IT'S TRUE: ADDICTION HAS TAKEN SOME OF THE VERY BEST PEOPLE; and still has many in its relentless grip. I got talking to an old friend today. His name is Peter. He is about ten years older than me (about 44) but he looks 60. Sensible. Kind, reliable. And, in an age when I meet a fellow junkie on the street and say nothing about my business because I know that if I do mention anything to do with drugs or money they will inevitably start whingeing and begging off me, feigning a sickness that, two minutes previously, just wasn't there. We sat down talking for over an hour. This guy's life is an utter shambles. Drugs have taken some of the very best people.
I had a nasty dark alley experience this evening. Awaiting runner for a dealer aptly named "Wicked". Twenty minutes of hanging around this alley behind people's flats a shadow emerges. "Who sent you?" I insist on knowing. I wouldn't be the first person to have given money to the wrong man who just runs. The shadow wasn't up for speaking. Full sentences seemed too much to manage. "W," he eventually managed. "Whh-kid." So I gave the shadow my cash and got two lumps that looked like Wicked's by their distinctive wrapping. Wicked has a penchant of some sort for demanding clients meet his people in locations of the most utter degradation. His old favourite was a park of the most loathesome after-dark atmosphere I've encountered in a long time. Shadows gathered in corners. Eventually some turned out to be acquaintances. How any woman managed to push herself to brave this place alone I have no idea, but many did. One man was ripped off; another was, so the rumour goes, beaten up and left for dead there. Nasty, nasty place, that Shadowland.
Nasty business, I can hear you muttering.
Due to a glitch in appointments, I got to see my very first methadone key worker. Not having freely volunteered very much information since I don't recall when, and feeling too overflowed to stop myself, I spilled out my heart. Told how down I'd been. How much in a mess I really had got myself (though I'm dragging myself out of the pit. I'm truly trying.) How doctors and psychiatrists have fobbed me off. How my mental, emotional and spiritual "situation" predates in many aspects my drug addiction years. I fully used up a 20-minute appointment to overflowing. First Worker insisted that, if he does see my Present Worker, he will tell him what I said. But if he doesn't, of course, he won't be able to. And he might not. So I won't know where I stand next time. This heart-outpouring is exhausting.
My own lifestory is so immensely complexicated that I've more than once been accused of lying merely while attempting to tell of how some situation relates to one of however many past ones that have repeated however many times. Perhaps forgetting the precise specific one. I cannot trust myself to make self-statements anymore, not the "when did I first do this" kind of thing because my past is such a tangle.
One day I shall work myself loose from that tangle.
One day, at last, I know I shall be free.
and you'll have some friends here when you do. Whatever your past is, keep pushing forward. Even when it's exhausting and person A turns to person b,c & d. Keep spilling until somebody "gets" it because you may have to weed through a bit to get there. Each time you tell it maybe a layer will unravel and the knot can untie itself one day.
ReplyDeleteI'm pulling for you, in your corner!
(complexicated is good. I think I'm complexicated too)
oooh, weird. One of my favorite songs (Born To Kill) is currently playing on my itunes and it kind of fits in with what I'm reading/typing. Lyrics...
There's a big beat
You're spinning in my tv
A magician
The antidote
So I'm with him
Floating, loaded
Enough to be released
It's more than the less you say you do
It's more than the shot that gets you through
Born to buy into something
Born to kill
There's a big beat
You're sleeping in my memory
Like Satan
Lonely
So I'm with him
Floating, loaded
Enough to be released
It's more than the less you say you do
It's more than the shot that gets you though
Born to buy into something
Born to Kill
Have to leave now, take care
Thank you...
ReplyDeleteYou are right, complexicated is good.
People who aren't complexicated are dull!!
I'm glad you're complexicated.
Do you know something, I used to be a really determined soul. Goal-oriented and stubborn. Now that side of me has (temporarily) gone to sleep ...
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to say I'm not responsible. But the condition I'm in it snowballs and gets out of control. That's why NA call it a disease. Thanks for stopping by.
Gleds
Gledwood, you have a very good mind and writing ablility, Keep up the good fight!
ReplyDeleteGled, this is a bit of a carryover from your last post.
ReplyDeletethis may sound dumb but have you ever tried to kick cold turkey?
Titration and substitution just doesn't seem to work IMHO.
I kicked benzoes' cold, I've been told the withdrawal is similar to H. I'd been hooked about 7 years.
Keith Richards described quitting cold as "feeling like shit for 48 hours, then you get a little better". I found he was off by about 24 hours.
anytime you need it drop me a line, and keep trying man.
It was a very good thing to have told the worker what you did. Maybe they will be able to get you more support, knowing what you're going through?
ReplyDeleteYes I've tried cold turkey and I did do 8 days but nearly went mentally crazy!!
ReplyDeleteThere might be some herbs or homeopathic constitutionals that can help you during the withdrawl process, or even during your therapy appointments as you start to process stuff from your past. I found them to be really helpful with my anxiety and depression issues. They work on a cellular level though, so you need to give it lots of time to take effect. I find the Bach Flower Remedies subtle yet very powerful.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you!
gledwood--
ReplyDeletestony_curtis here--you dropped by my blog.
i feel like i want to offer support, but i don't know what to say.
take care, man. drop by again if you want...
kindest regards, seriously...
Thanks for dropping by. Don't worry about what you can't do ... I know how you feel I used to have junkie friends b4 I eventually turned into one ... I'm keeping this blog to tell the TRUTH about addiction to the world. Not just the over-repeated sanitized version.
ReplyDeleteyeah it most certainly will drive you to the edge of sanity, my personal favorite is depersonafication , you look down at your hand and your brain can't tell that it's yours, not to mention your brain feels like it's floating a foot above a body that no longer feels like it's yours.
ReplyDeletegood times...
Homeopathic help, I might sound like a cynic but ha, yeah thats no help
can't even try to understand what you're going through. Nothing I've ever faced; guess I've been lucky that so far never had anyone in the family who's had your problems either. Would like to know of a way to help but I know reading some of the comments on your various posts that others are far more qualified. Just hang in there GW....
ReplyDeleteRx
Junky,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely don't think homeopathy or herbs can KICK an addiction. I just think they might help stabilize things on an emotional level whilst going through the process. I'm Certainly not trying to over simplify or under state the severity off addiction. I don't have any personal experience with this, but since I have seen and experienced amazing things in my own life and others with herbs and such, just thought I'd put it out there as an option.
Good luck to you Gledwood whatever you choose.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI know you were not trying to understate addiction etc.
I felt a little snipey apparently, all apologies.
I did the cold turkey thing and went a bit mental... they gave me some 1. sleepy tea 2. detox tea. The detox tea makes you sweat MORE but you're sweating the toxins out. In that type of state you HAVE to do all you can eg go on walks as long as you can manage etc which is what I did. All the horrible feelings (physical especially) are just the drugs coming out of the body so that's what I told myself. Next time I'm going to to a buprenorphine (Subutex) detox. This is where you take something that quickly blockades the effects of the opiates on the body. So you do a lot of the suffering at the beginning rather than the end of an inpatient detox. Usually they give reducing methadone or "DFs" Dihydrocodeine which is way more comfortable than nothing but you still suffer. I've been on Subutex before and it's dead easy to reduce the dose. I know a unit that will do that detox but I'm on methadone already in way too high an amount to go on that without massively cutting it down (or possibly going away, taking just heroin and no methadone for a week, then my body should accept the Subutex no problem. Methadone causes trouble in detox because it's very long acting and takes AGES to come out of the body ...)
ReplyDeleteI used to get Reiki before. Acupuncture I've had that is good. Homoeopathy I don't know too much about. But I'm open to anything that might help ...
Gledwood,
ReplyDeleteWow the cold turkey approach as well as the drug stuff both sound difficult. But it's good that you are taking steps to try to make it more bearable the next time. My sis works in a clinic for meth addicts and says it's hard. My brother in law is addicted to meth. He though has no desire to stop (yet.)
Junky,
no harm, no foul :) Although looking in my books it does appear that the remedies are only particularly helpful for preventing addiction after the first one or two tries with the drug. They do suggest some remedies for specific concerns while coming off though.
Aconite 30c - for sudden panic/fear of dying, feeling chilly.
Absinthium 6c for depressed, dizzy, disorientated, having hallucinations
Arsenicum 6c for restlessness, great anxiety, fear of being alone
Hyoscyamus 6c - for marked paranoia, muttering, obscene talk and behavior
massive doses of vitamin B have been useful for me for my on-going depression and I've heard have been used successfully for treating bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia.
of course I'm no doctor! :)
Besides what Sarah said (bless you, Sarah!), I have been using Omega-3 fish oil caplets (these do not have to be $$$) to work with manic depression meds and smooth things out for years. They are like brain food--they make you happy and relaxed. And again, this is not something that will help you kick--just something that'll smooth over some bumpy parts while you're kicking with something else. And gledwood--your writing is very good--you are inspirational.
ReplyDeleteahh yes, forgot the fish oil! I take that too.. mega doses with DHA..
ReplyDeletesorry to be flooding your blog with all this!
Hi you dropped by my blog on (ourearthlyrights.blogspot.com) thanks for reading.
ReplyDeleteRead your blog and am with you on quitting. My dad was on heroin about 4 times. I asked him every time how he got off and he told me the only way for him was going cold turkey.
He had tried just about everything under the sun including prison and lots of other stupid things.
You asked me how I got into Scientology, my dad had a few books on it but wasn't really interested. I was into music, was doing ok, had good friends - somehow felt like i was grinding. Living in Paris at the time I had what the French call "Metro-bulot-dodo" which is Metro-work-sleep.
I read the book found it was useful. I think it was Problems of Work or Fundamentals of Thought, found out there were some courses and liked it.
Mainly because I could use what I learned.
That's my story, you asked, I answered - hope this doesn't seem like an advert or something.
I really wish you the best on kicking the habit.
You also asked where there is a center in UK to get more info - I think they recently opened one in Queen Victoria Street London.
On the habit, check out Narconon. Had a friend that worked there and they're pretty good. Unfortunately my dad wasn't interested - he died a few years back.
OK I'm rambling - take care.
sorry i havent written you back or more. i started on an email/letter back to you and then five minutes later looked at my watch i was late 4 something so i deleted it and left. I am always elated when i see you comment and read my things. and I am very impressed by the prolificness of your blog. Everytime I come to your page there are like six new entries. Okay. XOXO
ReplyDelete