I'll have 8 months completely clean and sober on the 3rd of August. How the fuck are you guys doing?
Im from Los Angeles if it matters. Heroin was absolutely my drug of choice though i drank profusely as well (also enjoyed xanax and somas and ambien occasionally as well but that was just so i could sleep cause sleep on heroin sucks ass hole)
im working the 12 steps of AA also
I'm great. I occasionally, like once every month or two, mix some Xanax or Vicodin with alcohol and get a shit ton of sleep. Addiction runs in my family so I do enough to have fun but don't keep or search out enough to get addicted to. It's another reason that I'll never have kids though. Great job on quitting. I hope I never hit a low like that. Even though I've had 4 family members die in the last 6 months I've been able to keep it together. Weed helped work through all of the emotions though.
AA's a cult. Been sober 2 1/2 years from sheer will power. Didn't need to sit in a circle jerk to do it.
good man. congrats. it'll be a year for me on the 6th of august!
thats awesome man, how old are you?
addiction is progressive and always gets worse never better. the reason we use the way we do is because our thinking is riddled with shame neurosis and self criticism
thats cool, i bet youre pretty not very happy though.
hows aa a cult though do tell me im interested
probably not a real alcoholic
You should go get some dope. I bet you get really high after that long being clean.
i dont even want dope. ive got a new solution now that satiates me in the long term.
that being helping people by being of service, being honest, having a sense of community and a sense of purpose, etc. etc. etc.
Agreed. I was/ am an alcoholic. Havent drank in 10 years. No AA or other bullshit. You give up boze for the AA addiction.
hell fucking yeah dude thats fantastic. talk about a miracle
About to turn 30. Thinking about selling everything and moving to the Panhandle of Florida doing Software Development or maybe getting a job with the government. I'm not really sure if that's possible given some of the drugs I'm into.
>real alcoholic
Holy shit, never fucking post again, you absolute fucking cretin.
what the fuck lol AA addiction? going to meeting a few times a week for an hour? talking to someone on the phone for like 2 minutes a few times a day?
then outside of that its just about being rigorously honest not being manipulative or self seeking and being just genuinely a good person.... lol youre deluded man
What's your new solution? Getting high on working out and pussy?
Radford Hall alumni here. Sobriety date 10/22/2013
Congratulations.
did you not read what i wrote
though yeah i do like working out and doing jiu jitsu and surfing and hiking and all that stuff.
better than banging dope am i right
This.
Stay clean man, I worry about my junkie cousin all the time. Any tips on how to deal with that? I care about her alot, I don't have much family
Aug 3rd I'll have 2 years
It gets better OP
man, ive been to jail so many times, prison, wanting to kill myself. it's amazing how good i feel without the drugs
Alanon might be a good program for you to check out. they will have all the solution you could ever ask for. even if you just go once to get some advice.
you gotta detach with love and let him fall on his face hard enough to wanna get sober. or maybe he dies. but your happiness cant be contingent on his well being. you can just feel sorrow for his current state of affairs.
you can also tell him about AA if he is unaware of it.
i picked up diving an mountain biking. fucking lit
congrats man
Five years in December here. Life has never been better - used AA as a support network a lot in the beginning and the friends I made there saved my life. 12 steps aren't magic but there's wisdom there. It's not at all a cult like says, although some members get a little too into it and treat it like law. Stick with the level headed people in the program and you'll go far. Good luck!
nice i enjoy diving a lot but its been a minute since ive done it. i got my padi license back in high school though. id definitely kill to go again
So if you're sober without AA it's wrong? I've been to a few meetings and it's the same bullshit over and over. What really turned me off is half the ppl there are in a bar within an hour after leaving and just go to satisfy their parole/probation or some other legal authority. Then the other half thats all they talk about AA this and AA that. Yes I want to put my additions in my past not have weekly classes about them for the rest of my life.
I was doing oxy for close to an year. If it wasn't for all the side effects, like having shitty memory, constipation, low sex drive, I would totally have continued it.
Quitting was a bitch, 2 fucking months of pure hell. I tried doing it again, after about 4 months, and had withdrawal again from two uses that lasted 3 weeks. That shit is hard.
quit being a pussy and get medical marjiuana at least you have the privilage to do so.... guess where Im from? Dayton my dude you havent ever seen that herronn or you could stroll up north to cle or even take a trip down south to natti top 1,2,3 spots in North America
i feel like you have not been to enough meetings to really have a reasonable opinion on it.
i never said its wrong... im just saying ive tried white knuckling sobriety and its fucking miserable dude. i even moved to fucking hawaii to do it. i still wanted to end it all. i still was stuck with my sick fucking twisted head and after years of trying everything else i finally gave AA a shot, low and behold it works.
it just does man - please consider looking more into it. i think theres a lot of biased and negative opinions out there on AA based off of a few shit experiences and misconceptions.
its a solid fuckin organization
I dont know how anyone can even THINK of doing hard drugs.
My hatred of niggers and white trash scumbags, ever since I was very young has kept me away from those kinds of people, and has made me NEVER want to deal with them.
Secondly, I have never felt so worthless as to need as many friends as possible. I have a few friends, they are all respectable white people who do not do drugs, nor would they ever peer pressure me into doing drugs.
Oh yeah, and none of us has ever been molested by a drunk uncle at Christmas, which is pretty much the source of all "pain" that makes people more likely to do hard drugs.
you can look at it however you want, but if you dont need aa you're not a real alcoholic. step one is admitting you are powerless if you can get by on your own power, you're not a real alcoholic
I've been sober for going on 10 years. I'm glad it works for you. Stay clean and start a new life.
why would i want to still be reliant on some external stimuli for my happiness i dont get your point here.
is it so insane to think that maybe theres some other shit out there that can bring genuine non synthetic happiness to your or my life?
well ask the millions of poeple in AA that are killing it why they keep going back sober as a choir girl if theyre not happy as fuck
peace and serenity are the promises of the program man
checked
youre ridiculously ignorant my friend im very sorry for you.
what do you say to the myriad of lawyers and doctors and priests and mothers and fathers and people who are genuinely good intelligent people who still fall into addiction?
i recommend educating yourself on addiction though if you want to stop being so
wtf..not a real alcoholic if you don't need AA?
this has to be b8. kys
>you can look at it however you want, but if you dont need aa you're not a real alcoholic.
I'm the 5 year guy here and I support AA, but this is categorically wrong. People can and do recover without it. It's an individual journey.
OP here - i agree with you though there are people who have gotten sober through church or yoga or other methods.
AA is just the one with the best track record by a million miles and is the one that suits a much wider variety of people. aka all people
Sober from alcohol abuse for 5 months now.
Quit drinking cold turkey on my own and had severe withdrawls that almost killed me
(Didn't know how deadly they where)
Now im 5 months clean and felling great.
10 months sober today.
AA/NA are not cults. If you don't like meetings, then don't fucking go to them.
I have a sponsor, but I'm slacking on finding a sponsee. I need to get on that.
Heroin is so 1999 loser
ok, so probably 98% of real alcoholics need to find aa to recover
if they want any sort of real happiness and sense of ease its the one that works p much guaranteed every time yeah
cause any real alcoholic / addict has caused a lot of fucking turmoil and destruction in their lives and that shit results in shame and guilt so powerful that it leads to suicidal ideations. which lead to more drink and drug use.
AA solves all that shit
Well, suicidal ideation is one of the side effects of quitting the drugs. To combat it , you can do therapy and take other medication.
AA is a form of therapy, but not the only available. If you have cash to see a psychologist, I think that's way better, but most coming off the shit don't have any cash for that.
Thanks for the advice. She's gotten in a lot of trouble with it in the past and I think she's going to kill herself with it because she's still using after everything and knowing there's probably fenta in her shit. Oh well, I'll just get her some narcan i guess.
right but i dont just want to be not suicidal
i want to be on the broad highway of fucking spirituality with an absolute sense of ease and comfort and have the ability to handle any and all situations no matter how baffling
i want to have a sense of community and purpose and faith that no matter what ill be okay financially emotionally etc.
i want to know true genuine fucking happiness
this is why i go to AA.
AA doesn't have a patent on recovery, my man. It has about the same rate of recovery as psychotherapeutic means according to the latest meta study. The principles and techniques in it were around long before AA began, and can be found in several different therapeutic modalities which target addiction. It's a great way to find free support, and the program itself is helpful to many, but it specifically is not "needed" for recovery, no matter how severe your addiction is. WHat's truly needed is a fundamental shift in attitudes towards life and a support network.
t. former addict turned therapist. Cliche, I know.
Congrats. Just keep taking it one day at a time. I just recently relapsed after a year clean. As a heroin addict myself I know the struggle firsthand. Right now I am trying to get back on track. I'm currently with an amazing woman who just might be the reason I finally get my shit together once and for all. Love can be a powerful motivator. I've tried most of the programs and have been in and out of the rooms for years to no avail. The support you can find there is great but In the end it's ultimately about choices. Do you want to choose life and all the joy that comes along with it? Or do you want to chase that unattainable brass ring? All heroin addicts remember that first time and how incredible it was but few remember the time after that. Its never as good as it was before and it never will be that good again. But try and remember those who you have lost and hurt along the way. They are the ones who truly suffer. They stand idly by and watch their loved ones slowly kill themselves wondering what they can do to help. The answer is nothing you can't help someone who isn't ready to help themselves. My heart goes out to them. Congrats user, keep fighting the good fight
Right on bro. I went to an AA meeting myself. Most down to earth people I have ever met. If that works for you, I wish you the best of luck!
How does it feel to realize you'll never feel as happy or as good as you did? You can pretend you will, but you'll just be lying to yourself.
Oh and one other thing, DON'T relapse when you become depressed or disillusioned. That feeling will pass if you keep working through it. It will likely happen, as anyone under a year still has that "newly sober" shine to them. It may fade, but not by much if you keep it up. I'm still grateful after several years.
Not OP, but I'm truly happier than I've ever been after 5 years sober. You can believe I'm lying to myself if you'd like, just like I thought the same as you when I heard other people say that when I was still using, but it's true.
And in any event, even if I AM lying to myself, as long as I believe the lie, what difference does it make? I still believe I'm happier, and thereby actually am.
I don't see the problem with getting high every now and then. Why are people so weak that they need a religious hugbox to wean themselves off a tiny addiction. Just binge a week every now and then. It's like a retreat. And if luck is on your side, you'll die unexpectedly and will never have to look like Putin does now (and that's only thirty or forty years away for most of us).
Actually AA has a 5 percent success rate.
Logotherapy based programs have 50 percent and higher. I recommend a meaning and purpose based recovery to everyone.
Along with treatment, of course.
The problem with AA is it was developed in the thirties by a man who had his spiritual awakening while tripping balls on Belladonna in the hospital.
There's a lot of outdated pseudoscience to it. Also, it fails to account for and address the root causes of addiction.
The program further villifies you if you have a slip. It treats you as though you failed the program - not that the program failed you.
What of the countless sexual abuse victims who come through the doors of AA? Or those with mental health issues, and concurrant disorders? They're set up to fail - most people with addictions are. The odds are not in your favor.
Not to say it's not a good step to take, and that it doesn't help people. It makes people feel less alone, and that's good.
But it is not the only way to recovery. And the way our legal system flippantly and tacitly refers to it as a form of salvation is nothing short of despicable.
If this is a medical disease - and it is, then we need to start approaching it with modern science, and treat it like one.
When AA was developed brain scans didn't even exist - so without a sufficient revamp to the program it's dated.
Therapist here again. You simply can't go throwing around "success rate" stats when it comes to addiction treatment. They are notoriously difficult if not impossible to verify as valid. All we can say for sure is that 12 step programs have approximately the same success rate as any other therapy studied, which is a bit better than no therapy at all. Frustrating? Yes - but people do recover both with and without therapy. Find what works best for you.
Therapist here again
>Also, it fails to account for and address the root causes of addiction.
Not necessarily - that's what the steps are actually for, specifically the 4th and 9th. There's more to them than what's presented at face value.
>The program further villifies you if you have a slip. It treats you as though you failed the program - not that the program failed you.
Also not true. While some groups/members may act like this, they're not acting in the true spirit of the program. AA is all about supporting people through relapses. Every room I've been to welcomes back people with open arms - we've all been there.
>What of the countless sexual abuse victims who come through the doors of AA? Or those with mental health issues, and concurrant disorders? They're set up to fail - most people with addictions are. The odds are not in your favor.
The odds aren't really in the "favor" of anyone in terms of addiction - lifetime recovery rate from addiction is approximately 50% all together. That being said, I would encourage anyone and everyone with a co-occurring disorder or PTSD from trauma to seek help for those issues in addition to a 12 step program.
So yeah, aside from that I generally agree.
Absolutely get it. You're not the only one bro, I'm with you. Currently going through withdrawal myself, using adderall to deal. I have a script as I'm not, nor have I ever been addicted to addy but the euphoria is kinda nice I hours from time to time
Also a Registered Clinical Counselor with a specialty in addiction therapy here. There's actually quite a bit of research out these days that verify that there are a number of alternatives to Twelve Step programs that show much more promise - judged by length of sobriety in contrast with relapse.
That's not to say I disagree with you - I totally agree that it's completely subjective, and unique to every individual case. I'm just saying - the jury is still very much out on AA's actual success.
That being said - it's free therapy, or at least it has the potential to be theraputic.
Talk therapy period is under critical scrutinty these days as we're figuring out a lot of new ways to address issues like trauma - which is often the root cause in addictions. There's so much out there like EMDR (which I'm a big proponent of) these days. We live in good times to address these issues.
To sum all this up, there's a saying in the East - "The Path to salvation is as narrow as the Razor's edge."
There's no one way.
>There's actually quite a bit of research out these days that verify that there are a number of alternatives to Twelve Step programs that show much more promise - judged by length of sobriety in contrast with relapse.
I'm not at all convinced, and wont be until longitudinal studies support this conclusion. Sorry, but I've been pretty disillusioned over the years by fad therapies showing "promise." I'm hoping this is true, though.
>There's so much out there like EMDR (which I'm a big proponent of) these days.
Are you aware of the research suggesting that the EM part is meaningless? It's really just the same old "talk through the trauma" stuff repackaged. Not to say it doesn't work - just saying.
You should jump back on it OP
There's a 13th step nobody talks about, and it's called making drug connects...
Holy fuck that's it
How the fuck did I not think about that before
Fuck me I can get H again
I'm a fucking genius
13th step is fucking the newcomers while they're vulerable, you uneducated pleb.
Also baller