HAMSTERS & HEROIN: Not all junkies are purse-snatching grandmother-killing psychos. I'm keeping this blog to bear witness to that fact.

LIVE FROM LONDON

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DIARY OF A SLOWLY RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT

I used to take heroin at every opportunity, for over 10 years, now I just take methadone which supposedly "stabilizes" me though I feel more destabilized than ever before despite having been relatively well behaved since late November/early December 2010... and VERY ANGRY about this when I let it get to me so I try not to.

I was told by a mental health nurse that my heroin addiction was "self medication" for a mood disorder that has recently become severe enough to cause psychotic episodes. As well as methadone I take antipsychotics daily. Despite my problems I consider myself a very sane person. My priority is to attain stability. I go to Narcotics Anonymous because I "want what they have" ~ Serenity.

My old blog used to say "candid confessions of a heroin and crack cocaine addict" how come that one comes up when I google "heroin blog" and not this one. THIS IS MY BLOG. I don't flatter myself that every reader knows everything about me and follows closely every single word every day which is why I repeat myself. Most of that is for your benefit not mine.

This is my own private diary, my journal. It is aimed at impressing no-one. It is kept for my own benefit to show where I have been and hopefully to put off somebody somewhere from ever getting into the awful mess I did and still cannot crawl out of. Despite no drugs. I still drink, I'm currently working on reducing my alcohol intake to zero.

If you have something to say you are welcome to comment. Frankness I can handle. Timewasters should try their own suggestions on themselves before wasting time thinking of ME.

PS After years of waxing and waning "mental" symptoms that made me think I had depression and possibly mild bipolar I now have found out I'm schizoaffective. My mood has been constantly "cycling" since December 2010. Mostly towards mania (an excited non-druggy "high"). For me, schizoaffective means bipolar with (sometimes severe)
mania and flashes of depression (occasionally severe) with bits of schizophrenia chucked on top. You could see it as bipolar manic-depression with sparkly knobs on ... I'm on antipsychotic pills but currently no mood stabilizer. I quite enjoy being a bit manic it gives the feelings of confidence and excitement people say they use cocaine for. But this is natural and it's free, so I don't see my "illness" as a downer. It does, however, make life exceedingly hard to engage with...

PPS The "elevated mood" is long gone. Now I'm depressed. Forget any ideas of "happiness" I have given up heroin and want OFF methadone as quick as humanly possible. I'm fed up of being a drug addict. Sick to death of it. I wanna be CLEAN!!!

Attack of the Furry Entertainers!

Attack of the Furry Entertainers!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Chinese Proverb of the day!



當一個人內心能容納兩樣相互衝突的東西,這個人便開始變得有價值了。

It actually came from a piece of spam left at Addicted Rantings's blog by somebody named 韋于倫成 on 27 May this year at 1:18pm and it means:


When a person's heart can hold different conflicting things, this man started to become worthwhile.


Cool, huh?

10 comments:

Jeannie said...

Or psychotic...but why quibble?

Gledwood said...

Hahaha!!

Gledwood said...

I think it means once you're able to face up to your own ambivalence and accept that the world is not black and white, you've become a rounded person

Merle said...

Hi Gleds ~~ How nice to relive your travels and many adventures again by
whatever means. Go for it and enjoy.
I did so enjoy the previous post about Queen Elizabeth - that was great and I will come and watch the entire doco about her. We have a holiday tomorrow (Mon) for the Queens birthday.
I am glad your cousin came from Sydney to London for 4 years, she must have enjoyed it. We have very hot summers and I guess it shows on our faces. Thank you my friend for your kind words about my son.
I think he will be OK, but just have to watch it. I am so sorry you had an accident and very glad you have got over it well and very little scarring. Take care,
My very best wishes, Merle.

Gledwood said...

Hi Merle
Re your son's skin cancdr ops you're welcome and I'm glad he's OK. As I said, he really shouldn't worry about scarring. Any marks will fade quickly.
The Queen Elizabeth II documentary is called Elizabeth R. I remember it coming out when I was in the holidays from university around 1992. It is the best Royal documentary by far and well worth the watching.
When my cousin lived in London it wsa the coolest time ever. Re her friends' skin ageing, I think she believed it was UV-damage causing this.... the southern ozone-hole is massive, and she thought it was this making her friends look older. Not any lack of stress! The Aussies used to say London was incredibly stressful and busy, but it was a great place to launch a power-career...
I'm glad you seem to be fine all things considered and hope all continues to go well.
Lots of love
xx

Syd said...

I'm had a lot of these spam Chinese comments but I thought they were obscene. So it is nice to know that they are proverbs or statements.

Gledwood said...

Oh no some are obscene!
In the same bunch of spam was a thicket of advertisements for feature-length porn. One phrase that came up over again was "self-timers"... (like an egg-timer?) ... what on earth self-timers might be in the context of porn I don't wanna know

Baino said...

Wow wish my flashbacks were as vivid. You do write well you know, ever thought about short fiction? Could be a nice little earner. Yeh I get this chinese spam all the time but just ignored it, I never bothered to translate.

Gledwood said...

I never feel inspired to write short fiction (maybe coz I hardly ever read it ~ I don't like the ordinarily-sketchy characterization). But I DO still have that "longer" work of fiction in the "pipeline", hahar!

Gledwood said...

Dur: and double-dur, bc I posted this under the wrong comment. Anyway, here goes ~

I forgot to say; as much as anything it's the feeling that comes back to me. The feeling of being on holiday. And the coconutty smell of Ambre Solaire factor 2 (Malta in the early 80s)

which is a North African island in the Med, v much like Morocco

they have a fantastic drink there, bitter orange with herbs, called Kinnie. I would really like to get a few bottles...

I WANT OFF METHADONE AS QUICK AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!

METHADONE ~ A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH







Heroin Shortage: News

If you are looking for the British Heroin Drought post, click here; the latest word is in the comments.







Christiane F

"Wir, Kinder vom Bahnhoff Zoo" by "Christiane F", memoir of a teenage heroin addict and prostitute, was a massive bestseller in Europe and is now a set text in German schools. Bahnhoff Zoo was, until recently, Berlin's central railway station. A kind of equivalent (in more ways than one) to London's King's Cross... Of course my local library doesn't have it. So I'm going to have to order it through a bookshop and plough through the text in German. I asked my druggieworker Maple Syrup, who is Italiana how she learned English and she said reading books is the best way. CHRISTIANE F: TRAILER You can watch the entire 120-min movie in 12 parts at my Random blog. Every section EXCEPT part one is subtitled in English (sorry: but if you skip past you still get the gist) ~ to watch it all click HERE.

To See Gledwood's Entire Blog...

DID you find my blog via a Google or other search? Are you stuck on a post dated some time ago? Do you want to read Gledwood Volume 2 right from "the top" ~ ie from today?
If so click here and you'll get to the most recent post immediately!

Drugs Videos

Most of these come from my Random blog, which is an electronic scrapbook of stuff I thought I might like to view at some time or other. For those who want to view stuff on drugs I've collected the very best links here. Unless otherwise stated these are full-length features, usually an hour or more.

If you have a slow connexion and are unused to viewing multiscreen films on Youtube here's what to do: click the first one and play on mute, stopping and starting as it does. Then, when it's done, click on Repeat Play and you get the full entertainment without interruption. While you watch screen one, do the same to screens 2, 3 and so on. So as each bit finishes, the next part's ready and waiting.

Mexican Black Tar Heroin: "Dark End"

Khun Sa, whose name meant Prince Prosperous, had been, before his death in the mid 2000s, the world's biggest dealer in China White Heroin: "Lord of the Golden Triangle"

In-depth portrait of the Afghan heroin trade at its very height. Includes heroin-lab bust. "Afghanistan's Fateful Harvest"

Classic miniseries whose title became a catchphrase for the misery of life in East Asian prison. Nicole Kidman plays a privileged middle-class girl set up to mule heroin through Thai customs with the inevitable consequences. This is so long it had to be posted in two parts. "Bangkok Hilton 1" (first 2 hours or so); "Bangkok Hilton 2" (last couple of hours).

Short film: from tapwater-clear H4 in the USA to murky black Afghan brown in Norway: "Heroin Addicts Speak"

Before his untimely death this guy kept a video diary. Here's the hour-long highlights as broadcast on BBC TV: "Ben: Diary of a Heroin Addict". Thanks to Noah for the original link.

Some of the most entertaining scenes from Britain's top soap (as much for the poor research as anything else). Not even Phil Mitchell would go from nought to multi-hundred pound binges this fast: "Phil Mitchell on Crack" (just over 5 minutes).

Scientist lady shows us how to cook up gear: "How Much Citric?" Lucky cow: her brown is 70% purity! Oddly we never see her actually do her hit... maybe she got camera shy...

And lastly:

German documentary following a life from teenage addiction to untimely death before the age of 30. The decline in this girl's appearance is truly shocking. "Süchtig: Protokoll einer Hilflosigkeit". Sorry no subtitles; this is here for anyone learning German who's after practice material a little more gripping than Lindenstraße!































Nosey Quiz! Have you ever heard voices when you weren't high on drugs?

Manic Magic

Manic Magic

Gledwood Volume 2: A Heroin Addict's Blog

Copyright 2011 by Gledwood