Addiction isn't necessarily a loss of control but an attempt to regain it. A method to seek relief or attractive pleasures. We don't class the desire for chocolate, love, over spending, practising religion or nail biting as an addiction disorder. I don't believe addiction is a disease. A disease spreads by touch, is airborne or is present in heredity genetics. While I was supposedly "diseased" I didn't infect others with my addiction. I didn't cause an Outbreak downtown by touching and breathing on people.
All habits run on a wanting and motivational level or dark emotions we want to erase. Every cell in the body craves release and freedom. We all want to get out of a low and reach a high, to follow repeating patterns to claim the reward. Then we have OCD, a unnecessary compulsive urge to perform tasks that bring little pleasure and serve no reward at all. Washing your hands 74 times a day, compelled checking the oven is off, folding your socks a certain way or making sure your slippers face south west at bedtime. These obsessions add to stress and worry not release it.
How to Recover and Detox From Heroin Addiction
Detoxing from heroin was an extremely difficult period. Drug addiction rehab wasn't as sociably accepted like it is today. I never saw addiction coming. Nobody does. There was no way I could do a heroin detox at home with my parents, I had to go to a heroin detox centre. I don't think pure addicts can have heroin detox treatment at home. My parents tried and failed trying to get me clean and for me heroin treatment options meant I couldn't detox from heroin without professional heroin addiction help.When the heroin withdrawal symptoms hit you need professional heroin detox treatment away from your usually environment because the heroin detox symptoms slam your head mashing on rocks.
There is always a lot of opinion and debate on addiction and whether heroin addicts are responsible for their choices, actions and the consequences that follow. For some people it's hard to feel sorry for a drug addict that dies from an overdose because in their eyes everybody has free will. While that's true the freedom and right to choose is not so clear cut. Especially for addicts with mental health issues or when people feel that all hope is lost.
There is no doubt they are links to an increased likelihood of addiction due to poor mental health, exposure to stress, adverse trauma, bad environments and pressures from peer groups. When you feel stressed, helpless, alone, afraid, angry or want to feel part of something then addiction becomes a reaction you make not a decision. For example when most people feel low or upset they may go on a binge like drinking alcohol, turning to weed, overeating comfort food or "treat themselves". This course of action may work but a few hours later or the next day you won't feel better. In most cases it doesn't work, it's a temporary cure for the anxiety, a brief get away for your pain and suffering.
In the dark places where I've felt everything I'm going to feel, I'm burnt out, empty except for tears the substances take that away. These reactions evaporate the pain and confusion. The attraction is they take away the hurt and bring relief for a little while.
You may have never felt in a situation where you feel the need for a let-up of your suffering and require to turn to substance abuse. To be out of your body and mind so it stops hurting, if so you're a member of the lucky ones. Unfortunately the addiction cycle begins when that feeling of relief is your only desire, the only experience you want and the craving is all you care about. All you can think about.
When addiction takes hold over your attention span everything else falls into second place and the rest of your life is on hold because you are trapped in the loop. As a former heroin addict I know you see hope in that needle or temporary happy pill. During unbearable pain I wanted to end it and in a backwards sort of way heroin numbed my pain and kept me alive. Heroin turned into my motivation and stopped me from committing suicide.
With heroin you desire that precious time not to feel terrified. We all desire more pleasure in life but there will come a point where the pleasure and enjoyment diminish and you want to end the addiction that once served your emotional needs. The issue is that substance abuse takes you away from who you really are and what you can become. It destroys you piece by piece. In this period your addiction is no longer a safety net to reduce fear and remove pain it becomes a source of the very anxiety and pain you intended to escape. What used to ease your deep emotions is now the cause of your suffering.
All Types of Addiction Involves Suffering
Your addiction can seem like a solution in the early stages but as you sink deeper it becomes part of the problem. In the end the compulsion to chase that feeling is unhealthy and damaging your body and mind. When you realise that any harmful addiction will never meet your long term needs it's and is the illusion of happiness you'll want to quit.It is possible to argue you don't have to do things that are bad for you. You don't have to take it or do that to yourself. Everyone has a choice. The film Trainspotting tells us to choose life, but choice only remains a choice when you have options. The reason I made that choice is because I felt I had no choice.
If you believe in free will and think addiction is a life choice then try stopping doing anything that gives you pleasure or reward. Stop watching your favourite TV programs, stop using social media, stop praying to your God, stop having sex, stop going to work for money, stop having fun, stop feeling sad and stop being in love with the one you love and you'll see that we are all involuntary addicts in several ways.
The brain is hot-wired to chase the things that give us pleasure so don't judge an addict, you are no different to most addicts. Addiction is a greedy selfish desire for freedom and happiness. We do what we do to feel alive or dead. If that is a disease then we are all automatically infected at birth.
It's not so easy to stop our pleasure zones from wanting. And for heroin recovery, stopping smoking, stopping drinking and overeating people need addiction help. All addictions can be deadly if they consume all your time and resources. The appeal and attraction of addiction is that it offers us a buzz, an escape, the chance to let go and forget reality. For this reason it is easy to binge on delights in order to be out of the horror and forget when life gets difficult and unbearable.
It's not abnormal to want. Unfortunately the changes cause the obsession and inability to stop. We all desire to be out of our horror and as a consequence may step into another terror believing it's a source of happiness and well-being. Always be careful what you wish for, with habits you are slowly programmed like a mindless robot. Unable to think ahead or think for yourself because your decision making is warped.
To understand addicts we have to listen to them and understand the triggers and deeper causes that caused that breakdown of control. What lead them down the path to becoming an addict? I know my reasons, do you accept yours? While you're in denial about your addiction you can't conquer it. Many, if not all addicts think they have it under control.
Where it once provided fulfilment and an escape your addiction grows beyond choice. It's a hunt for escape, even when you realise you're at that stage you're unable to suppress or stop the act because detoxing from heroin or any nasty addiction has difficult side effects and craving symptoms.
The shame and guilt of becoming an drug addict or been unable to stop the compulsive behaviour also adds to the burden. The cycle you become trapped in drags you lower and lower, harder to dig yourself out. Addiction is isolating and the longer you remain in the hole the more your hope fades away that you'll ever get out. If you stay down the pit too long that is where you'll die.
Getting Clean
Friends, family and therapy can help dig you out but the addict also needs the commitment to changing and ending their suffering. Addicts need something to cling on to so they can climb out from addiction and despair. Goals that will give them back a purpose beyond the next fix, goals that rebuild their self respect, love for themselves and the desire to stay clean.Heroin addicts only remain trapped because desperation makes them feel they don't have another choice apart from taking it. Heroin was an alternative to permanently ending my pain. Legalising lower class illegal drugs would help reduce crime and rise extra taxes for treating hard A class drugs, however you might be able to lawfully regulated cigarettes, weed, alcohol, coffee and chocolate but you can't regulate heroin this way.
If you haven't tried heroin then you have no idea how lucky you are. If it was available over the counter then I reckon 50% of the world would be taking it and the other 50% selling it. Heroin is all-or-nothing, that fucker is addictive stuff. Don't touch it. Never try it. It is not your salvation.
When addiction changes who we are and what you believe in it kills us. Never hurt or betray people to satisfy your addictive desires. Don't shoplift to fund your habit, have you felt the weight of a whole shop? Stay how you are. Remain pure and innocent to put drug dealers out of business.
What if it’s too late for you? How can you stop?
When you are tied of pretending living that way you'll do something about it.
The best treatment for addiction is to give addicts new healthy addictions that will set them emotionally and spiritually free from their bad ones. To treat an addict you need to offer them another choice which provides them with hope. It is possible to move forward from reckless addiction, bad habits and destructive temptations. Addiction treatment comes in many forms - group/community sessions, doctors, help lines, former addicts and self help books can provide support.
It's not easy, yet it gets easier with time. Addiction recovery is a gradual process that requires self development and facing life's troubles. It involves unlearning how to be an addict and detaching from the habit traps you fell into. Eventually your brain will disengagement from harmful desires and be you'll be stronger, healthier and happier for it.
It's not really about rehab or recovery, see it as a new beginning to becoming unstuck from your past and discovering your future.
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