• JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Not long after my mother recovered from chemotherapy, my grandmother passed away. I was tasked with disposing of my mother’s morphine, however I decided to take it for relief.

    I was addicted not to the feeling of being numb so much, but the initial euphoria. I would snort the morphine in powder form. I know I did some rudimentary conversion, however after kicking it I forgot every single step and cannot remember a lot of that time.
    Over a year had passed, yet my knowledge of it is very little. It feels as though I have lost parts of my life… Like I mean, literally lost.

    The euphoric kick got less and less prevalent, and I felt as though I needed more in order to gain that initial kick - however I wasn’t even aware of this effect happening, despite all manners of media being rife with this step of opiate addictions. The act of increasing dosages came so naturally I don’t even think I made a conscious decision to, yet my tolerance rose to points where I was taking multiple times the lethal dose (for someone with base tolerance levels).

    I saw what it was doing to me at one point, just by happenstance of looking into the mirror for a moment longer than usual.

    I went cold turkey, and it was… Well, hell doesn’t even describe how this felt. It took about a couple of weeks, with the first being the worst.
    I had locked myself up in my room, telling some folks to check up on me periodically, online friends mainly, and what to do if I don’t respond within a given time. I recall a moment where one of my friends was about to call an ambulance, because I was one minute late to answer (I was probably vomiting profusely).

    The very last time I did that was in the second or third week of November, 2012.

    I understand that going cold turkey could be very dangerous, especially with a built up tolerance, however at that point I would not have been able to wean myself off of the stuff. I was too far in, and without going extremely hard into it I probably would have died not too long after.

    If you have a friend going through opiate addiction, please be there for them. That’s all I can say.

  • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Benzodiazepine addiction. Was abusing etizolam at first then graduated to clonazolam and was getting fucked up and going to work. I have no idea how I didn’t get fired honestly. I have some videos of myself doing things and I’m clearly fucked, but I suppose I didn’t get that twisted for work. My memory went to shit and a bunch of other things did too, because who gives a shit when you’re constantly wrecked. Weight dropped from normal 185lbs to a skinny ass 165lbs. Mind you, I’m 6’3”. It wasn’t a good look.

    It took me 2 years to slowly taper down and that still was a pretty shitty process. Now I’m 9 months clean and up to 205 lbs by lifting weights and actually eating.

    What a nightmare. Fuck benzos and godspeed to anyone who’s been using them for longer than a few weeks. Even at clinical doses you’re going to be in some shit when you stop. You’ll be glad you did, though. I’m helping a friend quit etizolam after I told him of my problems and he told me of his addiction. He’s doing great and making a lot of progress on the taper. It helps so much to have someone you can talk to.

    A less serious answer - Reddit. Fuck em for killing the apps. Lemmy has been pretty great except for a few rare encounters with tankies. I genuinely enjoy posting here, the smallness is great.

    • picnicolas@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      A friend of mine in his 60s has been on a prescribed benzodiazapine since he was a child. He is tapering a microgram per day and struggling with the withdrawal symptoms. It’s going to take him several years at this rate but when he lowers by more it’s debilitating.

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            My pops was prescribed 2mg Klonopin daily for uhhhh 20 years?

            He quit a year ago. He told me about it and I thoroughly researched quitting methods. I’ve dabbled and stopped with bad effects before, but only like a week of bad before I was fine. He wanted to go cold turkey from 1mg and I HEAVILY discouraged that. He tapered down to .25 twice a day, then .25 a day, then stopped. He had a month of bad sleep and then slept much better.

            I wanted him to do the Ashton method, but he didn’t want to take other benzos. He still did good and I’m proud of him. No idea why or how his doctors all thought that was fine. We know so much more now than when he was first prescribed, and they never warned him. He didn’t know anything about quitting until he talked to me—he’s lucky I was a raver in the ‘00s and studied every drug I had ever tried!

  • johndroid@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Nicotine.

    I stopped counting when my last nicotine hit was, which I think might be the key here. A couple of years at least.

    No urges, never even think about it.

  • cash4au@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Meth. Used to shoot up 2-3 times a day. Had 3 years sober, relapsed for about a year and a half and kicked the habit again about 2 months ago. Feels good man.

  • socsa@piefed.social
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    4 months ago

    Like half the thread, I quit smoking and legitimately feel like it was easy in hindsight. Once I really made up my mind to quit it was not hard. The most difficult part was breaking out of the rituals - smoking in the car, after meals, coffee and a cig…

    Honestly I still end up having one every few years when I’m drinking and it’s kind of nice, but I will never go back to being a smoker. Unless I ended up dating a smoker, which I would avoid. Unless they were like really hot. Or rich. I could totally fix them either way

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I quit smoking four times, IIRC. The first week was always the shitty part, and then it would get dramatically easier. Three of the times I started back up because my ex-wife would secretly start smoking, get tired of hiding it, and offer me cigarettes (‘just one, as a treat’). The last time I quit we were in the process of separating prior to divorce, and so that shit didn’t happen. That was a little over ten years ago now.

      This last time I quit because I was waking up every morning coughing. I had that nasty dark-yellow smokers’ phlegm that I’d cough up, and I’d have that first cigarette along with my cup of coffee. When I realized the direction my health was going, and that no amount of cardio and weight training was going to fix it, that’s when I decided to quit.

      Each time I quit was cold turkey, no aids. The times I tried cutting back, using gum, etc., all failed miserably. Vaping wasn’t a thing at the time.

      I still love the smell of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. That’s never going to stop. But it’s pretty easy to resist now.

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    Both alcohol and nicotine. Corona probably saved me with its lockdowns (though I did go back to hard drinking to some degree after). I still have the odd drink and odd cigarette, but neither are everyday things for me anymore and I can go weeks without either (though on days I do drink, it certainly makes me want to smoke).

    Currently battling coke zero. I will dehydrate rather than just drinking plain water (carbonated makes little difference) as I just don’t want to drink it and forget about it. As a kid, the place I lived had well water that didn’t taste great, so that’s probably something to do with it. I’ve managed to somewhat replace it with a zero-calorie sports drink powder that I put in water. Still, it lacks the mouthfeel and satisfaction.

    The other current battle is gluten and thus wheat and everything containing it. This is more-or-less impossible here in Japan if eating out (most soy sauce has gluten). The background is that I likely have Celiac’s (dad has it with very rough symptoms starting in his 60s, I’m in my 40s and a DNA test already told me I had inherited markers for it was likely to develop it). I was called “the bread kid” as a child because of how much I liked to eat (particularly homemade) bread. Until very recently, I baked bread and stuff a lot. It really sucks because I really miss the texture and taste of good bread. It’s also difficult when thinking about what to eat. “Oh, I’ve got some pasta that will just take a few minutes to cook” is not a thing anymore. I have to make rice or potatoes ahead or have nothing but meat and veg.

  • VoilaChihuahua@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Drinking, finally for good I hope! I’m 3.8 years in. I first blacked out at 12 and was drinking liquor regularly by 14 so booze was my way of life. I can’t socialize very well as I am naturally super awkward then never honed my “don’t be super weird” skills, but I’m finally free to live my life how I want!

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Please do continue, you’re doing good. We just lost a buddy to alcohol, yet he was years free (don’t know how many). His younger brother took the hint and went into rehab. You don’t need it to be with other people

      • VoilaChihuahua@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Thank you, I feel very good about my chances this go around. I’m sober because I’m a better person when I don’t drink. Up until now, I also very purposefully surrounded myself with high risk drinkers, so I knew I would not have any friends going on this journey with me.

  • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Cigarettes. Went cold turkey every time. 3 time’s the charm! It’s been 13 years now, but I still occasionally get cravings, and sometimes I dream about having one and then wake up feeling super guilty and horrible about myself even though it wasn’t real.