(Part 2) Best products from r/OpiatesRecovery

I stand by what i said its a christian based program.


We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

You are not powerless.

Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Statement referring to God

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

God

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

God

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

God

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Him = God

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Quit living in the fucking past and move the fuck on

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

see above

Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

God

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

God

Dont forget reciting the Lords prayer and serenity prayer.

I have done my research and thats why I am clean now. If you want to say its a disease that the treatment should be treated as such and not have an addict shuffled off to have the idea you are powerless shoved down your throat and the only hope is a belief in GOD. Here is a good read that shows AA has no benefit

If you enjoy feeling sorry for yourself and your not at fault keep attending 12 steps, I personally think that once you wake up and realize you aren't powerless get motivated to make some changes you will clean up.

Keep trudging that road to happiness, its a long walk the AA way.

edit: if you want to throw books to read try reading Lance and Zachary Dodes’ The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry

There are so, so, so many different ways that addiction can manifest in any given person's brain. We're learning more and more about it as time progresses. There's no one, universal explanation of the neuroscience of addiction that can explain the complex patterns of behaviours, cognitions and emotions that we experience on a daily basis. There are a few things that I could point out, though!

The nucleus accumbens is involved pretty heavily in anything that has to do with addiction. Really central in the experience of "wanting", pleasure, and the anticipation of reward.

Another favourite of mine is the orbitofrontal cortex, which is important in the perception of reward saliency, or how rewarding you think a particular behaviour will be.

The amygdala is also pretty central because it is involved in the processing of emotions (and is considered part of the limbic system), and can actually be damaged by persistent episodes of intoxication and withdrawal.

These are just very over-arching and simplified explanations. I highly recommend In The Realm of the Hungry Ghost by Gabor Mate (it's on the pirate bay!). He does a really good job of explaining these anatomical structures and so much more, in the context of his work with addicts in the downtown east side of Vancouver.

Also, if you're into it, see if you can download a first year neuroscience textbook (like this). I've found learning about the neuroscience behind addiction to be really empowering.

Whatever you do, don't start again. For your own good hear me out.

I started off with painkillers and got up to using about 1 gram of heroin per day. In other words, I was very addicted, it felt like drugs took my soul and I was never going to get it back.

I've been clean for ~4 years now, life isn't roses, but guess what, it never will be. I can promise you one thing though, life is at least 900 times better without drugs. Slavery or freedom, it's an easy choice. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me shudder (figuratively).

Never give opiates another THOUGHT, those thoughts are not that of your own. I was taught to think of them more like a transmission from your enemy, and that did the trick. Quickly enough life moved on, and the worst experience of my life thus far became merely a chapter in my past to learn from.

P.S. (OPINION): NA is useless, it is as much a disease as the drugs themselves. It is cult like, and not mentally healthy behavior. If you learn some things about psychology, you'll quickly learn the mindset that NA provides is not that of a healthy successful individual. You can do it on your own, the mind is all you need.

Reading can be more powerful than anything else if you allow it. Reading one method from one book was what changed the course of my life. That is to identify addictive thoughts as not your own, but rather a transmission from the enemy, you must identify that transmission and it's sender (your enemy) and block it out/demand that it stop. I tried to find the book for you and I couldn't, unfortunately. Point is, knowledge and effort alone are enough. For now though, do whatever works.

EDIT: I remember the book.

Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671528580/

This book taught me things that were a huge help in getting clean for good.

Congrats on these next steps! Has a love for listening to music become re-awakened for you too during this? That's how it was for me. Really beautiful. GI issues for me over the various times I quit in past were sometimes good and other times really bad. Working on my gut with probiotics helped a great deal when bad and also taking magnesium to soften things up, although that part hasn't really been a problem as once clean, everything softened up a great deal. heh. Different types of probiotics are released in different parts of the gut. The "pearls" get deep as they are enteric coated. You can buy those anywhere: https://www.amazon.com/Probiotic-Acidophilus-Supplement-Cultures-Refrigeration/dp/B000BQ8ATQ/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1526392073&sr=8-3&keywords=pearls%2Bacidophilus&th=1

Do you mind me asking what other work you are doing? The biggest lesson for me regarding sobriety is that logging hours clean is only one tiny piece. I'm currently working with a cognitive behavioral therapist with lots of take home work. Some of it is terrifying but I can feel my emotional self healing and finally learning to cope with the pain of existence.

Anyway, we're all different, just thought I'd share. For those open to CBT, there are plenty of workbooks to buy, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Gambling-Chocolate-Overcoming/dp/1886230153
but my personal opinion is that we need to work with real people/therapists so we are accountable and on a fixed schedule. Best of luck in the days ahead!

Hey man congrats on starting the have phase of your future. Getting off Suboxone was the hardest thing I've ever done but it was such an achievement I'm very proud of. My one tip that helped me more than anything is to buy some lavendar oil. You put the lavendar oil on the bottom of your feet and then put socks on. It will almost instantly stop your legs from shaking. Do that and take some melatonin and you may actually get some good sleep.

Here is a link to lavendar oil that is only$7. Totally worth the investment. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00PYS7R7M/ref=mp_s_a_1_5_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1498766681&sr=8-5&keywords=lavender+oil&dpPl=1&dpID=41u-eImdbhL&ref=plSrch

I wish I had the chart to show you, but there are different types of PAW depending on the person. stable, intermittent, regenerative, and degenerative. Heres a website plagiarizing the source: http://www.tlctx.com/ar_pages/paw_part2.htm

But if you want more information, and are having problems with relapse prevention, heres the source: http://www.amazon.com/Staying-Sober-Relapse-Prevention--Treatment/dp/083090459X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421337911&sr=1-1&keywords=gorski+staying+sober

Its great. Its too early to say if you will have PAWs but 5 months of oxy I wouldnt really be worried tbh.

http://www.amazon.com/Scrawny-Brawny-Complete-Building-Natural/dp/1594860882

Nuff said. tells you everything you need to know. Follow it as closely as possible and you should see some pretty amazing results.

I was 6'3" 180 when I started and got up to 215 in three months just from working out and eating well…unfortunately then I hurt my shoulder and recently tore my meniscus so I haven't been able to get back into it for a bit but yeah - that program was amazing for me personally. My deadlift alone went from like…165 starting to 325.

I wasn't suggesting total abstinence but I don't think it's possible to use a substance such as heroin responsibly after being addicted the first time.

How does the acid help you? I want to try one of those ayahuasca rituals without having to travel to deepest Peru. Joe Rogan did a nice podcast on this subject that got me intrigued. Shroom also covered some interesting ground in this area.

I have been in and out since 2007 and have enough coins to fill a pot and enough key tags to thatch a roof.

This recent relapse, I went into treatment (5th) and they put me in the special ed classes. Relapse Prevention.

Basically it's 12 step orientated, but there was a lot of science (which I always appreciate) but also CBT and other therapies.

Anyway, relapse starts waaaaaay way before you pick up if you practice 12 step. Especially having 2.5 years, that means you must of worked some steps and did some stuff in a 12 step.

Here's some basic information from a medical perspective., although I did the Gorski Method from his Staying Sober. Gorski is like the godfather of addiction psych. His stuff is pretty no-nonsense and makes a lot of sense, even more so than the big book to be honest. Really pragmatic and based on tons and tons of study. Interesting fact, Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chili Peppers is an alumni from the from the same program. Kinda neat.

Anyway. I'd almost recommend checking out NA's Basic Text, Relapse and Recovery (starts on page 104 in the pdf.)

...
So, when I did my Relapse Prevention workshop, the basic stuff I got out of it, was really dishonesty. I would start to tell white lies and little exaggerations. Eventually full on lies. Then I would compulsively start spending more. Then lie about how much. Buying shit. Working hard. Working even harder. Eventually I had been hiding stuff from people and I stopped enjoying meetings altogether. I started resenting 12th step. Like fuck these people. Then I just stopped 12 step altogether. Eventually I felt like, "it's just weed." And then weed makes me thirsty. Then I am drinking. I can hold out for quite awhile. Shit man, even years of just smoking weed and drinking but I start to get depressed as drinking borrows happiness from tomorrow. Then eventually, one morning hungover, I do what I wanted all along. Opiates. And then it's on.

Anyway, feel free to ask any questions. I can pull out the book and describe more stuff that Gorski talks about.

I appreciate that the other commenters in this post are trying to help, but in my experience I know one detox drink that does work (at least for THC). It is called The Liquid Stuff and it is definitely not just colored sugar water.

That being said I have no idea what kind of interaction it would have with suboxone.

I would suggest going to CVS and buying a drug screen home kit. After 3.5 weeks the THC might be completely gone from your system which would mean you don't even need the detox drink.

For what it is worth I 100% vouch for The Liquid Stuff allowing you to pass a THC drug test. Other than that I can't say.

https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Stuff-Cleansing-Drink-Grape/dp/B00117YRMI

That's horrible, and I'm so sorry you and your family are dealing with this right now. I hope you can reach a new normal that you can live with sooner rather than later. I read this book over and over again when my brother died of an overdose. Super corny title, but they describe all kinds of amazing coping skills and it helped me process I was feeling. I felt like I was going crazy in the months after the funeral, and the text made me feel normal.

You are not doing anything wrong. I am about a year into recovery and went through many different avenues. I tried AA, Smart Recovery, Refuge Recovery and an outpatient program with my health insurance. So, I have gotten a taste of most of them.

Just like in all walks of life, there will be some people that try to bring you down. This is no different at the meetings you will go to. Some people will belittle you for whatever reason. There is 100% nothing wrong with being new. Try to ignore the odd lingo that some of people use, such as, "rehab virgin, normies, etc."

I suggest you also broaden your search and see if you can find any of these resources in your area:

• Smart Recovery
  
• LifeRing
  
• Refuge Recovery
  
• Out patient program with you health insurance
  
  I found more success moving between all these resources based on what I was struggling with at the time. I also suggest you pick up a couple books. I found a lot of solace looking towards philosophy. Some books that helped me were:
  
  
• Beyond Addiction
  
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
  
• Refuge Recovery
  
  With recovery, just stay away from any of the social drama. Listen to the knowledgable people. And, always remember that we are all in a vulnerable place.
  
  Hope this helps!

I really liked /u/traceyh415's The Big Fix. It's ten percent using, ninety percent recovery.

i highly recommend reading the book. http://www.amazon.com/Requiem-Dream-Hubert-Selby-Jr/dp/1560252480

> Any pointers on this?

My two humble recommendations;

1. https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0615482155
   
2. Make a promise to someone that you simply cannot let down. (I promised my son 7-years ago that I would stop smoking and I did).