exjunky

This thread has really drifted from its original topic but I'll roll with it.

I think that very few people who start with NA succeed. I have no cold hard statistics, but just in my experience I would say that maybe 90% relapse and the other 10% end up truly drug-free.

But that's not to say that NA is bad. 10% recovery rate doesn't sound very good, but without NA the recovery percentage might be even worse!!

I'll never forget my very first NA meeting. It took place at the methadone clinic so virtually everybody there had a heroin problem, some of us had cocaine problems as well, and a few drinkers of course. The guy said: "Look around you, there are about 20 people in this room. Statistically, only 2 of you will be able to kick heroin. But it's not a raffle, you can be one of those two people if you want to be."

In other words, don't let a statistic like "90% failure" scare you. It's up to you if you are in that other 10% or not.

Some people use things totally outside of NA and report great success. I know a guy who quit heroin and got into yoga. He told me in all seriousness that you can get 100 times "higher" with yoga than he ever has been on heroin, LSD, pot, etc. And I believe him.

But of course, yoga isn't for everybody. Just like NA isn't for everybody. But if something works for somebody, I think that's just great. I don't see anything productive in putting down other people's methods for recovery if they are actually showing progress.

formergolf99

648 days!

Peter

Lol.

3606, not counting leap years.

2ala2

Cheer up Windy, lol.

Peter

Yes I notice that too.

Done_With_It

lol, Yea I'm miserable too, just cuz I'm not in AA/NA..
Did I forget and walk into the NA forum... *slaps head*

The reason I come to this forum is because it IS not the NA forum.

I guess I need to leave this forum since it's turning into a
"Your bad if your not an NA member" forum, which I'm not
the only one that thinks this.
There are some others that have already left and some others
that are thinking about leaving.


I have stayed in this forum the last 2 years because it is the
substance forum it looks like it's turning into NA2.

Guess I'm just miserable and 2 years clean at that and fired up.

Thanks for the insults guys and the support. Niceeeee......

PeachyClean

And there lies the rub. I've noticed the opposite.

I've also noticed that the people who follow their heart and live their important dreams are happiest. Doesn't matter whether it's through NA 12steps or 1 PERSONAL Step....> Understand what it is that will make you happy. Everyone has unique requirements for attaining happiness and what makes one person happy may be very different from what makes someone else happy.

Revel in your individuality and do not worry about whether or not your desires are comparable to those of your peers.

As for me, I choose to live my life based on my own standards, beliefs, set of morals, ethics, principal etc. Developed by me for my life. That is what I call personal freedom. Recovery has taught me how to CHOOSE for myself. If I'm simply living my life according to the vision of others....> then whos life am I living really?

3315, not including leap years .....> all on my own.....> not that it matters much but since we're counting.

windysan

peachy, you ain't clean. yer a dirty girl ! LOL

PeachyClean

LOL

PeachyClean

Anvilhead, I can relate very well to the struggles of being with another addict. My first day of recovery began when we got into one of our "arguements" over something probably meaningless as per usual in our active addiction state. Our solution for solving arguements, much like anything else, was to simply make The Call. That last arguement was somehow different. I decided I did not want to parttake anymore and if he did go ahead and make the call....> he had to leave. He choose to call and off he went. He called me hours later inviting me to some hotel room that he had rented so we could continue indulging in his purchase. As tempting as it was, I declined. He wasn't allowed back home. We were officially over. I forced myself to have no contact whatsoever with him, even when he called and begged me to let him back, that things would be different and that he had no place to go (was living on the street at this point) etc etc etc... I stood my ground. I went as far as having to disconnect my telephone service because in all honesty I simply did not want to hear of his struggles and then feel guilty for making him leave. I also did not want the ease of access to a telephone, either to make the call myself or have some dealer calling me up asking How I'm Doing...etc.

Anyway to make a long story short......> I did what I need to do for my recovery. I learned how to take care of me; how to cope with the cravings; how to deal with my feelings; how to put the pieces of my life back together. etc.
Not easy. But doable.

He found his way to recovery....> 3 month in patient treatment center.

A year passed and a situation presented itself that would have us back together. We've been together ever since and life today is good. We don't run to make That Call anymore. We have developed healthy coping skills.... we're almost "normal"...lol

Sorry for rambling....the point I was attempting to make is that I totally agree with you when you say You have to put your recovery first.

Congradulations on Sixty One days clean! That is important and does matter. Keep up the good work.

Gmoney

I have at least three friends that got clean a year or two after I did. They both tried 12 steps for a while and decided to choose another route. Although I worried about them for a while, it soon became apparent to me that they had found what worked for them. They all seem to be pretty happy to me. I mean, let's face it...life is going to throw us a few curve-balls every now and again no matter which path we choose. How we react to these occurrences isn't automatically attributed to which "program" we work (if any at all). I'm inclined to believe our attitudes towards life's ups and downs depend on much more than whether we go solo or not. As you know, I'm an NA'er but I know plenty of members with extensive clean time that are miserable.

Oh yeah...I've noticed a few more folks have remembered their clean time!! LOL!! Sure, it may not be the most important thing in everyone's lives - but we do remember, don't we?

Congrats on your 61 days Anvilhead!! WTG!!!

Evanna

Indeed Garry. I remember listening to a recovery tape many years ago now by a guy called Bob Earl. He was talking about adult children of alcoholics and how growing up with the message that life is hard they tend to be easily overwhelmed. He went on to tell a story of an ACOA and his neighbour who both left the house to go to work. Both their cars refused to start. They both went back into their houses and picked up the phone. The neighbour rang the Automobile Association, the ACOA rang the samaritans.

I loved this little story and over the years it has been really helpful to me. Whenever i am reacting disportionately to a situation i draw on it. My hubs on the other hand, wouldnt need to draw on this story because he would have simply called the Automobile guys in the first place.

MissT-Mag

Thats so wierd! I thought I was the only one who did'nt celebrate or count the days! Just the other day my husband asked me how many days I have now. I said "7,347..." of course I was being a smart a$$! (it's been about 2 months or so)

Then, like an idiot, I mumbel the words "too many days" .......I swear I did not mean to say that, it totally slipped! I was sitting on his lap when I said that and he kinda nudged me off his lap and I apologized again and again..and again until he finally sat back down. BAD thing to say.

I still want to use every day. It's getting very difficult not to use.

THE KING

alright here is a question for everyone here that I think applies to this debate (I was gonna make my own topic about this but whatever)

lets say someone is addicted to pain killers, they get clean, they have been clean for 5 years, then they get into a motorcyle accident have have to have life saving surgery and now they have to take pain killers as part of the recovery from surgery, are they still clean if the pain killgers suddenly become neccessary and not just something they are taking because they are addicted?

Doug

I don't know Done, I tend to feel the complete opposite about this Forum, though I understand how you'd get that feeling by this single thread.

Recovery is very personal, and as such, people feel strongly about it, it has saved their lives after all. Now having said that, I'll say this-

Yes there are people who try to force their way, especially online. And there are also some more open minded people who feel as long as you get there somehow, that's what counts.

I feel it's pretty closed minded to assume any one thing will work for everybody, that just isn't very realistic. And that can be applied to things other than recovery programs as well.

We're not all "book thumpers" either. For me, what works best for me, is NA, and for a while I used AA. However if you look through all my posts, you'll see I've never told anybody here, to go to a meeting, that it is the only hope. I always suggest getting into A recovery program, followed by- there are a few to choose from. There are some other members here who post similar suggestions.

One of the benefits of real recovery is open-mindedness. And that works both ways.

Now I should try to get this thread back on it's original track, LOL.

exjunky

(emphasis mine)

Be careful about thinking that way. Painkillers (and by that we mean, OPIATES) are never necessary. They are sometimes a wonderful crutch to fall back upon, but what did people do before them?

I've already rehearsed the scenario in my mind. I am in an auto accident, they are sewing me together at the hospital, and the first words from my mouth will be No opiates please--I'm a recovering heroin addict. "Heroin" oversimplifies my real history but that's all they need to know to understand my problem. The last thing I need right now is IV dilaudid or IV morphine, it would help for a few minutes and then cause months of agony!

I'm a strong person. I'm not a little boy, I'm a man. I'll just take the pain. That pain isn't as bad as the other kind of pain.

However -- if your drug of choice was not painkillers, let's say it was cocaine, that's a horse of a different color. Then I would let them prescribe whatever painkillers necessary. And do be careful with them (you addict you) but go ahead and use them.

X-J

NEEDTOBESOBER

My problem is w/alcohol and bars (xanax) and I smoke weed every once in awhile and I have even turned it down and I know I dont have a problem with it, so would I still be clean and also if i have used I just dont count those days for my sobriety time which I have only done a few times.

bval

Holy run-on sentence, Batman!



Just teasin' ya NTBS.

But seriously ... now, what is your question?

I'm way tooooo stoooooooned to remember what it was, duuuuude.

bval

Oh, and I just wanna say ONE thing about this thread as a whole ...

Just because someone says that in THEIR experience they see more happy faces on addicts recovering IN NA than they see OUT of NA ...

That is NOT an insult to people OUT of NA.

That is called relaying personal experience.

That is all for now, hope everyone is having a tremendous day

Done_With_It

I should not have posted when I did, I was upset at the time. And yes I was upset because at the the time there were several threads/posts what I felt were slamming people who weren't part of NA, I don't go to the NA forum because I don't go to NA.

Coming here and reading things like I'm more miserable because I don't attend NA is totally disrespectful to me, I don't disrespect NA members and I don't feel they should disrespect my recovery.
If that is their 'experience' then that is fine, but that is verging on bashing members who don't follow their protocol imo. I come here to give whatever support I can in the way of recovery not tear someone down because they don't do it my way.

I had two years the other day so obviously something I am doing is working for me, all I ask for is respect for the program I'm working, and not to come here and read what a miserable person I am because I don't go to NA. If I'm in the NA forum and I'm reading that, then that is a different story.

You know as well as I do how fond of this forum I am, it's where I found my recovery 2 years ago, and what I feel is a part of what saved my life, so I do take what is said here more personal than I probably should.

I couldn't agree with you anymore.

And once again, I should not have posted that other thread when I did.
But I did, emotions got the better of me, time to move forward...8
Live and Learn.