help for the less experienced.

[Lilikins]

Good evening my dear escapists,

This will be a topic that hits very close to home for me, and that I hope may help another user. I usually try to stay happier and very positive in topics, yet nevertheless, this one may be a bit depressing. Nevertheless though if I can maybe help one person with it, that would make me happier then anything else. Some stuff happened in my life at the moment and it sorta..clicked with me and I thought, if I can do that in real life, maybe I can do that here? As spoken, if it helps one person, that will be more then I could ever ask for, seeing as I know there are quite a few younger users here aswell

Keep in mind, this isnt solely for younger users, maybe your a bit older and also need help out of that 'hole'. I made it, so you can aswell

Sidenote: I hope this isnt going against any user agreement etc or going against any rules, but I just thought Id give a helping hand to others. So if it would indeed step against it, please give me a nudge mods and tell me it isnt allowed hehe Ill understand.


Nevertheless, on to the main show, Ive taken 'heavy' drugs and narcotics in my past, and I got through it. Im completely clean at the current time, I still go out for a drink with my friends, but I personally wont count a leisurely drink with my mates to this 'addiction' thread seeing as I have comple control over it. I completely quit smoking because the feeling of addiction hit too close to home for me. As spoken above, I took heavy drugs in my youth, and after a while I just sorta noticed...theres no point, as a sidenote I had an absolutely amazing (my now...fiancee) girlfriend who helped me through it all. I was literally stuck in a hole, where that 'hit' made me 'see the light' for a few moments to get me out of it.....

My whole point in this thread is...well I was having a discussion about it with my fiancee, how we could maybe donate some money per month for charities that help folks who are going through it. I just thought maybe it would also be nice to give a post here and offer to maybe give a bit of understanding and guidance in that area

Ill just be honest in this entire thing now and say it out loud, I have taken heroine before, henceforth, I really do see that as a 'high grade' drug

So escapists, if one of you is in that position, and wish to just speak out to a complete stranger? and maybe get a bit of help in that area? (I personally often went to chat rooms etc...and told folks about my problems and it helped me out alot I must say....) please pm me, Ill gladly message you back....and will speak of my experiences and maybe together? We can make sure you are taken care of.

Thats all from me this evening, I hope its not 'hitting too close' to home for anyone, and as always in my threads, please keep the posts clean, Im sure there are some other users here who have gone through similiar problems...maybe if you could give a 'boop' in your message and offer to help aswell? Im sure it would mean the world to the specific individual who would be reaching out for help

I thank you all for your help and for your recognition, stay awesome escapist forumees^^ as you always are

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Very noble idea, good show sir, however...

heroine

...it's Heroin. Heroin, Heroin, Heroin. Fucking HEROIN...there's no "e" on the end, you are not cooking up Joan of Arc's ashes.


...sorry. For some reason that really bugs me. Again, apologies and good luck, drug treatment services are always crying out for volunteers.

 

[Lilikins]

Very noble idea, good show sir, however...

heroine

...it's Heroin. Heroin, Heroin, Heroin. Fucking HEROIN...there's no "e" on the end, you are not cooking up Joan of Arc's ashes.


...sorry. For some reason that really bugs me. Again, apologies and good luck, drug treatment services are always crying out for volunteers.

sorry haha, thought it was spelled that way in english, I shall..keep this in mind then xP

Edit: and after all this, I was to be damned if I didnt find atleast one language where it was spelled that way... so I went on google translate and typed it in, in every language, french is 'sortaish' spelled like that but to be completely spelled that way is... Sesotho. (This would be the part where I put in that 'The more you know' pic). It is spoken in South Africa... ehh yeah, thats all from me now. (learned something new today though sooooo I shall be happy with that^^)

 

[Lilikins]

I can think of one particular friend who I hang out often with that seem to be having a problem with drugs. He absolutely need to smoke weed at least once a day and if he can put his hands on anything else, he will. He tried pretty much everything that is available to him at this point: Weed, ash, acid (LSD), magic shrooms, ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and his next move is heroin.

Zykon will be pleased you spelled it without an 'e' I assume...haha, ah-hem, fun and games aside.

I still have friends who smoke weed itself quite often, I know quite a few who do to be fairly honest. Though they always say that you cant compare it to any of the harder drugs, while this in itself is true, the long time effects...do seem to be quite noticable aswell. For instance I know 2 elder chaps, who have smoked it since their teens and they usually are a bit ehh how to put it nicely, sorta..not completely 'there'.
I always tell them that that THC seems to be a part of their system haha, so they shouldnt have to smoke it anymore seeing as they act the same way regardless if they blazed one up or not.

Nevertheless though, folks who seem to be in that deep..I quote 'dont have a problem' for themselves. Just like an alcoholic in that sence which I had the 'honors' of having in my household as a child. Nope, no prob whatsoever for that person.

I believe it finally went 'click' when my little brother who was 5 at the time got smacked across the living room coffee table because he was running around too much. Henceforth, an outside source usually triggers something for that person where they sorta go 'welp..I f'd up that pretty hard.'

Long story short, if I were able to give you any advice on your problem, to which he isnt respoding accordingly, I'd grab him and take him to a psychiatric ward for addicts. Tell him you wont ever speak of what you see as his problem again, if he complys and goes there with you. Seeing something online or on the telly and then seeing that properly face to face usually has a very different outcome. Who knows, maybe seeing someone like that personally will make him think twice about what hes doing. That'd be the only thing I can properly think of at the current time to be fairly honest, maybe someone else can pitch in and also write a thing or two .

Hope it was of some help atleast a tiny bit Affordablequote.


and you..my friend..

Random garble is inserted here due to lack of a delete button.

you win the internets for today, that randomness really made me laugh haha.

 

[Just Ebola]

That's very laudable of you, I know drugs are a growing problem these days. I never really bothered with them, but I did have a problem with alcohol some time ago. I was in AA by the time I was 19, and talking to people who have had similar experiences can go a long way towards putting one on the right path. I'm glad you got clean, and lending an ear is a great way to pay it forward.

I'm sure you'll help somebody, and congrats on your fiancé!

 

[Just Ebola]

Snipity Snap

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll have a serious talk with him. Strangely enough I'm seeing him tonight, I don't expect much of it honestly but hey.

That's very laudable of you, I know drugs are a growing problem these days. I never really bothered with them, but I did have a problem with alcohol some time ago. I was in AA by the time I was 19, and talking to people who have had similar experiences can go a long way towards putting one on the right path. I'm glad you got clean, and lending an ear is a great way to pay it forward.

Funnily enough, I went to an AA once when I was, just like you, 19. The AA in my area are different though, they are mixed with everybody with an addiction basically and so there were drug addicts too.

Going there for a first meeting was enough for me.

I remember that we had to tell our name, what our problem was and how it's affecting our life. I'll always remember that woman who said that her problem was alcohol and she drinks because her ex-husband left her alone with her two kids and when she's drunk, she get sad and violent and she lashed out on her own kids a few times.

That was enough for me to take a break of drinking for about three months which was one hell of an accomplishment for me. I still drink but no way near the way I used too.

Congrats on getting clean man !

Thank you, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm 'clean'. I stopped going shortly after I got my 60 day chip, I felt like that was enough for me. While it was good to get some perspective, and see how things could end up, after awhile it just seemed like there was nothing but negativity to be gained. There's not much point (to me, anyways) in hearing people's stories of abuse, adultery and downfall if you've already absorbed the message and adjusted your behavior. Of course, for some people, going to meetings and talking to sponsors is the only thing that keeps them on the straight and narrow.

There were some there, of course, who had problems with meth, heroin, cocaine or the like, but there was always at least some element of alcohol abuse, so I guess it's not universal. Except for the guy who was just there to observe because he was writing a college paper about addiction. I never found out, but I hope he scored well.

Also, good luck with your friend! Maybe he'll hear you out.

 

[DanteRL]

there's no "e" on the end, you are not cooking up Joan of Arc's ashes.

Hey, dude say HEAVY stuff. How can you say that Joan's ashes don't count? Damn, I heard about people that make tea with old cassete tapes. But congrats on being clean and talking so openly about it Lilikens, it's a really noble idea indeed.

Around my country it seems that alcohol is still the bigger problem, (but with drugs right there too). The amount of people stupidly drinking and driving like there's no problem is really fucking high. Is the kind of thing that really pisses me off, specially because my girlfriend's stepfather is like that, and I can't imagine how many time he put her at risk doing that. He's not the kind to get violent or nothing like that, but he gets like.... dunno if it's the best word, "dumb". And I know it's a disease, and he needs to treat it, not magically get over it, but since we had to leave early from her college graduation (a moment she had been EXTREMELY excited for) because we're afraid he would embarrass her, I can't really deal with him.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Edit: and after all this, I was to be damned if I didnt find atleast one language where it was spelled that way... so I went on google translate and typed it in, in every language, french is 'sortaish' spelled like that but to be completely spelled that way is... Sesotho. (This would be the part where I put in that 'The more you know' pic). It is spoken in South Africa... ehh yeah, thats all from me now. (learned something new today though sooooo I shall be happy with that^^)

That's probably because "Heroin" was originally a trademark name, like Aspirin. I think most languages that stick an "a" or "e" on the end do so because they have gendered nouns.

 

[Lilikins]

That's probably because "Heroin" was originally a trademark name, like Aspirin. I think most languages that stick an "a" or "e" on the end do so because they have gendered nouns.

Ah, I didnt know that. Here the nouns get their gender from the article beforehand. Various forms of 'the' beforehand and then the noun gets its gender via that (I think we are going to have to open an english thread at some point Zykon haha^^).

Hey, dude say HEAVY stuff. How can you say that Joan's ashes don't count? Damn, I heard about people that make tea with old cassete tapes. But congrats on being clean and talking so openly about it Lilikens, it's a really noble idea indeed.

Around my country it seems that alcohol is still the bigger problem, (but with drugs right there too). The amount of people stupidly drinking and driving like there's no problem is really fucking high. Is the kind of thing that really pisses me off, specially because my girlfriend's stepfather is like that, and I can't imagine how many time he put her at risk doing that. He's not the kind to get violent or nothing like that, but he gets like.... dunno if it's the best word, "dumb". And I know it's a disease, and he needs to treat it, not magically get over it, but since we had to leave early from her college graduation (a moment she had been EXTREMELY excited for) because we're afraid he would embarrass her, I can't really deal with him.

I imagine that one may be..quite difficult seeing as hes a bit older, and if he is so used to doing that up to this point its most likely 'engraved' in him. One thing Im curious about though?
Did your girlfriend ever openly tell him (whilst hes sober of course) about that college graduation? I mean, personally speaking atleast, if I knew my own child would be embarassed because of an addiction problem I have, that she wishes to go early from one of the most important days of her lives... that would make me think a bit to be fairly honest.

snip

snip no.2

Its great that you are both saying it out loud and maybe in that area also offering to lend an ear or help someone, so you have my gratitude for that. Also makes me happy that you both took that step and went to the meetings if even just to 'listen' and see whats up. But as you both posted, it did seem to help a bit. If I may ask though? (who knows, maybe someones thinking about it at the current time but is 'afraid' Ill say.) Were either of you nervous when you went there? Did a family member or friend ask you to go there or was it 100% 'you' saying that you'd wish to go there?

 

[Just Ebola]

Were either of you nervous when you went there? Did a family member or friend ask you to go there or was it 100% 'you' saying that you'd wish to go there?

I can't say I was nervous really, the anonymity helps with that. They have a pretty strict policy of not discussing members or meeting activities outside of the meetings themselves.

It wasn't my idea to go at all, a family member told me I was "sick" and had to seek help. I was mixing alcohol with antidepressants at the time and apparently it was taking a toll on me that I couldn't see at the time. I wasn't convinced I needed help, but I did take something positive away from the whole thing.

 

[DanteRL]

I imagine that one may be..quite difficult seeing as hes a bit older, and if he is so used to doing that up to this point its most likely 'engraved' in him. One thing Im curious about though?
Did your girlfriend ever openly tell him (whilst hes sober of course) about that college graduation? I mean, personally speaking atleast, if I knew my own child would be embarassed because of an addiction problem I have, that she wishes to go early from one of the most important days of her lives... that would make me think a bit to be fairly honest.

Oh, we didn`t plan to leave early because of him. We had to, because he was already pretty intoxicated, to the point where he completely forgot what happened. And as far as I know, her mother tried to talk about it, and he always dismisses it, like it isn`t a big deal.

There was one time when he quit drinking, and it was because of religion. Hell man, he just exchanged one thing for the other, there was no other topics on his conversations, his thing was the right one, he sold ALL his rock dvds, and even got rid of their TVs (my girlfriend kept hers, because at least he respected her non conversion), and no one could stand him, just the same. But now he`s back on the booze, and regrets giving away all his shit.

Oh, and now we`re planning on getting married, so i`m really fucking tense about how I`m going to avoid any incidents without simply letting him out of the party.

 

[happyninja42]

I used to take drugs myself, though nothing as "high grade" as you. My list of drugs was pot, acid, mushrooms, and I took extacsy, extacy, extasy, fuck it, the rave feel good drug, however you spell it. Though I only took that once, as it didn't really do much for me *shrugs*.

I did them regularly for about a decade, starting at around 17 years old, then just stopped. I don't really remember much about taking them, as it was just something I did, sort of like trying to remember what it was like having a meal 15 years ago, you don't recall details, it just happened. At the time I liked to think it wasn't effecting my mental capacity, and I think for the most part it wasn't, but, there were definitely some effects that I didn't notice until I stopped using. A more precise clarity of thought I guess you could say. It felt like a foggy cloud had lifted from my mental awareness.

I can't really say I had a bad experience taking them, as I really didn't. I had a lot of fun using them, and had a lot of great experiences, but there were definitely some drawbacks and downsides to it. Namely, the people I had to associate with. Some people like to talk about "gateway drugs", but I think that's a load of bullshit. Taking pot didn't make me want to do other drugs. Having to go hang out with my drug dealer, who would then offer me other drugs while I was there, made me decide to take other drugs. The association with some fairly unsavory people, in unsavory locations, was the biggest negative to me. Because the people who are willing to break the law to get you some drugs, are usually more than happy to break the law in other ways, ways that you might not be so happy with, but hey, you have to associate with him, because he gets you your stash.

It was an interesting time, and I don't regret it, but if given the choice to do it again, I would make some different choices in some key locations.

I won't tell anyone "Don't Do Drugs!" because I do think you can take them responsibly, and have a good time doing so, but like anything else, it's got it's risks as well as it's benefits.

 

[Lilikins]

Oh, and now we`re planning on getting married, so i`m really fucking tense about how I`m going to avoid any incidents without simply letting him out of the party.

First of all, I just realized...you have the same name as my kitten haha, nevertheless, that aside. Grats on the marriage I really hope it all does work out well for you.

I donno, maybe a thought?

What if your soon to be wife, seeing as it is one of the most important days of both of your lives, tells him she doesnt really wish for him to be there unless he swears he wont drink? Seeing as she doesnt want him to mess up her 'special day'?

Of course thats easier said then done, seeing as I dont know the person in question at all, so I cant really tell how he'd react to that. But I do believe that would be quite the kick to the face in a mental aspect.

I can't say I was nervous really, the anonymity helps with that. They have a pretty strict policy of not discussing members or meeting activities outside of the meetings themselves.

It wasn't my idea to go at all, a family member told me I was "sick" and had to seek help. I was mixing alcohol with antidepressants at the time and apparently it was taking a toll on me that I couldn't see at the time. I wasn't convinced I needed help, but I did take something positive away from the whole thing.

Thanks for sharing that delicate bit of info, Im very happy to hear that it had some effect on you afterwards and hopefully it may help someone whos in the same shoes and 'lurking' maybe make that decision also

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Snipity Snap

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll have a serious talk with him. Strangely enough I'm seeing him tonight, I don't expect much of it honestly but hey.

I don't want to put too much of a downer on this, but even though I don't know him or you I'm going to agree with your expectation here. Purely anecdotal, but I've only ever known people to stop taking drugs because they stopped wanting to take drugs.

If you do value him as a friend just remember to keep including him in your social activities, don't cut him out. The old "if you're going to keep doing drugs we aren't going to hang around with you anymore" will pretty much guarantee a "well then fuck you guys" response. Keeping doing things that aren't focussed on taking drugs with non drug taking friends can be a good way to keep grounded, even if you have run off to the toilet every couple of hours to shoot up.

On a slightly more upbeat note, most people move on from it eventually, they party for a few years then get bored and settle down with no harm done.

 

[rosac]

I actually volunteer at a drug rehab clinic, and it is soul destroying to see what some of these people have doen to themselves and others in order to get their fix, usually to escape situations in their lives.

BUT that makes helping someone, seeing that glimpse of hope, hearing that they may get their children back and all the other things, that much sweeter.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

My whole point in this thread is...well I was having a discussion about it with my fiancee, how we could maybe donate some money per month for charities that help folks who are going through it. I just thought maybe it would also be nice to give a post here and offer to maybe give a bit of understanding and guidance in that area

Major kudos for moving past that and removing such a negative influence from your life. And double so for "paying it forward" and helping others with advice and donations; it is highly commendable and I personally think an amazingly positive reflection on you and a takeaway from your experiences.