Just for background, I am an alcoholic and an addict (painkillers + tranqs). I have been without a drink since Jan 3, 2003 and I don't miss it. About a 1 1/2 ago I had a medical condition that started me taking painkillers (T4's, VicodinES, etc... + atavan, xanax, valium, clonapin, etc...). Then, duh, I got strung out. I had run out of my supply about 6 months before and was taking them from my wife who has fibromyalgia. So I was stealing her stuff at a phenomenal rate (10-15 T4's/day + 3-5 tranqs). I had a bad physical addiction that was a real hard/bad ride to quit cold turkey. I probably should have died from the withdrawls. I haven't been "at that level" for almost a year, but ever since then, every few weeks, I compulsively run around looking for pills. When I find them I take 1-2 each time. Sometimes she knows, sometimes she doesn't. This is such a horrible, shameful way to live.
I am utterly and completely baffled by my ability to self destruct. In short, I'm a damn mess and I can't understand WHY booze was so easy for me to quit but I am completely overtaken and substituted with autopilot when I see a pill bottle......... I just go on to a sort of fly-by-wire where I am not running the show any more. I know what I do is wrong and the consequences are big, but I am not in control. It like I'm sitting back just watching it unfold before me. I hate this and I really don't know what to do. I go to meetings, I "remind" myself of the 1st "big 3" steps, but I just keep doing it. Now I'm depressed as hell, helpless as a child in a hurricane, and the only thing bright I see is the bolts of lightning. It's not fair. I'm not a bad guy. And I have no idea what I'm doing anymore. It's really getting to me.
I'm caught in an unwinnable situation where my wife needs the drugs to continue functioning (she has fibromyalgia and is always in alot of pain) so they're always in the house SOMEWHERE; and I know this. When I quit drinking, I just QUIT STOCKING THE FRIDGE. NO PROBLEM. If there wasn't anything to drink, I didn't have to think about drinking it. If the pills weren't there I don't think I'd be in this spot, but her needs have to come first so she can take care of my son. It's my responsibility to NOT take the pills; but so far I have been fighting this for almost a year and I'm STILL LOOSING !!!!!!!! I don't know what to do, but I am totally despondent, depressed, and I feel really, really alone in this. I keep thinking that if I were stronger, I could do it. But I know that "strength" "willpower" "fortitude" are all meaningless. I've proven this to myself a dozen times. Granted, I'm not the junky I was a year ago but even taking 1 or 2 every few weeks is just proof that I'm still a really messed up person. Last weekend it came to a head, again with her threatening divorce, hellfire, and damnation. And I know all this, and HAVE known all this and heard it before. But I still click into this sick autopilot mode and take her pills. I'm so deeply ashamed of this and so sick at myself that I can't even admit it at meetings (that's why I'm telling all of y'all about it). I hate this shame/guilt/anger/resentment/self loathing and I can't go on.
I need help.
Thanks for listening
(oh, and she's tried padlock them up in a closet AND inside the closet, in a fireproof lockbox; it turns out that as a Georgia Tech graduate that I'm a fairly smart guy with high manual dexterity and determination. In short, I can pick just about any lock....)