Great advice here Gazza, I think...and thanks for the wrap Glee...:)

D

It is great advice thank you all.

At least now she has drinkers remorse. I pray for her, there's still something there I care about. Her mother died of liver disease and now her father is dying of it at the moment. Her brother is on the same path. Its like they just accept it as their destiny and dont realise that quitting drinking is an option. They all know they're alcoholics there's no denial they just dont care.

Its a sad an evil thing which has ruinied the whole family including our little family that havent even started. Her extended family is the same sucides, crime and liver disease.

I Just found out one of my friends has gone in to rehab for crystal meth addiction. The problem with this is whats gonna happen when he gets out of rehab? I know the guy and hes gonna use the disease concept as an excuse to relapse periodically this is just a subconsous play to use in a reduced way over a longer period of time. How do I know? cos that was a play I made once upon a time.

Why are the waters so muddy in this addiction world of ours? why this industry that fails all it's stakeholders so often?

sigh.

Be well all.
G

So the books I've been reading are from Steven Pinker. I kid you not that it started a day I had a pity party lunch for myself at Chilpolte. The food bag mentioned how despite what the media has us believe about murder and slaughter, we are actually at a great time of peace! The book is statistics and not God stuff which helps me think. I am happy that with statics he's able to show humans are being kinder.

That sounds interesting.

I get a bit annoyed with people who harp on about the 'good old days'. When exactly? Before antibiotics? Roman times? When Slavery was a norm?, WW2? They usually mean the 50s, but that wasnt too good for a lot of people either.

Yeah, led to Vietnam. Not so good either except... it lead to a great deal of social reform. We finally surrendered. Alcoholics have to do the same.

Gazza I understand exactly what you mean about the addictions subconscious effect, and the addict not even realising that they're not really making their own decisions. I think that's why at the heart of a lot of recovery programs they try to get you to be very honest with yourself and the importance of making a real and genuine commitment to sobriety, I often worry that even though I consciously know I want to be sober I feel the addiction lurking just beneath the surface of my awareness, mocking me. I hope that it will go with sober time.

My Dad doesn't realise he's an addict, he was in a recovery program where you can still drink 'In Moderation' I actually laugh every time I hear it. A program of recovery where you still drink?! Yeah who's genius idea was that! Then I learned that it's a recovery program that you have to pay for, that made sense to me then, there's much more appeal to an addict if they're still allowed to drink, so they'll get more business! How sickening.

So now he still drinks, has also picked up a marijuana addiction and will tell people;
"I don't drink", addiction has him in the grip and he doesn't even know it.

Tragic.

Personally, I'm still on the fence about weed. I'm smoked EVERY day for 25 years. When it got too expensive for my taste I grew it in my backyard for a couple years. When my first daughter got old enough that I was concerned, I stopped. I found no physical withdrawl symptoms and minimum psychological so I have difficulty calling it addictive, just habit forming. It definitely was a habit. Because it made me lazy, a bit of a couch potato, it was a bad habit, for me. I still smoke occasionally but it's rare and I don't crave it.

My daughter tells me it helps with her Crohn's disease. Apparently it helps cancer patients, etc. deal with pain in a non-narcotic way. The law in the U.S. is certainly going this way. My daughter also tells me it helps her deal with alcohol withdrawl but I realize that could be the drunk talking. So... I'm stuck on the fence for now.

In the context of my experience, weed was as soul destroying and corrosive for me as any other drug, including alcohol - and that's the experience I share with others here who come looking for help with a pot addiction....

D

I guess it can be for some, it just wasn't for me.

I get that, just like I get folks with other addictions who happily imbibe alcohol with apparently no problems.....

There's a lot of different stories on a forum like this :)

D

Yes there are. I think that's why I love it. :)

:grouphug:

I always feel a bit sad for those who harp on about "the good ol' days" as I feel they are missing out on what could be great right here, right now.

As for weed, my husband was a user until his early 30's when our first son was born. He gave it up without a problem. Just like alcohol. Sometimes I hate that man. :wink:

I will admit that I sometimes get very frustrated with a close friend of mine who is going down the same path. Why doesn't she see what happened to me and realize this could happen to her as well? I have to then stop and realize that I drank heavily for over 10 years and stopped and started and stopped and started numerous times over the last few. I had all the answers, read all the books, but I just couldn't do it. It was only during my health scare at around the 3 month mark of sobriety I had a doctor explain to me that my brain was actually damaged from all the drinking and that it was going to take time to heal. It makes perfect sense looking back on it, as who in their "right minds" would continue to drink and abuse their body the way we alcoholics do?

I'm not sure I like him a whole lot either, at least for the alcohol. Admire... yes, like... eh, lol.

As for right minds, we most certainly didn't have them. Another run through my 4th edition pdf says the word "insanity" is used 15 times.

Hi everyone,
I'm back. I hope everyone is well. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Still sober going on 7 months, which I feel great about. I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately. I'm more or less doing a huge inventory. Finding a lot of stinking thinking going on in this brain of mine. Through it though, I'm finding a lot of peace in myself. It's an ongoing process.

I don't have much experience with weed. I smoked it a few times and I didn't get anything out of it except some pretty colors. Then it became a huge no no to have it in my system with the jobs I was applying for so I just didn't risk it. Plus, I really wasn't around it very often. Same goes with narcotics. THANK GOODNESS I wasn't addicted to narcotics because I was a nurse and I handled A LOT of those. My drug of choice was alcohol, and it was like friggin heroin for me. Seriously, sometimes I think that if I have another drink of alcohol it'd be just as dangerous as heroin for me.

Take care peeps!

Hi Febbies

I didn't have access to weed often enough to get hooked, and I skated by without an addiction to cigarettes, somehow. Alcohol, food, and dieting, however, have done a number on me.

I drove home two women from aa who were recently released from prison. I'm fortunate to have had high bottoms so far. That's only by the grace of God; left to my own devices with weed, I'd probably self destruct.

I'm thankful for my struggles, though. Addiction forces a certain amount of self reflection in my day. My life is so much better than I ever thought it could be, and I'm just beginning to scratch the surface.

Good night!

I held off from drinking until years after my peers, knowing my biology would probably lead me to addiction. Well that happened and quick. I am absolutely terrified to try anything else including weed. I have never smoked, but I know what is in store if I do. On the other hand I firmly believe it is safer based off research. That doesn't give it a free pass from addictions or problems, just a lesser one if you can stop there. I get mad sometimes, mostly when my mom used to lecture me about drinking and to smoke pot instead.

I don't think recovery should be about replacing a drug with another.

Not really in a place to say I'm doing awesome, but I know the option of switching to lesser evil is just too damn scary for me.

I was addicted to weed before anything else. Smoked it everyday for 10 years it can screw you over. especially if your trying to learn stuff.

I think if you're using anything to 'get out of it' just for entertainment something needs work

Before you were born where were you? After this who knows... maybe you only get this tiny slither of consousness to play with. Ive 'wasted' enough.

Damn it! *you're

grrrrr

kol... I mean lol. :)

Well put. Sigh.