Aa
therapy 4 the mind
I have my dr's appointment today and I really want to speak to him about therapy. I was in there last week and he told me that he knew I was going to other dr's for meds and he was pretty mad at me. He hasn't given me anything other than ultram in about 6 months but he also thought I was through with the loracet that he had been perscribing the 8 months prior. When he found out about me going to other dr's he said he couldn't trust me and he only gave me a few of the ultram and said I had to come back every week and check in with him to get more and so he knows I am not shopping any more. How do dr's find out about this kind of stuff? I am really trying to staighten up and I haven't used in 6 days but I am always able to do this I just can't keep myself off of them. I thought this would be a good reason to see a therapist. Any advice on this from anyone. I really want to kick this thing.
You mean I actually have to take responsibility for my own recovery? What a scary thought! JUST KIDDING!--As always you have certainly given me something to think about. I have always had trouble with that powerlessness thing and the once an addict always an addict philosophy. Thanks so much for a very thought provoking post--As Always Peace and Prayers to all
You mean I actually have to take responsibility for my own recovery? What a scary thought! JUST KIDDING!--As always you have certainly given me something to think about. I have always had trouble with that powerlessness thing and the once an addict always an addict philosophy. Thanks so much for a very thought provoking post--As Always Peace and Prayers to all
I have to take exception to a comment written here, that states your addiction cannot be controlled.
Drug addiction like many disorders have organic and inorganic properties. The organic aspects of drug adiction for most of us is the physical dependence and psychological components.
Fortunate for us the physical dependence aspect of opiate addiction is very self-limited, non-life threatening, and of relative short duration. With the exception of methadone, most short-acting and long acting opiates fail to have any physiological symptoms after 5-7 days. As we all know to well, once you stop opiate administration symptoms of physical dependence come on like gang busters.
The study of science has proven one thing about scientific investigation...once conclusions are reached, and once those conclusions are "sold" to the scientific community, it's damn near impossible to change those conclusions.
Much money, research and profesional careers have staked their claim to a single fact..."That addiction is a disease".
Only of late has this statement been attacked and refutted.
We can take a look at some other very common diseases and attempt to apply a disease - to - disease comparision.
It's not like comparing apples to oranges, but more along the line of comparing cause and effect.
Once a drug addicted individual stops ingesting opiates, a bag full of nasty things take place. Opiate w/d is basically a 180 degree turn of effects versus the opiate "high.
We all know them...constipation becomes diarheaa, increased energy levels become lethargy, etc.. But these symptoms rarely last a long period of time and your body returns to a normal state of physiological function.
The same cannot hold true for someone with Type I diabetes. Diabetes is a true disease of the pancreas. The pancreas fails to produce enough insulin, so insulin must come from an outside source...without it a whole list of nasty and usually fatal outcomes present themselves. The same holds true for the disease of hypertension...untreated hypertension leads to stroke, heart failure and severe peripheral dysfunction.
This is simply not the case when looking at the "disease" of drug addiction. Simply put...if you don't take your hydro's, vikes, or OC's you are not going to die, and your "disease" does not get worse, in fact give it a few days and you start to get better. So why is it so hard to stop and remained stopped when a decision has been made by a person to live drug free. Well we know it's not a physical disease, but a psychological disorder. I know as most of you do that stopping is actually very easy, staying stopped is the tough part.
Assuming all things being the same between me and you and the next guy (no significant underlying neurological or mental health disease) why can person X stay clean, while person Y cannot? If drug addiction was truly a disease...then in order to stay clean everyone who suffers from it would require the same accepted standard of care or treatment plan. Hey a diabetic, regardless of his willpower isn't going to just get better because he willed himslf to do so. No, all diabetics in order to control and treat their disease require the same accepted standard of care. The same holds true for nearly all diseases. But, many people have successfully treated their addiction without any medical or psychological treatment.
So the question begs asking again...is my addiction to opiates a disease? It is so much easier for the medical community to view addiction as a disease. Once labeled a disease then standard disease treatment protocols can be applied...severity, diagnosis related grouping, medical interventions and critical pathways, stages of progression, prognosis, remission, etc. ****, once this happens then coding or billing can be applied.
There is much agreement about the chemical imprinting that opiate addiction causes. These facts are not disputed. Long and substained use of opiates do affect the chemical neurorology of your brain. Much of this chemical imprinting is permanent. That is why many people who were addicted years ago, can re-addict in a very short period of time. Once the brain learns something it cannot be de-learned. What once took 4-6 weeks of substained use, will in reality only take a few days or a week. This is brain behavior and not underlying brain or neurological disease.
Mystere in your last post you asked..."Why, why, why can't I control it"..."Am I insane". Well I don't know the answer to your second question :<), just kidding. Although I have had little contact with NA or AA, I will say this...Do not believe for ONE MOMENT that you are powerless in this fight. I take exception to that statement, which seems to be the foundation of NA and AA. And if my addiction is a disease, then the last place I need to be is in a meeting, because diseases need to be treated by trained medical personnel. I know that these organizations have helped millions of people in their fight against addiction, but our addiction, for most of us, was a choice. Our decision to live drug free is a choice. There is power in choice. In true diseases you do not have a choice to simply say, I'm healed and that's that.
There many avenues to sobiety, some require treatment, just like many diseases require treatment. Sobiety is a progressive path. Once the physical w/d's are over, you are drug free. If viewing this from a disease standpoint you are healed. Now you must start to practice preventive medicine, to prevent this "disease" from re-appearing. You do not stay in one stage of your recovery for very long. The physical w/d's are 5-7 days, the next 30-90
days is a period of uncertainity...decreased energy levels, depression, angry at oneself for allowing this, intense urges and cravings. By far the cravings and urges are the toughest. But, they won't kill you or even injury you. And when you re-direct yourself and call these urges every dirty name in the book, they run away. They'll come back, but as each day passes they visit you less often and they get weaker over time.
My God I have written a small novel, and I have taken up way too much of this forum, but I will leave you with one last thought. I have NEVER liked the word addict. Even though I'm 40+ days clean, I'm not an addict. Even when I was 1 day clean I wasn't an addict. Don't subscribe to this label. Do you go to parties and people introduce themselves as...Hi I'm diabetic, Hi I'm depressed, Hi I'm cancer, Hi I'm congestive heart failure... You get the point. NEVER let your struggle define you!
I was once an infant, for now I'm a child, and that child GREW and left behind childhood, for now I'm a teenager, and that teenager GREW and left behind those teenager years, and now I'm an adult. I was once a drug addict, but I GREW and left the drug addict behind.
Peace to all of you.
Kilo
Drug addiction like many disorders have organic and inorganic properties. The organic aspects of drug adiction for most of us is the physical dependence and psychological components.
Fortunate for us the physical dependence aspect of opiate addiction is very self-limited, non-life threatening, and of relative short duration. With the exception of methadone, most short-acting and long acting opiates fail to have any physiological symptoms after 5-7 days. As we all know to well, once you stop opiate administration symptoms of physical dependence come on like gang busters.
The study of science has proven one thing about scientific investigation...once conclusions are reached, and once those conclusions are "sold" to the scientific community, it's damn near impossible to change those conclusions.
Much money, research and profesional careers have staked their claim to a single fact..."That addiction is a disease".
Only of late has this statement been attacked and refutted.
We can take a look at some other very common diseases and attempt to apply a disease - to - disease comparision.
It's not like comparing apples to oranges, but more along the line of comparing cause and effect.
Once a drug addicted individual stops ingesting opiates, a bag full of nasty things take place. Opiate w/d is basically a 180 degree turn of effects versus the opiate "high.
We all know them...constipation becomes diarheaa, increased energy levels become lethargy, etc.. But these symptoms rarely last a long period of time and your body returns to a normal state of physiological function.
The same cannot hold true for someone with Type I diabetes. Diabetes is a true disease of the pancreas. The pancreas fails to produce enough insulin, so insulin must come from an outside source...without it a whole list of nasty and usually fatal outcomes present themselves. The same holds true for the disease of hypertension...untreated hypertension leads to stroke, heart failure and severe peripheral dysfunction.
This is simply not the case when looking at the "disease" of drug addiction. Simply put...if you don't take your hydro's, vikes, or OC's you are not going to die, and your "disease" does not get worse, in fact give it a few days and you start to get better. So why is it so hard to stop and remained stopped when a decision has been made by a person to live drug free. Well we know it's not a physical disease, but a psychological disorder. I know as most of you do that stopping is actually very easy, staying stopped is the tough part.
Assuming all things being the same between me and you and the next guy (no significant underlying neurological or mental health disease) why can person X stay clean, while person Y cannot? If drug addiction was truly a disease...then in order to stay clean everyone who suffers from it would require the same accepted standard of care or treatment plan. Hey a diabetic, regardless of his willpower isn't going to just get better because he willed himslf to do so. No, all diabetics in order to control and treat their disease require the same accepted standard of care. The same holds true for nearly all diseases. But, many people have successfully treated their addiction without any medical or psychological treatment.
So the question begs asking again...is my addiction to opiates a disease? It is so much easier for the medical community to view addiction as a disease. Once labeled a disease then standard disease treatment protocols can be applied...severity, diagnosis related grouping, medical interventions and critical pathways, stages of progression, prognosis, remission, etc. ****, once this happens then coding or billing can be applied.
There is much agreement about the chemical imprinting that opiate addiction causes. These facts are not disputed. Long and substained use of opiates do affect the chemical neurorology of your brain. Much of this chemical imprinting is permanent. That is why many people who were addicted years ago, can re-addict in a very short period of time. Once the brain learns something it cannot be de-learned. What once took 4-6 weeks of substained use, will in reality only take a few days or a week. This is brain behavior and not underlying brain or neurological disease.
Mystere in your last post you asked..."Why, why, why can't I control it"..."Am I insane". Well I don't know the answer to your second question :<), just kidding. Although I have had little contact with NA or AA, I will say this...Do not believe for ONE MOMENT that you are powerless in this fight. I take exception to that statement, which seems to be the foundation of NA and AA. And if my addiction is a disease, then the last place I need to be is in a meeting, because diseases need to be treated by trained medical personnel. I know that these organizations have helped millions of people in their fight against addiction, but our addiction, for most of us, was a choice. Our decision to live drug free is a choice. There is power in choice. In true diseases you do not have a choice to simply say, I'm healed and that's that.
There many avenues to sobiety, some require treatment, just like many diseases require treatment. Sobiety is a progressive path. Once the physical w/d's are over, you are drug free. If viewing this from a disease standpoint you are healed. Now you must start to practice preventive medicine, to prevent this "disease" from re-appearing. You do not stay in one stage of your recovery for very long. The physical w/d's are 5-7 days, the next 30-90
days is a period of uncertainity...decreased energy levels, depression, angry at oneself for allowing this, intense urges and cravings. By far the cravings and urges are the toughest. But, they won't kill you or even injury you. And when you re-direct yourself and call these urges every dirty name in the book, they run away. They'll come back, but as each day passes they visit you less often and they get weaker over time.
My God I have written a small novel, and I have taken up way too much of this forum, but I will leave you with one last thought. I have NEVER liked the word addict. Even though I'm 40+ days clean, I'm not an addict. Even when I was 1 day clean I wasn't an addict. Don't subscribe to this label. Do you go to parties and people introduce themselves as...Hi I'm diabetic, Hi I'm depressed, Hi I'm cancer, Hi I'm congestive heart failure... You get the point. NEVER let your struggle define you!
I was once an infant, for now I'm a child, and that child GREW and left behind childhood, for now I'm a teenager, and that teenager GREW and left behind those teenager years, and now I'm an adult. I was once a drug addict, but I GREW and left the drug addict behind.
Peace to all of you.
Kilo
I forgot to answer your question about the significance of my nickname--Mystere-I am actually a Cirque du Soleil FREAK! I have seen just about every show that they have done--Mystere is the name of the Cirque show playing at Treasure Island in Las Vegas--It absolutely took my breath away--Anyway How are you doing? You always seem to have the right words of encouragement--Thank you--Also with everything going on right now my "little addiction problem" doesn't seem to be worth whining about. Take care--Peace and Prayers (especially to all the young men and women putting their lives on the line for our country!) I would like to tell them that WE ARE A GRATEFUL NATION!
Master Computer? Send this to Docs? I think not... On what is that info based? ~~
I was prescribed levoxyl (for thyroid/coldness), and neurontin (to see if it worked on my neck/nerve pain). The two together, at a bit of a high initial dose, makes me feel great. Warm, and almost like mild "Extasy". No w/d feelings, which I normally always feel. Now this I am sure will change, but has anyone heard of such a thing? I will update you all with a little more experience on my part. freezing/not.
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