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Forums - General Discussion - Have you ever suffered from drug addiction? How did you get out/how are you coping with it?

I smoked cigarettes and weed for twenty years. People say weed isn't addicting but I needed it to feel "normal" until it started making me more anxious.

I replaced these with other things off and on, like energy drinks for cigarettes then later beer for weed.

Now I don't use any but what I came to realize was my addictions were a replacement for not feeling love and being in love.

Addiction is anything you love doing more than life itself because you don't necessarily like your life.



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If you're concerned about addiction to anxiety medication, you could probably take anti-depressants, which treat some of the same symptoms. From my knowledge most of them are not habit forming. I actually forget to take mine pretty often. They take a long time (we're talking weeks) to actually start having an effect, so there's no reason you'd feel the urge to just pop a pill. You wouldn't notice anything if you did.



Im addicted to coffee but I most definitely dont suffer from it.



AlfredoTurkey said:

I have with both drugs and alcohol. I was able to kick both through sheer will power but that will power was caused by overdosing, feeling like I was failing people in my life and myself... I had just had enough. That's the thing about addicts. They rarely ever make it out of their addictions because they rarely really, really want to stop. And by stop, I don't mean like, sitting around going "man, I really don't want to be doing this anymore". I'm talking about waking up and having a profound, emotional, this shit ends NOW type of thing. If that drive and determination isn't there, then they're going to keep doing it. It has to be more of an epiphany or it's not going to happen.

That's one of the reasons I look down on programs, self help books and things of that nature. Those things are really good when used as supplementation to help someone who's ready to kick the shit out of their life. But when people are completely weak and clueless and want someone to basically drag them across the finish line, that stuff doesn't work. They have to be the sole strength behind their life change.

Finally some real talk and life experience.

 

 

This is very interesting topic and I was thinking commenting on it but seeing some of the posts makes me just feel bad...like there's no point trying to explain something for people so completely clueless. Addictions, it doesn't matter whatever they are, there's a story to each one of them...a human story. We all do some stupid shit sooner or later and when it comes to drugs or some other stuff, the person doesn't necessarily or hardly ever even understand he has become addicted so it's not something that can be blamed solely on CHOICE...or do people really think addicts chose to become addicted? This thing isn't black&white, it may seem so from the outside but it isn't...but ya'll keep talking down addicts from your ivory tower, humilitation, disrespect, pity, shaming, isolating from the society...and at the same time thinking I AM better than that, I'm a better person than a addict...but then look at your fucking behaviour, look how you treat other people...yeah you're a fucking saint.



I cannot imagine toilet-free life.

Kebabs have a unique attribute compared to other consumables. To unlock this effect you need to wolf down a big ass kebab really fast, like under 10 minutes or so and wait for the effect to kick in. If done correctly your movements should feel unbelievably heavy to the point where you literally cannot move at all.

-Downtown Alanya Kebab magazine issue no.198

Hiku said:

Does cheese count?

Mmmmm cheese...

Its addicting, but its not a drug... which OP put in title of the thread.

So no it doesnt count.



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VGPolyglot said:

Unfortunately, I have known many people with drug addiction. It's possibly as a result to this that I'm averse to taking medication: I haven't taken medication to help deal with my anxiety problems because I'm afraid of becoming addicted, and I don't drink out of fear of either not being able to control my emotions, or of becoming addicted.

I must say I admire your stance on drugs. I have personally refused sigarets in the fear of getting addicted, after seeing many in my family die from smoking related cancer. I've also seen people close to me try to quit and failing to do so, and I certainly don't want to get involved in it myself. While alcohol is dangerous in many ways it is not nearly as addicting and also not as unhealthy (not in any way saying it's healthy of course), so I've not really had any doubts about my relatively relaxed consumption of it. 

I study medicine myself so I've come to understand the physiology behind the addiction, but I still have a hard time imagining how it must feel like. I'm a first grader so I don't have much knowledge on your problem seeing as it's something that comes further down the lane, but I will say this; Anxiety is first and foremost treated by conversations. Now sometimes the use of medications might be relevant, not that I know if it will be in your case. The most used medication for patients with anxiety in Norway, and indeed in most countries to my knowledge, are SSRIs. And these do not make addicted. You might have spoken to a doctor about it already, but if not you should try it out. Most of them don't bite ;). Him or her will help you sort it out the best way, and the best way will also include taking your thoughts on the matter into consideration. 

 

I hope you get things sorted out, from what I've seen of you around here you seem like a nice guy. :)



JWeinCom said:
If you're concerned about addiction to anxiety medication, you could probably take anti-depressants, which treat some of the same symptoms. From my knowledge most of them are not habit forming. I actually forget to take mine pretty often. They take a long time (we're talking weeks) to actually start having an effect, so there's no reason you'd feel the urge to just pop a pill. You wouldn't notice anything if you did.

Hmm. Have you noticed a big difference pre-meds and post-meds?



IsawYoshi said:
VGPolyglot said:

Unfortunately, I have known many people with drug addiction. It's possibly as a result to this that I'm averse to taking medication: I haven't taken medication to help deal with my anxiety problems because I'm afraid of becoming addicted, and I don't drink out of fear of either not being able to control my emotions, or of becoming addicted.

I must say I admire your stance on drugs. I have personally refused sigarets in the fear of getting addicted, after seeing many in my family die from smoking related cancer. I've also seen people close to me try to quit and failing to do so, and I certainly don't want to get involved in it myself. While alcohol is dangerous in many ways it is not nearly as addicting and also not as unhealthy (not in any way saying it's healthy of course), so I've not really had any doubts about my relatively relaxed consumption of it. 

I study medicine myself so I've come to understand the physiology behind the addiction, but I still have a hard time imagining how it must feel like. I'm a first grader so I don't have much knowledge on your problem seeing as it's something that comes further down the lane, but I will say this; Anxiety is first and foremost treated by conversations. Now sometimes the use of medications might be relevant, not that I know if it will be in your case. The most used medication for patients with anxiety in Norway, and indeed in most countries to my knowledge, are SSRIs. And these do not make addicted. You might have spoken to a doctor about it already, but if not you should try it out. Most of them don't bite ;). Him or her will help you sort it out the best way, and the best way will also include taking your thoughts on the matter into consideration. 

 

I hope you get things sorted out, from what I've seen of you around here you seem like a nice guy. :)

I'm not a drug addict myself, but I have had many in my family be drug addicts. My dad is an example. He got injured while working, got prescribed painkillers, got addicted, moved on to harder drugs, got depressed, killed himself. I know others in my family that have had similar experiences too, so it makes me really scared of taking medication that I feel could be become addictive.



WC4Life said:
AlfredoTurkey said:

I have with both drugs and alcohol. I was able to kick both through sheer will power but that will power was caused by overdosing, feeling like I was failing people in my life and myself... I had just had enough. That's the thing about addicts. They rarely ever make it out of their addictions because they rarely really, really want to stop. And by stop, I don't mean like, sitting around going "man, I really don't want to be doing this anymore". I'm talking about waking up and having a profound, emotional, this shit ends NOW type of thing. If that drive and determination isn't there, then they're going to keep doing it. It has to be more of an epiphany or it's not going to happen.

That's one of the reasons I look down on programs, self help books and things of that nature. Those things are really good when used as supplementation to help someone who's ready to kick the shit out of their life. But when people are completely weak and clueless and want someone to basically drag them across the finish line, that stuff doesn't work. They have to be the sole strength behind their life change.

Finally some real talk and life experience.

 

 

This is very interesting topic and I was thinking commenting on it but seeing some of the posts makes me just feel bad...like there's no point trying to explain something for people so completely clueless. Addictions, it doesn't matter whatever they are, there's a story to each one of them...a human story. We all do some stupid shit sooner or later and when it comes to drugs or some other stuff, the person doesn't necessarily or hardly ever even understand he has become addicted so it's not something that can be blamed solely on CHOICE...or do people really think addicts chose to become addicted? This thing isn't black&white, it may seem so from the outside but it isn't...but ya'll keep talking down addicts from your ivory tower, humilitation, disrespect, pity, shaming, isolating from the society...and at the same time thinking I AM better than that, I'm a better person than a addict...but then look at your fucking behaviour, look how you treat other people...yeah you're a fucking saint.

People have long since ignored the science and psychology of addiction. The same can be said about things like depression. People who do not suffer from something can't fully understand it. From their point of view, it's just stupid people being stupid etc. They ignore the science, because if they didn't, it would force them to have a different point of view and put themselves in a place of luck, not success. See, if someone walks around thinking that addiction is pure choice and depression is "just a bad mood", then that makes them strong and intelligent. It makes them feel like they're a better person. It validates their self-worth. If they buy into the science of it all, then all of a sudden, theyre just lucky. They're not better, more intelligent, tougher etc. They just won out in some random genetic game of chance and had all of that handed to them.

To understand human behavior, you have to get into the psychology of it all. Once you do, everything becomes really fucking clear and people become really fucking predictable and obvious. 



VGPolyglot said:

I'm not a drug addict myself, but I have had many in my family be drug addicts. My dad is an example. He got injured while working, got prescribed painkillers, got addicted, moved on to harder drugs, got depressed, killed himself. I know others in my family that have had similar experiences too, so it makes me really scared of taking medication that I feel could be become addictive.

I'm sorry to hear that. Strong painkillers can certainly be addictive, but there is a strong difference between that and antidepressiva. 

If your depression is strong enough to make you hospitalized they might use anti depressants that can be addicting. These pills that Jwein talks about are not addictive in any way though, and as he says only gives effect after three weeks, and for this reason they will not give you the rush effect that other meds can. If you are depressed they will raise your mood, and if you have gotten over the depression they will no longer have any effect, and stopping the medication won't be noticable for that very reason. Since they don't give you a rush they don't work as a gateway drug either.