SoberAndy

I was talking with my step-daughter who is making progress but is still shakey in her recovery. I said to her, "I feel like you are still doing this for us, especially your mom, instead of doing it for yourself."

She agreed. I suggested that she make a list of reasons why she needs to do it for herself. I started with a few of my own:

1) She doesn't want to die. (She had two overdoses shortly before she first started trying to get sober.)

2) She doesn't want to feel lousy every morning. When she does drugs, she always feels awful in the morning.

3) She wants to go back to school. She can't do that if she's using.

4) She wants to date guys and find a relationship. It's tough to get guys interested when her days are always varying from 0 to 60. But imagine if she could tell them she has a year or more.

I'm going to post this both in the friends and family forum and in the recovering addict forum since it's really a question for recovering addicts.

What are the reasons on your list for doing this for yourself?

marle

People do drugs for a variety of reasons and they also quit for a variety of reasons. I smoked for 37 years. I kept myself in denial about the health effects for a long time. I finally quit and my reason for quitting was that I was just tired of smoking. Marle