Lesson One

We will talk now a little about how addiction and recovery was a big part of my life.  What you should know though is that my last use was almost seven years ago. No one, not even my mother, thought I would ever get a handle on drug addiction. I had spent the last ten years of my life homeless or in jail and strung out on heroin and meth.  Heroin being my drug of choice.  I knew, shortly after starting the use of heroin, that I was in real trouble and that my chances of a normal, or semi-normal life, was pretty much non-existent. Yet, I never stopped trying to find a way out by going to meetings once in a while, reading everything I could get my hands on about drug addiction, talking to all the other successful addicts that had been clean for several years and how they did it.  You need to know as much as you can about your enemy and how to defeat it.  More than likely, you will try time and again to quit - just to start using again.  DON'T GIVE UP.  It can be done.  Remember how many treatment and detoxes I went through until I found that combination of things that worked for me.  So for the rest of this post, and the next, we are going to talk about addiction, a few of the obstacles you are going to have to overcome, where and who to turn to, and how I took all these things I'm talking about and turned them into a working Recovery for Success story.

1. You need to understand it isn't your fault you're addicted, but you are responsible for your recovery.  I don't think there's one person out there that at ten years old told their parent, "I want to grow up to be an addict."  As a matter of fact, when I used to see an addict on the street, I would tell myself, "that will never be me, I will never do that, I would never stick a needle in my arm."  That person on the street that I just spoke about would years later become a reflection of me.  I would often wonder how many people walking by would say exactly what I had said years before. "THAT WILL NEVER BE ME".
2. You need to make a conscious choice, look in the mirror (and yes looking in a mirror is a must) and don't tell yourself that I want to quit, but that I will quit. No matter what it takes or how long it takes, "I WILL NOT FAIL."
3. Find something, some sort of higher power, to believe in.  Take my advice, don't make it another person just to be reminded later of that old saying, "We're only human".  People are prone to letting other people down. 
4. And once again...read and learn.  I left links below to some books that have helped me.  Remember what I said, "If you read a book and walk away with only one piece of information that might help your recovery, then that was a good choice of a read."

Take care until my next post, and "Don't Ever Stop Trying."

A few books or choice: