Looking for some help

MIKEF · Guru

Looking for some help

Harper Lee · Newbie

I have been struggling for quite a while with addition to pain killers. I am looking for some help, someone that wants to listen and provide any guidance. Please reply. Thank you.

Mike M · Guru

Welcome to MIP forum. Highly suggest hitting face to face NA Meetings. NA makes one promise: no addict need ever use again if they don't want to. NA Meetings are the core of NA.

http://www.seattlena.org/Meetings/Meetings.htm

Radder Knott · Newbie

I spent several years trapped in a cycle-pattern of prescription abuse. I don't claim to have the answer for anyone else. The following is based on my personal experience:

A big part of the addiction equation is easy access to product. But the core of any addiction is the decision made in the mind of the addict to continue or to stop. As long as there's indecisiveness, the addiction will continue. How does one become decisive? By acknowledging some fundamental facts:

1) Most addicts either a)quit or b) are destroyed by the addiction and die.

2) Addiction is the decision to perpetuate artificial, retail-based happiness.

3) Artificial happiness never lasts and always needs to be restarted.

Here's some ways out of it:

1) Find an NA meeting in your area. Even if you barely reveal anything about your situation, talking with real people in a safe setting gets it out of the shadows. It's normal to feel emotions well up inside you as you talk, no need to feel afraid or embarrassed.

2)Craving never lasts. If you suddenly found yourself stranded on a desert island, you would get by just fine without your addictive substance.

3) Build a new routine that involves having people count on you and you build a new pattern where you don't let them down.

4) Draw a line in the sand that you decide never to cross again. Recognize there is a huge difference between remembering the addiction and continuing the addiction.

5) Accept the fact that you've become addicted. It's a human condition. Know that you can change your priorities and choose to stop buying and ingesting the chemical. You will forgive yourself, even when others will not.

6) True happiness is not big, bright and sensational. It is wide and quiet. It runs deep. And it cannot be prescribed.

-- Edited by Radder Knott on Sunday 10th of November 2013 11:13:24 PM

-- Edited by Radder Knott on Sunday 10th of November 2013 11:16:21 PM

-- Edited by Radder Knott on Monday 11th of November 2013 10:09:54 AM

-- Edited by Radder Knott on Monday 11th of November 2013 10:15:35 AM

avid · Guru

Hi and welcome to MIP.
Your plea for help is loud and clear.
Now go to an NA meeting and tell them, face to face, what you are telling us in the virtual world.
No doubt that there are a number of ways to end the self destructive cycle of addiction.
The way that worked for me, and many thousands of others is Narcotics Anonymous.
there is no other way that has done so much for so many.
Yes, it takes courage to go to that first meeting....It took me three tries before I was able to actually walk through the doors.
But it was the best decision I ever made.
Today I am free.
I wish you freedom and peace as well.

Dustina ILia · Veteran Member

It took me five times in Prison and 18yrs. living on the streets to go to my first NA meeting. It takes what it takes! The fact that you are acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step that WE all must take. You can't change what you do not acknowledge. We are not responsible for our Disease, but we are responsible for our recovery. Not sure if you have legitimate health issues for why you are taking or abusing pain killers and that can be a tricky situation. I would strongly suggest that you go to meetings, get a Sponsor, work the steps and get phone numbers of other recovering addicts and call them. You might also want to take this issue up with your Doctor as well. I've had serious health issues to deal with since coming into the rooms which required pain medications. I let my Doctor know that I was an addict in Recovery to see if there were ways that we could work around the pain without putting narcotics into my system. I was sent to a pain management clinic where later I had a neuro-stimulator put in to help control pain and now I do not take any pain medications. Now if I am taking pain medications simply because that is a drug I choose to use (not prescribed by a Doctor or not taking the responsibility of informing your Doctors of your addiction) then a drug is a drug is a drug. It will all take you down hill. Admitting that I am an addict and that it makes our lives unmanagable is the first step to recovery but it doesn't end here. Recovery takes work. Just do it! You will find help in the rooms if that is truly what you want.

Welcome to the Miracles In Progress Group of Narcotics Anonymous! This is not an official NA site, nor is it endorsed by the NA World Service Office.

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