|
|
TimSanDiego
– San Diego, CA
Member, SMART Recovery® Online
Former maladaptive behavior: opiates
Sober: two years and counting
Over
several years I developed a serious opiate habit that started as a
doctor's prescription for back pain, became periodic.... then regular
recreational use, turned into a crutch for facing life's challenges
and ended with me using between 1000-2500mg of Oxycontin each and
every day (that's the equivalent opiate content of between 200-500
Percocet tablets each day
 ),
often with some fentanyl or Vicodins thrown in for good measure. In
July-2006, I went to a five-day in-patient detox center, where they
stressed the need for an after-care program and suggested SMART.
Shortly thereafter, I logged in to SMART Recovery®on-line and
found a community of people who understood what I was going through
and many who had stories similar to mine.
SMART Recovery®
has been a critical resource for developing and maintaining the
desire to live a "clean" life. In addition to the great
people I've met in chat and in meetings, the message boards are
chocked full of interesting information and personal stories and the
tools SMART Recovery® provides have really helped me put my drug
use into perspective and to refashion my thought processes to deal
with urges, stress and other triggers. Also, SMART Recovery® has
given me the opportunity to communicate with others in recovery and
the chance to help out those who are in earlier stages of recovery,
based on what I have learned during my years of use, abuse and
recovery attempts. Trying to help and support others in their
recovery attempts has been one of the most effective things in
sustaining my own recovery.
I am grateful that SMART
Recovery® is here, to help myself and others who desire to be
free of the shackles of alcohol, drugs and problem behaviors.
Personally, without SMART.... I believe I would either be using
again, in the hospital from drug-induced health problems, in prison
for drug-related offenses....... or dead. I hope that SMART Recovery®
can continue to be a recovery lighthouse for those navigating the
rocks of addictive substances and behaviors.
Tim
|
