D82!
Like I said before! I'm head strong! Once I put my mind to doing something? It's going to happen! I was also a stubborn cuss while in Army Basic Training too! So much physical chit to get thru as well as mental stuff on top of that!
When my Company made the 20 mile march with large packs on our backs? I reached a point at the 18th mile where my back was killing me! I asked the Drill SGT if I could put my back pack in the truck but continue marching? His answer? If you do that you'll not get credit for the 20 mile march! I said: "Oh hell NO! I didn't make it 18 miles only to be discredited with two miles left to go!" I stood up straighter and finished the two miles left with the pack on my back!
I went on to graduate with Honors at the end of my 9 weeks there! I went straight into AIT school after Basic! Going to school M-F and all the exercising along with running five miles a day for 12 weeks was grueling! I managed to graduate with Honors from school too!
I think back to that time when I'm C/T'ing off the pain meds! If I did THAT? Then I can do this! BTW? I turned 25 while I was in Basic Training!
Our mind and body is going to rebel big time at anything that's not the normal for us! We have to retrain our mind and body to do w/o the comforts we are trying to stop doing or using! Just like I had to do when I stopped drinking sodas! Oh how I miss those!
But I know they aren't good for me at the rate I was drinking them. So I've chosen to not drink them at all!
You've got to learn to be stronger than the pain meds! You're going to have some uncomfortable days in the beginning because your mind is screaming at you: "You can't do w/o them!" But you really can! You lived years w/o them before you ever started them! So tell that little person sitting on your shoulder tapping on your head to take them? Go the hell away!
One other thing I did for myself to stay off them? I got a picture of myself from earlier years where I was laughing and enjoying life off the pain meds! I kept that picture where I could look at it all the time. That was another reminder of who I could be again!
TOD