Wow, I have an addiction

[89jeepxjw]

So for the last 6 months I have been on percacet/darvocet/vicodin fallowing up my acl injury/surgery. This last week I refilled them all for the last time. Anywho last night I had a long talk with my girlfriend of two years about my attitude towards her and basically everything that im involved in.She said that I am not outgoing or "happy" towards alot of stuff and also said that I am very hard to get along with lately. I got very aggitated with her and just kind of shut down to her. She eventually left and immediatly I went to my bathroom and popped two percacet. Thirty min. later I was feeling really good and just kind of went of in my own world and thought really hard. In all honesty im not in hardly any pain when im off the stuff, just a little uncomfortable. I really dont have any ambition towards the things I really love to do, for example I have two bad U-joints on my rear shaft that I need to replace maybe a 45 min job and I cant bring myself to do it. I have a bundle of goodies for my jeep sitting in the boxes they shipped in. To top it all of I really find it hard to get along with the GF. When shes over or were doing something and I havent had my pills everything just seems so annoying to me. My grades are declining in school, the really screwed thing is that im going to get my addiction treatment liscense. So after this process I called her up and gave her all of my prescriptions and went to my doctor. He told me to write down my usage. After my surgery I started off with two vicodin a day.At max I was taking 8-9 percacet's a day. So Without realizing it I totally bit the codiene/morphine hook. Today is my second day without anything and im feeling really achy. Im sorry for the long post but i needed to vent. Anyone ever been through something similiar? What did you do to get back in the swing of things?

[old_man]

Been there. I used to race motorcycles and have had too many surgeries to count. That stuff can get its teeth into you. You will have the DTs for about 3-5 days and will start to get back to normal in a week or so. Its a nasty ride but you can get through it. I found that if I just tried to get 10-12 hours of sleep and ate only protien and cut the carbs, it helped.

[Ramsey]

Hells yes. I was hooked on lortab for I dont know how long(years). Took them for recreation when I was younger, then after a bad accident I had bottles upon bottles to shove down my throat. I would go for maybe a month or few without, but I always kept going back to them. After a rather long binge I decided I needed to do something about it. What worked for me was stopping cold turkey. Stopped on a friday, that weekend was awful. I went through withdrawal pretty hard but it only lasted a couple days, for which I was absolutely worthless those two days. I've had opportunities since then to get more, but I've managed not to. Its hard, but at least you have someone that cares for you that can help you through it. There is professional help for this too, Naxja might not be the best place for help;) Might be good to talk to someone about it.

It could be a lot worse, you could be hooked on WoW. Cant tell you how many friends I've lost to that.

[Beej]

Any of the opiates are going to elicit full-on physical/psychological addiction eventually. The tough part as was alluded to here, is getting over the physical addiction.

Opiates actually replace the neurotransmitters they replicate. This means that with usage over time, your body slows down its natural rate of production of the same neurotransmitters. After you quit taking an opiate, you will literally experience more pain and irritation, physically, until your body re-accommodates the need to create its own endogenous neurotransmitters. This lag time between using external opiates and endogenous opiate production is commonly termed 'withdrawal' (duh).

This process, though painful (emotionally and physically) will take a day or two, but will pass completely. Afterward, you are stuck with the psychological components of the addiction, which as I'm sure you know, will be considerably more difficult and will take longer to deal with as well as more effort on your part.

PM me if you want more information...

[Gerr]

I wish you the best man

All I know is each of the preceading posts spell it out like it was and still is for me been 2 years and still going fine but my wife has a way of motivating me that wasnt there before we met.

[Powerman]

Well you get a small look into the field you are getting into. Right now it has good rewards with few consequences. Trust me, that will flip, then you are screwed. Short term pain is much better than long term misery. Quit now while it is "easy". "Step away from the dope". Seriously, good luck.

[a1collier]

Hello,my name is Aaron and i am an alcoholic.Check out an NA meeting.

[Beej]

Hello,my name is Aaron and i am an alcoholic.Check out an NA meeting. Check it out, but if it doesn't seem like a good fit immediately, then pass on it. Twelve-step based programs work extremely well for the cohort they were designed by: 35-50 year old Christian males...

[a1collier]

Check it out, but if it doesn't seem like a good fit immediately, then pass on it. Twelve-step based programs work extremely well for the cohort they were designed by: 35-50 year old Christian males...
Thats funny,35-50 year old Christian males!You dont have to be none of those to get it.

[Beej]

Thats funny,35-50 year old Christian males!You dont have to be none of those to get it. True, I'm not knocking it, I'm just pointing out that is has a focus and a target audience and research has shown it works best for them...

[Powerman]

Check it out, but if it doesn't seem like a good fit immediately, then pass on it. Twelve-step based programs work extremely well for the cohort they were designed by: 35-50 year old Christian males...

Um, excuse me... A.A. was founded by an atheist. N.A. too. The traditions are pretty clear on this point. Just thought you might what to know.

And yes, those programs might be a bit of over kill for a regular guy that took pain meds a little too long.

[Sniggs]

...And yes, those programs might be a bit of over kill for a regular guy that took pain meds a little too long.Just like chicken soup - Can't hurt! :cool:

[Ramsey]

What if he's allergic to chicken? Or if it had bird flu?

[91G-Dub]

Been there, done that. After a major back injury in 2000 I ran the gamut of "fell good" pills just like you.
Family suffered, work suffered, fun suffered. Everything and everyone except me suffered.

Finally just told my Dr NO MORE DRUGS!

Had to just learn to deal with the pain. Kicking was a bear, few days of no sleep and I felt like my skin was on fire from the inside. That doesn't last long though.

Still have the pain, some days are better than others. If it's really bad I take a couple of Advil and just live with it.

Best of luck. Just do it one day/one hour/one minute at a time.

[Hypoid]

When your future clients say that you have no clue, you can think the same. Insight is good, I second the go through it now approach, take tylonol for the withdrawls, then decide wether or not pain is manageable before you take any tylonol. Live here and now dammit.

[8Mud]

Like has been said, been there done that. I must have had it good, I was completely usless for about three days, confused for over a week and felt like I'd been beat to chit for two or three weeks afterwords. Physically weak. It really reminded me of Malaria. I really should have been in a hospital, just to keep me hydrated and monitored. I was really sick, mild convulsions the whole thing.
The screwed up part of it is, when you finally kick and if your dumb enough to forget and do just a few days of the old drug or a near relative (even if your doctor perscribes it and it has a different name), the withdrawels are just like the first time. Your body remembers, it takes just days of usage to get the full blown addiction back. There are a lot of meds, with exotic names, that are mostly opiate derivitives or near enough to cause the same problems. Just because it's synthetic and has a couple of molecules changed, doesn't mean your body knows the difference, I'm real carefull about what I take now. I don't know about your doctors, but mine rarley listen, sometimes you have to tell them, strongly.

[bjoehandley]

This is the #1 reason that I refused Vicodin (sp?) when it was offered it as a pain killer after hurting my foot this summer. The pain didn't outweigh the risk of of addiction in my book and I knew that with a little Motrin I could live with it. Good luck on you're fight this fight man.

[Beej]

Um, excuse me... A.A. was founded by an atheist. N.A. too. The traditions are pretty clear on this point. Just thought you might what to know.
And yes, those programs might be a bit of over kill for a regular guy that took pain meds a little too long.

I do hope you're kidding?

Here are the original 12 steps:


We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Godas we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our consciousas we understood Him, praying only for knowledgewill for us and the power to carry that out. contact with God of His
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Whether you are looking at it as spiritual vs. religious, the point is clear...

[Bent]

Anyone ever been through something similiar? What did you do to get back in the swing of things?

Step 1 - 10; OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER...

In twelve years, you tend to repeat them a few times.


BTW, 90 meetings in 90 days is a good start. If you don't think you belong there, you do.

[89jeepxjw]

Well another day of sobriety. I couldnt really sleep last night(cold sweats and and just achy pain in my knee) but when i woke up this morning I do feel a little better. ive been screwing around with my axle swap for most of the day trying to keep busy and it actually seems to be working out. I feel like I can actually think and concentrate unlike before when id just kind of forget what I was doing and zone out. I still have a want for some but I can occupy myself to where im not thinking about the stuff,hopefully I can get the jeep together and take a drive and see my parents or just get away for a couple of hours. In just the little time ive been off of it its crazy to think how much my attitude has changed,before i couldnt stand to be around the gf but today I have her here wrenching and even got her to tack the perches on my axle.Like someone mentioned before one day/one hour/one minute at a time. Thanks to beej for giving me some great and really helpful info and advice, and everyone else for sharing, its good feeling to know that some people on here that have struggled were able to get back into the swing of things and are so willing to give good advice, I really thank everyone on here ! Im back onto work on the jeep but thanks again for the support!

[Powerman]

I do hope you're kidding?

Here are the original 12 steps:


We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Godas we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our consciousas we understood Him, praying only for knowledgewill for us and the power to carry that out. contact with God of His
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Whether you are looking at it as spiritual vs. religious, the point is clear...

I see where it says God of our understanding, and Higher power, but I don't see the part about "Jesus being our Lord and Saviour". The 12 steps are not a Christian organization. Period. The only target audience they have is those that suffer from addiction. Period. You do not need to believe in any diety for 12 steps to work. Period


89jeep, glad to hear you are doing it. Stay busy, free time is a bad thing right now. Regardless of your degree of problem, there are always others you can learn from. All you have to do is ask. Glad your XJ is coming along. Spring is right around the corner. Wheeling time!

[Beej]

I see where it says God of our understanding, and Higher power, but I don't see the part about "Jesus being our Lord and Saviour". The 12 steps are not a Christian organization. Period. The only target audience they have is those that suffer from addiction. Period. You do not need to believe in any diety for 12 steps to work. Period


89jeep, glad to hear you are doing it. Stay busy, free time is a bad thing right now. Regardless of your degree of problem, there are always others you can learn from. All you have to do is ask. Glad your XJ is coming along. Spring is right around the corner. Wheeling time! I PM'd you back. True, but I did not at any point say they are a Christian organization, I said: "Twelve-step based programs work extremely well for the cohort they were designed by: 35-50 year old Christian males...". To anyone else who isn't clear on my position: I do not believe 12 step programs are Christian-based or religious-based in any way, because they are not. They are however, spiritually-based. Your own God will work just fine in their fold...

[Powerman]

I PM'd you back. True, but I did not at any point say they are a Christian organization, I said: "Twelve-step based programs work extremely well for the cohort they were designed by: 35-50 year old Christian males...". To anyone else who isn't clear on my position: I do not believe 12 step programs are Christian-based or religious-based in any way, because they are not. They are however, spiritually-based. Your own God will work just fine in their fold...

PMed you back. We're all good Brother. Peace

[Bent]

Step 1 - 10


1 - 12! I know this!
:twak:

The brain cells are slow to come back.

[needsrepair]

Drugs, booze, gambling, food, its only up to one person. You. I have people hate me for saying it but I have told them to just stand up and be a man. Sounds corney but thats all it amounts to. Also consider how much worse off we could be. I watched a program about a woman with no legs and I think her arms had something wrong with them. When she was a kid she pushed herself around on a skate board to play with the other kids. She then met a guy at an auto parts store and got married and had a kid. I looked at my perfectly able bodied daught who was messing up in school and told her its almost a crime for us to not do good when we are so well off. Go accomplish a bunch of good stuff. We have it made.

[8Mud]

Drugs, booze, gambling, food, its only up to one person. You. I have people hate me for saying it but I have told them to just stand up and be a man. Sounds corney but thats all it amounts to. Also consider how much worse off we could be. I watched a program about a woman with no legs and I think her arms had something wrong with them. When she was a kid she pushed herself around on a skate board to play with the other kids. She then met a guy at an auto parts store and got married and had a kid. I looked at my perfectly able bodied daught who was messing up in school and told her its almost a crime for us to not do good when we are so well off. Go accomplish a bunch of good stuff. We have it made.
Sounds good in theory, but often people don't even relize they have a problem until it is too late and/or they start coming down and notice the difference. Almost like depression, people think why not fight it. One reason is many people don't know they are depressed (or dependant), until they aren't anymore. Or they have a brief episode of non depression (or see through the fog of the meds) and notice something is wrong. It's incideous, creeps up on you.
What sucks, is the approach with pain meds, is often just one pill for adults, maybe another for kids. They often don't even try to match the dose to body wieght. Forget about the Doc's doing a metabolism assesment and trying to match the dose to a persons metabolism. I got seriously hooked in the hostpital, I even remember trying to tell the Doc and nurses, to lower the med levels.
Over the years, I likely went through a lot of unneccesary pain, just because I almost fanaticaly avoid pain meds. Even then, I spent a week in the hospital once, from bleeding ulcers caused by Tylenol.
I don't think many Doctors do enough monitoring and assesment. I often feel like I've been Quicky Lubed.
My mother died at 53 from, perscription drugs. Two perscriptions for her Asthma, another so she could sleep after taking the Asthma meds. then another because she felt like crap in the mornings. Up, down, up, up, down, up up, for about five or six years and one day her liver said, that's it I quit. If you were to ask her if she had a drug problem, she would have likely looked at you like you were nuts.
I found enough perscriptions and med's for six months when I cleaned her place out. I went to talk with her Doc, he says I'm the Doctor here and what you think is irrelevant. What happened after that, I refuse to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me. I doubt he forgot the encounter soon. Maybe his attitude adjustment helped some of his other patients, sure made me feel better.
Where the heck is the oversight. Can you really expect somebody doped up on meds, to do there own oversight and use good judgement?

[needsrepair]

My response is to someone not doped up. Its to him. Hes saying he stopped and Im telling him good now be tough and depend on the only person in control right now.......himself. I also know that the only person that can make the actual change for the person addicted is that person himself. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink. Sorry to hear about your mother. I wouldnt consider your mothers situation to be the same as someone using a drug that really wasnt needed. She was just like most people following the doctors advice. The medical system is based on prescription drugs. They wont listen to anything else. They demonize alternative medicine. I was interested in your post though when you said asthma drugs. I have been going to the dr for breathing problems etc. and I dont want to be on any drugs. He prescribed a few things but I have researched (depended on myself) the issue and started working with a chiropractor/nutritionist. Im doing much better and no meds. Its amazing how many new drugs are advertised on tv all the time. I would also have to say that we have a fantastic tool to educate ourselves that our parents didnt.........the internet.

[Ramsey]

Its not always so simple, addiction has a way of taking over common sense.

[Hypoid]

Common sense? I know plenty of sober people who have no clue! LMAO!!!

89, sounds like you have a good start; dealing with the discomfort and keeping your mind busy. Sounds like your girfriend is a real blessing! Is she aware of your struggle? I'm not saying that she needs to be your surrogate mommy, but the "new pair of eyes" can be invaluable. For some reason, those closest to us see things that we can't. Sounds like you've been a dillweed to your bestest ally. I hope that's something you can take to heart and not repeat the same mistake.

Good Luck!!!

[needsrepair]

Did you say tacked the perches on your axle???????????? I would say shes in the DAMNED GOOD WOMAN category!

[89jeepxjw]

Common sense? I know plenty of sober people who have no clue! LMAO!!!

89, sounds like you have a good start; dealing with the discomfort and keeping your mind busy. Sounds like your girfriend is a real blessing! Is she aware of your struggle? I'm not saying that she needs to be your surrogate mommy, but the "new pair of eyes" can be invaluable. For some reason, those closest to us see things that we can't. Sounds like you've been a dillweed to your bestest ally. I hope that's something you can take to heart and not repeat the same mistake.

Good Luck!!!
She is aware of it, thats why i gave her the last of my supply. She is really helping me through this all,keeping my mind off everything and helping me overcome it. I really cant count how many times ive appologized to her, she put up with my attitude for about 4 months and never said anything until she knew i was struggling. Shes just been so great about it all, I really need to take note of how much she has helped me with everything the last two years.

[Hypoid]

Good on ya there bud!

It sounds like you have a keeper there. My last comment wasn't so much about looking back (which has it's own purposes), as it was about looking forward. Gaining someone's forgiveness is one thing, giving them cause to trust is a completely different set of problems. Personally I think you'll be fine. I also think you better sign your life away to this girl before needsrepair gets too excited and moves to Colorado. 8-P LMAO!!!

[Speed_racer]

Hey man.. have a buddy with degenerating discs in his back and the dosc got him highly addicted to PK's.. like yourself....

You will basically need to force yoursefl to take a "holiday" from them...

My buddy had to do this over n over, relapsing, basically, until finally he realized he was happy without them.

You can't "enjoy" a buzz when you're always buzzed.....

[Bent]

You can't "enjoy" a buzz when you're always buzzed.....

I don't know about that; you just have to get more buzzed.


:hang:

[Speed_racer]

I know about that, you just have to get more buzzed, but you COULD end up like this!!


:hang:

Fixed that for ya' ;)

[a7273chargerguy]

So for the last 6 months I have been on percacet/darvocet/vicodin fallowing up my acl injury/surgery. This last week I refilled them all for the last time. Anywho last night I had a long talk with my girlfriend of two years about my attitude towards her and basically everything that im involved in.She said that I am not outgoing or "happy" towards alot of stuff and also said that I am very hard to get along with lately. I got very aggitated with her and just kind of shut down to her. She eventually left and immediatly I went to my bathroom and popped two percacet. Thirty min. later I was feeling really good and just kind of went of in my own world and thought really hard. In all honesty im not in hardly any pain when im off the stuff, just a little uncomfortable. I really dont have any ambition towards the things I really love to do, for example I have two bad U-joints on my rear shaft that I need to replace maybe a 45 min job and I cant bring myself to do it. I have a bundle of goodies for my jeep sitting in the boxes they shipped in. To top it all of I really find it hard to get along with the GF. When shes over or were doing something and I havent had my pills everything just seems so annoying to me. My grades are declining in school, the really screwed thing is that im going to get my addiction treatment liscense. So after this process I called her up and gave her all of my prescriptions and went to my doctor. He told me to write down my usage. After my surgery I started off with two vicodin a day.At max I was taking 8-9 percacet's a day. So Without realizing it I totally bit the codiene/morphine hook. Today is my second day without anything and im feeling really achy. Im sorry for the long post but i needed to vent. Anyone ever been through something similiar? What did you do to get back in the swing of things?

pot.nature's answer.:thumbup:

[Speed_racer]

pot.nature's answer.:thumbup:

:thumbup:

[Bent]

Fixed that for ya' ;)

:D

[bjoehandley]

pot.nature's answer.:thumbup:

You'd get along well with TK on Moparchat there Chargerguy:greensmok