Is there anyone out there that is in the midst of drug addiction?!


Question: Is there anyone out there that is in the midst of drug addiction.?
would you help me understand.? i don't do drugs, but my son does. the closest i come to understanding is that i have a very strong gravitational pull to sugar. this question is for those in the midst of the addiction now. a psychiatrist told me one time that it is instinctive to use, once addicted to it. perhaps there are no whys. i ask you what you think and feel. perhaps, my compassion could grow. doing things that harm the body, but makes you feel good at the time, i get.
but, after it has caused a person a multitude of problems, why won't they quit.? some do, and i won't ever give up hope for my son. can anyone help me to understand this cycle, this intense pull, towards something that takes a person down a spiral, and eventually death.
cocaine, heroine, meth, crack are the most addictive and change a normally sweet and kind person into the extreme opposite. it feels like we lost a person, that someone else is in the body of the addict, doing things way out of character. what does this feel like to be this way. does the person even realize they are hurting people with what they do.? any help here in understanding this is appreciated.Health Question & Answer


Answers:
I KNOW THIS IS LONG, BUT PLEASE READ-IT MIGHT HELP...
I have been on drugs for the last 16 years. I am 28 years old now. I come from a Russian family. I was brought up in a household where education was key. I played classical piano, competed in chess tournaments, spoke several languages, was a foreign exchange student and traveled to many other countries and went to excellent private schools. From my appearance, no one would ever imagine that I am hopelessly addicted to heroine and crack. You see, I am no liar, but am excellent at creating a fa cad that would make me appear fine-well, at least I used to be able to. My heavy use seems to have caught up with me.
I started with pot, moving throughout the years to the next best high-all the while swearing to myself that I would NEVER try crack or heroin.
Not long ago, I had an excellent, high paying position with our school district working with autistic children. I was excellent at my job, got paid very well, and was proud of everything I was accomplishing. I had plenty of friends, got along with my family, and was in what seemed to be a strong, 9 year relationship with my childhood love. Life was pretty ok.
After being friends with a girl for 8 years that was a heavy heroin smoker and never trying the stuff, I decided to see what the big deal was. I do not lie to you when I say that I was addicted from the first hit. Even though I was vomiting violently from the flavor, I knew that the feeling that came over me was something that couldn't be compared and even said later in my addiction that when I die, I want to die high on heroin. The love of my life was hooked from the go too.
Nothing mattered anymore. Feeling that high, nodding out was the goal of every day. Sooner than later we started getting sick. That's when the game changed completely. When a junkie says they are sick, no one but another junkie can ever understand what they mean. No flu, virus, nothing can compare to the feeling that takes over a heroin addicts body when they are sick. Nothing in the world matters and anything goes to get your next fix to get well. I've lived like this for the last 5 years.
After I started smoking heroin, my prejudice to certain drugs disappeared. After all, I was doing the worst of the worst, so who the hell cared. Not me. If I was to go so low as to become a junkie, what was to stop me from trying crack when it was introduced to me.? Once again, I was addicted from the second I exhaled. That was 7 months ago. Within 7 months of double-fisting the two and spending no less than $1200 a week in smoke, everything I had cherished, worked for, and thought would always be there was gone. Not just gone though-there was total wreckage done to any and everything I once could never imagine could ever be lost.
After going to rehab when there was nothing left but death on my path, I somehow put together 60 glorious days of sobriety. I was clear! I was proud! I laughed from my heart and my soul was at peace! I really loved the new me I was discovering and loved being sober. I felt that NOTHING could sway me from this new life I was developing. I was on what they call the "pink cloud" in NA. Meetings became my new addiction and I no longer was alone.
I wish I could end here and make you smile, but I would be a liar first and wouldn't help you understand how powerful this disease is second...
I've never been a drinker (as I only have one kidney) and drink a beer maybe twice a summer on a hot day. 3 beers, and I'm copping some cocaine. A couple lines later and I'm on a mission to score some tar (heroin).
It's been almost 4 months since I fell off the wagon. Everything I was so proud of, everything I worked so hard for, everything I truly believed was in the past was not just gone, it is now like a whisper in the wind. It's like it never happened. I can't even remember the feelings, the hope, the thoughts that I'll be ok. It disappeared and I don't know how to get it back as of yet, even though I know exactly what to do.
This disease is more powerful than love. It's more powerful than absolutely anything in this world we conceive as having ultimate strength. I want to stop. I do. I've lost everything and everyone. EVERYONE. I have nothing. No home, friends, family-NOTHING.
I CRY AS I SMOKE. I CRY WHILE GETTING HIGH BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO, BUT I CAN'T HELP MYSELF RIGHT NOW.
This has nothing to do with you and there is nothing you can do about it. Just be a support and PLEASE do not enable him.
I destroyed my mother through out my journey, but did one thing in my short time of sobriety that became a gift that she thanks me for every day. I told her that she better get in to ALONON or else. I may have screwed myself out of a mom that helped me stay high with out knowing it, but gave her the gift of living again. She is learning how to support me in going back to recovery and aid me in saving myself with out losing herself, her sanity, and her life all because I can't get my self together yet.
You see, I might be what people perceive as the scum of the earth, or a lost, pathetic soul-but I am no liar and can't seem to let ANYONE, stranger or not, go through life, dealing with the reprecussions of this powerful disease blind. Too many have no clue what they are up against and if it means that some will look down on me, so be it. I would rather admit the truth about my problem if it could help just one other person, than let this disease do what it does best and not only keep the addict in its grip, but create suffering to everyone that cares about the person that is temporarily under its spell.
Please help him by helping yourself. There is no other way.
Best of luck...Health Question & Answer

Its strange, have you ever zoned out when driving.? how you suddenly snap back and realize you're driving your car(I mean you didnt crash or anything you were just deep in thought). Well, when addicted and presented with a chance, or even have a thought of the substance, its almost like that, no matter what youve told yourself you just snap awake after you've got it. its a tough thing but you can beat it.Health Question & Answer

Since your question deals with addiction, you should check out this site, it has lots of helpful info that might help with your question:

http://www.recoveryforums.org

This site has a lot of great resources for people dealing with addiction or recovery, and those who know people who are dealing with it. It is worth a look in my opinion.
Health Question & Answer

I was/am in very different circumstance from your son, but i will share what I can.

First, I would like to clarify- cocaine is actually only mildly physically addictive; the main danger is that it is very psychologically addictive. You feel so very good. It starts to feel like you aren't even alive when you aren't on it- and sometimes you don't want to be alive if you can't have it (although I mostly experienced such extreme feelings the one time i tried Crack).
I, personally, wasn't hurting my parents- by my choice, we had very little contact. however, there were other negative effects on my life; I lost the apartment I had lived at for years, a bunch of other things I don't really want to go into, and even overdosed on meth before. I was sick as hell, and almost died. I thought I finally realized how bad it was, and I swore I would never do it again... but it showed up, and I did it anyway. Your brain twists things, and you honestly think that there won't be any harm if you just do that little bit. But it rarely stops there... once you do it again, you continue doing it.

I would agree with the first answer in that it is something mental. I DON'T think it is an "illness", but it is a sign that something is missing in your life. For me, it was happiness; I was very depressed (although no one around me realized it), and when i was smoking meth was the only time I could ever remember actually feeling good.
That is easy to understand on an intellectual level, but it is completely different on an emotional level. I don't think there is any way to explain it or understand it unless you have experienced it. To have never truly felt "happiness", and then to be inundated, to finally be alive and well, and HAPPY.... it's beyond describing. Health Question & Answer

I'm not an addict, but I've spent the last five years getting my best friend off crystal meth- so I've got a pretty good understanding of it.

Addiction defies all reason, so it is futile to try and wrap your head around it. They're addicted, and that's all there is to it. They will do whatever necessary to justify why it's okay to get high "just one more time". I've found that addicts are very selfish in their reasoning, and the things they're being told by others don't matter a bit. It's all about making it okay, just this one time.

With my friend, he's very ill with an immune disease and spinal degeneration, which has a lot to do with his addiction. He got high, just so he could forget about his medical problems- even though getting high made his medical problems worse. It took getting arrested, and his health denegrating to the point he cannot walk, before he woke up and said "Enough!".

Looking back, he still doesn't comprehend the impact that his addiction had on others. However, he can see how ugly the habit is, when his old 'friends' visit him. He tells himself, and tells me, "I never got like that...". But, he did. He seems to think that he was the exception to the rule, and that his addiction was never obvious to others.

The best thing you can do, is be consistent with loving your son. Try to get him to understand that if he continues doing the drugs, he will die. He might not care enough about his life to quit, but perhaps he cares enough about how much he's hurting you and your family. Get him into a drug treatment program- even if you have to drag him in. Next time he's high, take him to the emergency room. Get him treated for this illness. Force him to see how ugly it is, and the effects it is having on him and everyone around him. At first, the concept that it's affecting others will be alien to him, or he won't care. Eventually, he'll come to understand that it's out of control.

also, it helped my friend to understand that while he was using, he had no control over his life and the terrible things that happened to him. The drugs were in control- not him. It took five years, but he finally made the decision that HE was ready to control his life again.

You'll get your son back. It's not going to be easy, and it will get quite ugly between here and then. But, stick with him, and let him know that this is no way to live life. Health Question & Answer

cocaine. im not addicted to cocaine.but when it is in my hands is another thing. you just forget about everything and just focus on your "high" it numbs my body so i cant feel anything. it makes me feel a bit superior...its rare when i do it but no i notice that im hurting the people around me.... sadly....but its nothing i worry about becuase no one knows i do drugs.




heroin...thats something i dont want to mess with. herion killed my older brother. it wasnt a over dose. may sound horrible,but i wish he would of left us while he O.D. but he got this disease from doing herion with aliminum.he suffered horribly for 3 months after he died. he also didnt realize he was hurting everyone around him.



crack...i have friends who do it. something else i woudnt want to do.it makes you feel like your full of energy. it puts you in a state you want to be in. but onces your coming to your come down its the most horrible feeling youll ever get. you feel like you want to kill yourself, that is why people get addicted becuase they dont want to feel that feeling so they keep on doing it.Health Question & Answer

I was on H from 16-19 every day use. My partner at 19 said that was enough and that I need to quit. I did say ok and I went to Detox and then 9 months of out patient rehab and NA meetings on Thursdays.

I can't remember much now that I think about it.. Infact it has been bothering me the last two days that those years are almost gone from me. I remember things that I did but I can't imagine me doing them.

I can say that while I was occupied with my best friend, Mr. H, I didn't think that I was hurting anyone. I never lied or stole from anyone. I would bluntly tell my mom to give me money for a bag of H and she did.. She always said, "Don't tease.. That isn't funny and stop watching TV, but here you go".

It wasn't until I was 18 and down to 87 pounds that she realized I wasn't joking. I never got money after that. If I needed something she would only buy that item for me and never give me cash. At times I would go inside her house and take money but I would ALWAYS leave a note with how much I took and I did pay her back. I held a job as an addict but while working I was allowed to go in the back room and use it for whatever purpose. The town that I lived in was disgusting.

From 19-21 I would say that I did it on special occasions. Halloween, my Birthday, Christmas.. Ect.. I didn't do it everyday but I had to lie about it to my partner and then I would always get caught. I think at 21 I just decided I can't handle it, even occasionally. I wanted more again. I haven't used since then and now I am healthy and pregnant with my own child. I do hope my child never goes through what I did.

The only thing at that time that was important to me was not being sick. The drug of my choice made me better and that was really all I wanted. I didn't think I hurt anyone and I didn't think that I was hurting myself. I knew what I was doing and the side effects but I thought that it was just too good to let go.

I'm sorry about your son. It took years for me, but it worked out. There are times that I would want to do it even to this day. Expecially in August when my partner of 8 years finally left me for good. I was dying to get a high but I knew there was a baby growing inside of me so I didn't do it.

I was told after I have this baby I won't think about it at all but it is hard even to this day. I don't think I would, but I would never want to see anyone doing it.. because it may aggro my trigger.

One day your son may come out of this and it just takes time. I do suggest doing anything you can to help him out faster.Health Question & Answer

well addictions are actually a mental disorder.

my sister has always done something.
pot was her gateway drug, like most addicts
& she always would cut herself.
her & my brother got beaten pretty badly by our dad
so both of them are a little mentally messed up.
when she moved out,
she always had atleast 10 bottles of alcohol in her room at my grandma's.
eventually she was shooting up heroine
& when she ODed,
she kept doing it.
Now she's trying to get clean.



-& whoever gave me a thumbs down is an a**whole.
hope it wasn't you.
People shouldn't be allowed to give thumbs up or down if they don't know how to use it respectfully.
wtf is wrong with stating the fact that it IS a mental disorder.
go to any rehab, AA, etc class & they'll tell uHealth Question & Answer



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