AM I A ADDICT ?????

[gnarly_1]

Hello medhelp family...im grateful to be here grateful to be clean....I had a chance to read a good definition of addiction and would like to share it with all of you...the first mistake many of us make is thinking drugs are the problem....they are just a symptom of a much deeper problem ''addiction'' to get a better understanding of this we must look at the disease concept of addiction...from that point of view  addiction is a disease of attitudes,personality and a general negative outlook....it is rooted in fear,insecurity and low self esteem....the main ingredient of addiction are obsessions and compulsion....obsession is that fixed idea that takes us back again and again to are particular drug or one of many substitutes (substitutes can be anything that makes us feel good as we are looking for instant gratification it can be money, sex, power, food, anger ext) to recapture the ease and comfort we once knew....compulsion is having started the process with one pill one drink or one substitute...we cannot stop through our own power of strong will....because of our phyical sensitivity to drugs or anything that makes us feel good we are  compleatiy helpless in a grip of destructive power greater then our selves...looking at addiction from this point of view we see how addiction makes our lives unmanageable with our without drugs...at this point we must surrender and accept how powerless we are over our addiction....when we do this something amazing happens  we begin to gain power threw the  ''we part of the N/A progam  it is our ''me attitude'' that got us into this mess in the first place ...this is the first step in the 12 steps of N/a...''we are powerless over our addiction and our lives have become unmanageable''....I hope this helps give everyone a clearer understanding of addiction ....please take the time to share just how powerless it felt living life in active addiction and how the 12 step progam can return you to sanity..........your friend and fellow addict Mark

[motye51]

Deciding to take my life back (what "life" I had) was only possible when I realized that drugs weren't my problem...I was my problem.  Currently 2 years and 4 months clean the only reason is b/c I work a program DAILY!  I have invited N/A into my home, business and life and it's given me rewards unlike any I ever thought possible.  Not to mention the REAL friendships that I've made, or waking up not having pills on my mind first thing, calling the dr and lying telling them I'm going out of town so I need my script early, or calling incesantly to my dealer trying to make sure I lined it up where I NEVER went without, no matter what important thing I might have had going on.  I've missed childrens plays, sports events, special moments due to my disease....I'm not proud of it, but I accept it and don't allow that guilt to hold me down or keep me from moving forward!  
N/A has been a God send for me in teaching me how to live life on life's terms....NO, God doesn't have it out for me, **** just happens and that's just life!  I'm happy where I am at today!

[gnarly_1]

well I guess I will start....for me one of the single best things is not having to count pills every day to make sure I had enough to keep from getting dope sick at work  this was a time b/4 all the doctors and pharmacys where linked together....I had a pcp ...a orthopedic and a neurologist all writing scrips for me  the saying 1 is to many and a 1000 never enough played out in real life for me for a long time...how the hell do you run out of pills with 3 doctors.....I had to take 4 pills every 4 hours to keep the sick off me  then at night I would get all gased up  after all I deserved it I worked hard on the sales floor I had no control over my pill intake and always would run out b/4 a refill my life was a mess even knowing this I could not stop...or even slow down for that mater...I could never get high enough  something really dangerous with opiets....I have O/Ded 3 times you would think I would have learned to at lest slow down  but my addiction was over welming  nothing else I ever tryed had such a hold on me...im lucky I lived threw it...  today I get a liver panel done every 3 months  I still have concerns about all the tylonal I took with no regards to how it was poisoning me and im amassed that I dont have liver problems....I am greatful that God got me threw it and spend a lot of time giving hope to the hopeless still out there using.....just know if a old dope fiend like me can kick any one can
........................................Gnarly.......................................