Progress Report - day 10

Well I dropped to just 1 half pill (10/325) yesterday - I felt great, strong, ready.  Only problem was trouble staying asleep, legs felt kinda strange and my heart was racing a bit.  I took some sleeping pills and washed them down with a beer and managed to get a few hours anyway.

I'm hoping that I get no symptoms today and can stay at 1 half pill.

My mental state seems very positive lately, not depressed, feeling energetic and strong.  Taking a few vitamins and eating healthy is helping, have not resumed my normal exercise yet out of fear! LOL

I want to stress that yesterday going from 1 half pill at 12 or 1, and another half pill at 5, was not as easy as it might sound. I really wanted it. But I knew I wasn't in enough pain.  So I kept myself incredibly focused on my work, and distracted myself as much as I could. I also promised myself that I'd take that pill in an hour, then another hour, then it was close to 3 so I said we'll I'll just do the 5 at 4 and skip this one.  Postpone, redirect, distract.

It's not magic but you can really do amazing things when you're using the subconscious mind and the way it works to your advantage!

Peace
/D

[construction]

your really strong and day 10 also for me,ive had to change everything ive been doing and turn it around. my cymbalta i thing is finally starting to work and am getting stronger by the day. keepup the great work Clay TX

[ScottQuit021907]

Hey, that's great that you are down to 5 mg/day. When do you go from 5 to zero? I'm betting you won't have bad w/d at all when you do.

I've been thinking about your method and was wondering - how will your method work once you are completely off the drugs? Once you're off, you can't ever go back, not even a little. So do you just say "Well I will wait an hour" or "I will take one tomorrow". But if you say that, doesn't that mean you will have some in your possession or do you just tell yourself that you can get them anytime? I mean, do you really want to have the drugs on you after you are quit?

I'm not trying to discourage or attack your method. I just don't know how it will work once you get down to zero.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

[DAnthrope]

Hey Scott- No worries, I understand your question and took absolutely no offense whatosever.  It's a good question too, and made me realize that I hadn't done a good job of clearly describing the ultimate goal of the technique.  It's not about always giving in, taking (or doing) whatever it is you're trying to stop.  The real goal is to cause your subconscious mind to eventually realize that cravings are not constant, they go away.  If you can postpone, or better yet distract and eliminate, then eventually you'll find yourself no longer wanting that thing you were craving before.  It's as if your subconscious mind eventually releases it's tight grip over your conscious mind (for that particular thing).

In other words, in my case, I was taking a half pill at noon'ish. So I would convince myself to wait till 1.  Then at 1 I'd say, see that wasn't so bad, one day I'd take the pill, the next I'd push till 2.  Eventually I was able to just merge it with the one at 4-5 and eliminate the first one altogether.  It's not about continuing to keep taking, but after you've successfully pushed it back enough times, and distracted yourself when you're getting weak and the cravings are high, your subconscious "releases" the grip and you can just stop.

I hope this made some kind of sense!  I definitely do not advocate prolonging usage any longer, even if it seems that way from my posts on tapering and using my technique!  

As for having pills - I intend to always have them.  For me personally, I cannot base my control/abstinence on lack of availability.  I need to know that the only thing keeping me from taking a pill is ME because I feel at some point someone will hand me one or I'll come across them again someday and I don't want that to become my achilles heel.  I don't feel I can hide from all the people and circumstances that might expose me to this or other drugs.  Again, this is just personal opinion related to me and who I am.  But if I know I still have them and can control myself, I won't worry who I might meet at a bar or someplace else.  If they hand me a pill it won't matter much if I have my own anyway.  

PS: This is my first drug addiction and first time recovering from it, AND I'm only on day 10 - so seriously - I could be full of shiat!  I'm man enough to admit it if I fail, so I'll be sure to come here and humbly post if that should happen.  But so far, for me, it's worked great.  And I see Tink and Creek and a few others doing the same thing with varying degrees of success, but success nonetheless.

Thanks for the reply - and PEACE BROTHER
/D

[ScottQuit021907]

Hey, that sounds reasonable. I personally am not strong enough to keep my quit and the pills at the same time, but if it works for you then that's all that matters.

I'm praying for you man.