Thanks Ivan. I really love the beautiful simplicity of your post. You captured the spirit of NA and recovery there.
I'm tapering off suboxone. I have clinical depression and it has been suggested by my doc to take it slowly because I can become very depressed coming off of suboxone. Suboxone is used to treat depression in some clinical studies with good results and also off-label by my doctor and others. My doc thinks that I should stay on it instead of going back to wellbutrin. I don't know about that. I would like to be off of everything, but that isn't realistic given my mental health history. So it isn't going to happen.
But I will eventually be off suboxone and try other anti-depressants. I'm looking forward to that with a mixture of fear and hope.
If I follow the NA bulletin on this issue 100%, it suggests that we don't share 24 hours after using any substance. So NA is suggesting for members on replacement therapy not to share where they are for months, or sometimes it takes even 2 years to taper.
My opinion is slightly different. I think that if you are on enough methadone to make you noddy, even a little spacey, you should come to the meeting, and wait to share until after the meeting. But when you get your doseage under control to where you are alert, I think that sharing is appropriate.
I shared when I was still using pain pills. I wasn't all jacked up and spacey, but it had been less than 24 hours, cause I used every day. It is up to the group you are at, because the NA guideline is just a suggestion. All the groups I attend regularly like for everyone to share, even if they are a bit high, as long as they can be understood.
You can get a very good message from someone who is still out there struggling, I think. Reminds you where you came from. And lets us know who we need to reach out to after the meeting. How else would we know?
And I don't agree with moralizing about replacement therapy. I believe that for some people, who've tried every other way, like me, like BV, it was the only thing that worked. I hate to hear a crack-addict talking about how methadone or suboxone is "not needed" for my recovery. If you haven't had a physical oppiate addiction, you have no understanding of that at all. In fact, you can't understand what it is work my recovery, because you aren't me.
I've recently seen home group members shame a suboxone patient into going off his medicine too fast for him (and for his doc). He ended up right back on the street, and is now homeless and suffering.
We are different people. We have to accept people for where they are and love them wherever they are, or they won't be able to stay around long enough to get better. Just my two cents. Let people be where they are. Patience.
KJ