So, what does detox feel like? I can tell you from (far too much) personal experience that it’s not fun. In fact, depending on the drug you’re detoxing from, it can be horrible. Is that meant to scare you? That’s not my intention. These are just facts. There’s a reason addicts like me avoid detox at all costs. There’s a reason we try so hard…
Addict behavior is wide-ranging and can be different for every addict, especially for different types of addictions. Here are a few addict behaviors that can be clear signs of addiction as you regularly see many of them at once: Using drugs or alcohol to solve problems Using drugs or alcohol regularly and excessively (like smoking weed all day long) Physical signs of depressant use (when…
I went to my first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 1993, and one of the first things I remember is that they had coffee for just a quarter a cup. The price around here hasn’t gone up, either. And no one gave me a hard time if I didn’t have a quarter to contribute; it was (and is) on the honor system. I didn’t know then…
Heroin addiction stories run the gamut, and I hate to say it this way, but I can tell you that mine is one of the worst you’ll ever read. I can tell y’all one thing for certain: I got introduced to an adult world at a very young age. The reason for this was because I displayed an uncanny natural ability to mimic jazz pianists…
Alcoholism is absolutely a mental illness, and so is drug addiction. They’re as dangerous as depression, as debilitating as anxiety, and as horrible as OCD. Setting aside for a moment the fact that alcoholism is defined as a mental illness by just about any doctor you’ll talk to (and is also defined that way in medical literature), a simple thought experiment will show us that…
The long-term effects of substance abuse can be incredibly serious. Substance abuse destroys lives. When you use drugs for a short time, you may not experience negative repercussions, but any length of use exposes you to possible long-term addiction and potentially devastating effects. Knowing these long-term effects of substance abuse may help stop you, or someone you love, from using drugs. It is never too…
The First Stage of My Alcoholism—It Runs in the Family I’m 14. We go to visit my grandmother. She’ll die a few years later. She’s drinking a handle of Jack Daniels by herself. It will be decades before I learn that my grandfather had decades of sobriety. It will be a decade before I learn how deeply it runs through my family. It would not…