1. Overcoming Opiates With a Substance Abuse
Treatment Program
January 21, 2013
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 May, 2013 14:44
As a former addict, it is important for me to remember where I came from and what waits for me
should I ever start to use again. I decided to write this as a way to not only keep the memories fresh for
myself, but to give those people who don’t know what Addiction is like brief glimpse into it in the
hopes that it will help them understand.
This isn’t an easy piece to write and I go into it knowing full well that I can never fully
communicate the true horror and futility present in addiction, but I have to try.
Technics for Accepting Help
Try to imagine disappointing everyone who loves you or cares about you, including yourself. Add to
that the pure hatred and self loathing of knowing that you are so weak that you can’t even deal with
your own life and need to escape from it. Then, because you are so weak, rather than seek help for it,
which doesn’t seem like an option at all, you use your drug and everything becomes bearable for a little
while. You feel good and no problem exists that you can’t handle.
All that matters is keeping this feeling going for as long as you can. No one else’s thoughts or opinions
matter, not even those of your friends and family because they don’t know how hard your life is and
how miserable you are without your drug. You know it’s not right for you to steal from them and lie to
them, but you need money for your drug and they won’t give it to you so you have to take it. You hate
yourself even as you do it, but the need for your drug is too strong. It’s been too long since your last
dose and you can feel it wearing off. After it’s gone comes the sickness.
You can justify your actions any way you want, I mean hey, if your friends and family really cared
about you, they wouldn’t want you to be sick would they? Of course not, but you can’t tell them you
need drugs, so you take what they would have given you and don’t tell them. You know this is a lie
and you know your logic is twisted and wrong but the drug makes it acceptable and makes it right. It
makes you the victim and justifies everything you do. Finally you’re out of money, drugs, and trust.
It’s finally happened, you have nowhere to turn. The sickness is coming, you can feel it. You know it’s
going to be bad. You’ve seen what it does to the others and you thought that it wouldn’t ever happen to
you, but it has.
Affecting Quality of Sleep
The sickness descends and for the next several days, you can barely move. Your entire body hurts and
you sweat nonstop, even while shivering under three blankets. Your stomach is in knots and constantly
cramping. You can’t keep any food down and your body is demanding that you go to the bathroom
every half hour to vomit and void your bowels, even though you haven’t eaten anything since this
started. If you don’t get there fast enough your body says too bad and then you have a mess to clean.
Night brings no release because you can’t sleep. You lay there, exhausted, but sleep won’t come.
You constantly have to move your arms and legs and turn over and move. You can’t get comfortable

2. and you get more and more tired with every passing minute, but still, sleep won’t come. You want to
die so it will stop. The worst part is the knowledge that this is entirely your own fault and unless you
do something different, this isn’t the last time you will go through this.
You know something needs to change, but you’re not sure how to make that change. It’s at this point
that you’re ready to quit. You don’t want to live this way any more. The idea of Treatment may not
have even occurred to you, but now is the time to start it. You’ve seen the futility of trying to stop on
your own and you are willing to accept help so that you can have the life you want.