How to cope with being an addict

Coping with any sort of an addiction takes alot of courage, responsibility and honesty. But these qualities are vital in order to stay clean on a daily basis.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. There is the famous 12 steps program that was designed for people who identified themselves as addicts and look towards a support group solution.
2. From my own experience, I have witnessed more personal success stories of addicts who have gotten clean and STAYED CLEAN through the 12 Step program than any other program available today.
3. I however want to concentrate more on reaching through to the still using addict, whose life and thoughts are consumed by the need to use and get high, and for whom, unfortunately he inability to admit to any problem at all is one of the classic symptoms of the addiction itself.
4. So I will give you my own personal final chapter of using that finally resulted in me realising that I "might" have a problem with drugs, but not just drugs, more so, any mood or mind altering substance.
5. My list of tell tale signs were the following - I needed to use as often as I could.
   I thought about using when I couldn't get hold of anything.
   I found it perfectly acceptable to drop out of my law degree in my second year - having attained the top marks in the first year of the degree.
   I started to associate myself with people I felt really uncomfortable being around.
   My days became my nights and vice versa.
   My ambitions towards sustaining my lifestyle turned to crime...a day job just was not for me.
   My drug intake started to get more and more intense, the type of drug I was using also started to graduate from pot to coke and then to crack.
   I shut myself off from the world, turning off the phone and leaving my family very worried as to my whereabouts and well being
   Getting arrested by police for the first time at the age of 26 and again within 6 months for drug related offences.
   When confronted by my father about what was going on, I lashed out and physically assaulted him the first time in my life.
6. Watching my father bleed from a punch to the face in stunned shock was for me my wake up call.....what had I just done, but more importantly, how do I stop things getting any worse..if worse was possible.
   
   The realisation that ONLY worse was possible if I did not get help was the first moment of clarity I had in a long time. Anything was better than where I was headed and so I knew what I had to do to regain a life worth living. I checked myself into a rehab center..

Tips & Warnings

• The above events that lead to my going into rehab is commonly referred to as an addicts "rock bottom" - to describe a state of circumstances so dire that even the addict can no longer ignore the wreckage being caused.
• Once in the grip of addiction, there is no cure, only recovery. The difference between the two? Well, simply put, recovery is a lifetime commitment to abstention from all mood and mind altering substances. It also means a change in the behaviours and attitude's that keep the addict desperate and apart from society in general. It means coming to terms and dealing with all the underlying issues that lead the addict to such self destruction in the first place.