekly

 

[sh1vambuDancer]

I focus on progress. I focus on my dreams.

The more and more I did this, focussed on holistic health, actual fun things in life, making sure I was vigorously active for at least 30 mins everyday, the less I felt the urge to do any drugs...life started to be so sweet, I 'd just shed off the habits bit by bit...

The more I stopped focussing on a habit, stopped feeling shame, started enjoying life sober, more and more life on drugs seemed lame in comparison to real life's beauties.

BUT

After I had a car crash 4 years ago, all this good work went down the pan a bit, my nervous system was more and more apparently shot, although I didn't see that it had had an effect til I started working with more trauma work for child abuse (I didn't get physically injured in the car crash), so more and more I felt the "need" to drink a cider in the evenings to relax. And it got to the point where I was experiencing so many flashbacks and moodswings, that I had to go back to large doses of nerve calminatives, adaptogens, and CBD, coz buyin a drink most evenings was getting pricey even if I would shoplift them BUT it's been the least of my issues, as long as I keep it hours away from food.

Now, I can easily take big breaks of time away from drink, as long as I'm working on my breath work, keeping dosed up with calminatives and adaptogens to soothe and rebuild, and steering clear of triggering situations.

Basically - if my drug use isn't enhancing my life, then ITS GOTTA GO.

 

[fairnymph]

I never found this hard to do - mostly bc I'm not interested in getting high often. I have a lot of willpower & discipline & I'm obsessed with health. That seems to prevent me from doing most things more than occasionally, since most of the drugs I find fun are toxic (stims) or don't work well used often anyway (psychs & stims). Not that I would want to use psychs regularly. I guess I'm lucky I don't like any of the safer drugs, except ketamine, which I can't easily acquire & there is some dispute re neurotoxicity.

I am on diazepam & hydromorphone, Rxed, and I use h nasally bc my pain is just that bad. I don't find any of these drugs recreational & take regular breaks to reduce tolerance. I'm physically dependent on h, but even the WD from it isn't THAT bad for me. I don't think I'm psychologically addicted.

I've always had an excellent diet & until my pain became a problem, I was very into fitness too. I find that when I feel really healthy & energetic, I'm less interested in drugs & when I do take them on special occasions, the effects are far superior with no or minimal comedown. I'd rather get high a few times a year & have great experiences than use regularly & have mediocre results. So I've never really felt the desire to redose or use repeatedly.

I think many people use bc they are unhealthy & living unhappy, unstable lives, so they just want anything to make them feel good & to escape. Try not to get to this point, but if you do, work on improving your life. But I assume this obvious to most & muvh easier said than done. I think ADs can really help in such situations, & .sometimes therapy.

I use drugs to enhance already good situations (socially), or functionally to improve my life, or simply out of curiosity, seeking to better understand my life. I almost never use purely or even primarily for hedonistic reasons. But IME most do not share my attitude towards drugs.

I've been using drugs for over 20yrs now. Except for my back/pain, I am very healthy.