I guess for me, this is going to be way easier than real life meetings. I guess I wanted to formally introduce myself to everyone on the site. Im a 17 yr. old female from veryyyyyyyy rural NH, im a junior at a semi-private schoool. In July of '05, i wa splaced into a 6 month, life turing around RESIDENTAL drug treatment center, let me tell you, not my bed of roses. 5 days before i was admitted there, i was put in a "mental health unit" because they percentile of heroin addicts staying at the program during withdrawals was so low that i wouldn't be accepted unless i "detoxed". I went through 6 months of hell, honestly and got back out in this world and I had NOOOOOOOOOOOOO clue what to do. NO ONE cept me changed. *I eventually got back into using, fortunately i have been clean from cocaine/heroin for a yr. on July 7, 2006. Ive still deciding wether or not i want to use. I do enjoy using marijuana so i dont know what to do. im grateful for still being here, thanks for listenin. <3 tashaaaaaaaaaaaa
Have you been to a NA meeting lately..I sponsor a 16 year old. He's not sure he's an addict & thinks he'll be able to use again. I don't judge who is or isn't an addict. The only requirement is a desire to stop using. To tell you the truth..I often wonder when people start using meth if they become addicted..even if they're not addicts. I know not everyone who uses drugs are addicts. I know that I'm an addict..you can call me Wildbill
I'm Bob and I used to think that I was just an Alcoholic who also like to smoke pot. So when I would try to quit drinking on my own I would use the famous or imfamous Marijuana maintence program, the problem with that is your stil using so you don't get any true recovery. When I got clean for good I wnet to a drug education class and there I learned that using drug changes the synapsis in the brain, and nothing can ever change them back. The addict brain is like a pickle, you can turn a cucumber into a pickle but you can't turn a pickle back into a cucumber. In Narcotics Anonymous we abstain from all drug including alcohol and pot. Because when we use drugs in anyform we release our addiction all over again. If your an Addict like me the only road to recovery is to not take that first drug. It took me 25 years of using to learn that, the last ten spent trying to quit using Bob's program. A lot of the time I feel like I wasted the best years of my life using. Your young and have your whole life ahead of you, get recovery NOW so you won't be old like me regretting the choices that you mad. Good luck. Bob. Visit. "www.na.org" you can find links to meetings and Narcotics Anonymous in your area.
See the thing is, I was attending meetings almost everyday from Jan-March and I just didn't wanna do it anymore. July 7 Would have been my one yr sober. I don't even know if I want to be sober, But I Kno Im An Addict
In the beginning using was fun, but as we stick around I find that it is on a much deeper level of why we use. Using drugs are just a symptom of our disease. Hell, if there were no consequences I would love to get out of myself on occassions! But when the group experience tells me that jails, institutions, and death are the end result of our disease I believe them. I also can say that this is true from my own experience.
As the program teaches me when you finally get sick and tired of being sick and tired that is when you will decide to do something different. Give yourself a break. Perhaps pick up an NA Basic Text and start reading and see if you can identify with anything it has to say. In the beginning I struggled with if I had a desire to stop using, and by the way, this IS the only requirement for membership. I wanted to use, and I wanted to stop. Just that small desire of wanting to stop qualified me for membership. Also I might mention that state of confusion is something the disease loves because when we get into confusion (definition for baffling) we do nothing! Our disease wants to see us dead. It will enter any back door and get a foothold...then you look forward to a life of dereliction, degradation, humiliation, and isolation to say the least.
Just for today I don't want that kind of life and today my lost dreams have truly been awakened. This format is great, but this format will NOT keep you clean. I have been also taught that those who go to meetings regularly stay clean. You will find the solutions in the steps, and you CANNOT do this alone! I wish you well in your search and pray that you make it back to the rooms.
Sorry; Alcohol is a DRUG, Period. The 3 indespensable spiritual principles are Honesty, Open-mindedness and Willingness. The only requirement for NA membership is a Disire to stop using. You don't want to wake up one day and realize that none of the hopes and dreams that you had for yourself have come to pass and that you've wasted your youth using and have nothing to show for it. Good luck. Bob.
Hi natasha. I too have been to a treatment program. Shit, it was more like a lockdown. It was called "sorenson's ranch school" in middle of nowhere Utah. It was both the best and the worst year of my life. When I went home, finally, i was amazed. The world stopped for me, but it didn't for them. Everyone I thought I knew was so fargone that I couldn't even see them. I didn't want to be around them. The first month out of treatment was HELL. Let me tell you- murder. I hated life. I found someone who could tell me all the right things, all the time. Now, when i think about using, i think about the hell i had to go through for it. Sure, there were good times, but the bad times were more often. Think back, are you grateful to be alive right now? Let me just say this..sure you like smoking, and yeah, maybe it could be fun, but IS IT WORTH IT?
Every morning I wake up and pray to God that i will make it through the day without using. I find myself in the same spot every night praying to God, thanking Him for helping me not use that day...remember friend, it's JUST FOR TODAY.
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"Sobriety will be a bitch, but you must love and cradle her. She will help you through and protect you from those harsh, dark realities you used to be familiar with" -Dope Sick Love
