Day 198
 

Hi there,

So, I last posted on the 18th regarding symptoms returning that had gone away for about a month or two. Have had a few good days since then, but also a few off days. I just came across this while searching the internet. Has anyone else heard of this - And, does it indeed occur?

Hospitals have studied druggies/alkies that were brought in with brain damage severe enough to induce coma. The patients had to be fed through a tube. While they were hooked up to the IV's they took daily blood samples. A curious pattern started to emerge when they compared the tests for several hundred people who had stopped drinking/drugging when they were admitted to the hospitals. (coma's do that ya know... help you stop using that is...)

"They found that the level of endorphines (pleasure receptors) dropped to zero after 4-7 days. Then after about 24-72 hours the endorphines came back AT A HIGHER LEVEL than they had been. Then at about 30 days the levels dropped to zero again. But after another 24-72 hours they came back, again at a higher level! This phenomenon repeats itself at a suspiciously familiar interval...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ normal endorphine level
~~++++++++++++++++ users level -- drugs/alcohol (+) provide the balance
~~ 1st week sober (notice the lack of drug support)
FLARE UP (24-72 hours each time)
~~~~ after 1st flare up (4-7 days)
~~~~~~ after 30 day's flare up
~~~~~~~~ after 60 day's flare up
~~~~~~~~~~ after 90 day's flare up
~~~~~~~~~~~~ after 6 month's flare up
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ after 9 month's flare up
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ after a year's flare up
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ normal level reached after 1 1/2 years or more.

Notice how the Flare-ups occur in the same time periods as we give chips? Makes one wonder doesn't it?

I imagine you are asking yourself... So? So - if you relapse you start back at the beginning of the chart because your body stopped making endorphines when the drugs/alcohol started supplying them. That is one of the reasons people don't want to come back - they don't feel all right. Another reason is ego. Hang in there and you WILL feel better."

I definitely experience it like this, as a kind of wavy process that's hard to disintangle from my normal moods, states. A lot of it, at least in the beginning, was telling the difference between the chemically induced state and the normal one.