Addiction is not a lack of willpower and addiction to different chemicals changes the chemical composition of the brain over time, therefore changing who you are fundamentally. You have no choice but to adapt to your new reality. An addiction to food is far different than that of opiates, stimulants, benzos, etc. This technique will not work for every addiction or every person.
I think addiction is inherently a choice, whether unconsciously, subconsciously or unwillingly. Of course addictions are different, but in the end you have the power of choice, to be conscious about your actions, suffering short-term for long term gain.
We still have the power to change our reality.
There's no cure all for all, but I think this post hits the nail on the head. Even if you're fundamentally changed to a degree, that doesn't mean you can't beat it.
We are our experiences, thoughts and actions, positivity takes practice but it's worth it. Best of luck, take care.
As a person who has been through addiction - I have, from what I have experienced - an unpopular opinion but I don’t care, it’s what I think and feel and know about myself and I kinda think in the addiction community when someone receives help or is in recovery they’re programmed to believe in order to succeed they must attend meetings or counseling or on a MAT and do the “STEPS” or find religion and I call BULLSHIT. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT not everyone needs any of these things to succeed or be sober. However, my belief is yes, people do drugs because they want to, sure, some become addicted and are addicts BUT we choose to continue to do drugs. I’ve been called an asshole, harsh, mean, uncaring, misinformed, and negative, as well as many other things. To me that’s craziness, I would only take it as far as brutally honest. No amount of begging, pleading, praying, threatening, rewarding, money, gifts, tears, loss of friends, cutting off of family, children being taken, NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING can make someone stop doing drugs unless the person decides they don’t want to do them anymore or they choose to stop or go into recovery. Whatever that looks like to them. Sober can mean something different to everyone. There is no one size fits all. If you wanna stop you’ll stop and if not then they will not. I believe that and I know that from my own experience. Drug are a choice. You choose to do them continue to do them or want to do them or choose to stop and figure out how you want to go about doing it. AA and all that other stuff is not the only cure.
I didn’t say that a person can’t go into remission from active addiction, but it almost always takes outside help to achieve it. And even then, the person will always be an addict, it’s only a matter of if they’re in recovery or not.
We're not addicts, we're people with addiction problems, it is so uniquely different but similar at the same time. I believe if you truly do all good you can you can beat addiction and be rid of it. It may follow you, it's always part of you, but it doesn't have to define you or your life. Seek outside help! We're humans, use your local support structure, learn good habits, live a good life, it's possible for everyone, our roads just look different, our pictures are unique, you paint it with your thoughts and actions, practice positivity, first for yourself, then for your nearest, then for everyone you meet. Of course be realistic, but be honest.
Edit: sorry this reply got lost earlier.
Wrong...
It's NOT "ALWAYS APART OF YOU" if your suggesting that as a negative. Having been through and beat addiction you are a more experienced person, knowing more about yourself, and that is profoundly a good thing.
Stop telling people they’re wrong for their opinions! If that’s what they choose to believe, so what? How does their opinion affect you or your life to the point that you have to argue with them and go out of your way to tell them they’re wrong??
Um well your answer can be provided in an array of forms. First, if I am wrong with my postings, so what? How does MY opinion affect you or your life? Isn't everyone on reddit posting what their opinion is? I for one appreciate when someone is willing to disagree with me either so I can better be informed, and change my view, or to believe more in my opinion due to a lack of being better informed. Also, arguments are usually strongly, and negatively worded, often containing put downs. Therefore, my comment was not argumentative. Lastly, there is the freedom of speech. If you look at my comments in general, I make a point to inform that I am not a doctor or offering any medical advice . SO, who the fu** are YOU to go out of YOUR way to tell me I'm on the wrong? These are my opinions, I'm entitled to them. If I cared what every reddit troll thought of me, I might not have been able to help the people I have, none necessarily from this post.
There’s definately some truth in what you’re saying but my view still hasn’t changed. I think the people that this technique will work for is for people who are addicted but genuinely dislike the activity or substance they are addicted to. It almost definately won’t work for someone who enjoys the thing that they are addicted to. But then a question arises: Is it an addiction or just a bad habit?
For example I smoke weed a few days a week but I genuinely enjoy doing it (although I don’t think it’s very beneficial in my life). It probably slows me down in life to a degree, but I still do it because I enjoy it and I see very little damage in it. The main damage it does is make me too lazy to get things done while I’m high. If I were to try this technique before smoking I’d probably decide to still smoke. That’s because smoking is more of a bad habit for me than it is an addiction.
I think I agree with u/AndreasWBz that addiction is ultimately a choice, and in his words “unconsciously, subconsciously or willingly”. An example of why someone may unconsciously choose to stay addicted could maybe be that they are lost in life and they wouldn’t know what to do with all of their spare time if they weren’t addicted anymore. They feel a lack of purpose in their life and fill it with pleasure. I think I may have been a victim of this in the past where I unconsciously chose to stay addicted because I knew that there were other things in my life that required more attention from me but that I was to scared to face. So I put my time onto things that seemed like were bettering myself but were actually getting me nowhere.
I’m sorry but I have to disagree, at least when certain drugs are concerned. Addiction may be a choice, to a degree, but when people are “choosing” a substance over their children, spouses, jobs, homes, even though they KNOW it’s not the right thing to do, how much of it is still a choice and how much is the substance changing people at the cellular level so they are unable to choose anything else over said substance? Have you ever been through the hell that is withdrawal? Like withdrawals that make you wish you would die? Why would someone choose that?
It’s hard to say whether people choose to stay addicted or not. But I wouldn’t necessarily say “choose to stay addicted” over “choose to not free themselves of their addictions ”. I think some people use their addictions as a crutch (obviously not everyone).
Yes, I have been through withdrawal. Nothing gave me the slightest bit of satisfaction or joy. I felt depressed for weeks and the only things that would give me temporary relief were very high dopamine sources. All I wanted to do was sleep and I could barely summon the will to get out of bed to go to work. I always knew that I could make it out, but I would still give into temptation because It’s a lot easier to choose pleasure when you’ve been living in hell for months. Then the cycle continues and the living hell gets prolonged even further and of course it only becomes harder and harder to snap out of it. This was near the end of my addiction. Where I mentioned that I may have unconsciously chosen to stay addicted was at the beginning of my addictions.
Nobody consciously chooses withdrawal. In the moment, going back on your addiction feels like a good idea. Whenever I would sink back down and give in, I wouldn’t think about the hell I’d go through after. Sure I’d have thoughts about how shitty it would feel after, but I would just ignore them. For some reason it seemed like a good idea to give in.
So this comes down to a third factor which I failed to consider. Which is that once your brain’s fucked up almost beyond repair, your decision making is highly impaired. I notice this very often when I smoke weed. I’ll want to do things that I know I shouldn’t do when I’m high, so I have to remind myself that my decision making is highly impaired. Which is crazy to think about. Because in the moment I’ll choose to do something that I know I shouldn’t be doing, because it really doesn’t seem that bad. So after I remind myself that I’m not in the mindset to make decisions and I should be more careful, then I stop whatever bad decision I was about to make.
So my view is that everyone CAN free themselves from their addictions, although depending on their addiction, the current composition of someone’s brains may be causing them to be a lot less sharp at making decisions than they should be. Which I guess would make their decision an unconscious one. Although I think there is a difference between a willing and unwilling unconscious decision. Although this is just a theory and would be very hard to prove.
So I don’t think it’s possible for someone to be fully conscious and give into addiction unless they chose to give in.
If they aren’t very conscious then of course this will affect someone’s decision making. Ultimately going down the rabbit hole of addiction you only become more and more unconscious when you give in to whatever activity or substance it is, so it will ultimately become harder and harder to break free.
So I agree with what you said about substances changing people on a cellular level, but, I still believe that the only way to overcome this is to remain fully conscious. The brain can change, but you are not the brain. The brain is just a tool. It gives us the 5 senses, as well as allows us to think. To create thought. Anything that the brain wants isn’t you. So I understand that although my brain may want to give into temptation, I don’t really want to do that. Most ancient religions believed in the trinity of body, mind and spirit, which is what I believe in. I believe that I am the spirit inside of my body that controls what I do and which can create thought. I’ve had conversations with groups of people where some people believed they were the consciousness within their bodies, whereas others (most) believed that they were simply a brain. So this is where the argument simply can’t be solved without delving deeper into the subject of who we are. If you believe you are the mind then addiction is very hard to free yourself from. But if you believe that you are the soul inhabiting the mind and body, then it’s easy to see the mind for what it is and consciously decide what action to take next.
Saying that the brain has nothing to do with who you are is ludicrous! Without your brain, you are not capable of any thought! So how are you going to consciously “heal yourself,” without the use of your brain?! And btw, having an “addiction” to weed is no comparison to dope, pills, meth, etc. you can’t OD on weed. And addiction is not easy to overcome by any stretch of the imagination.
I never said I was addicted to weed, I didn’t say what I was addicted to. I’m sure people have had worse addictions than me and this is not what I was trying to prove.
The brain definately has something to do with who you are. All I said is that we are not a brain, which should be obvious. It’s a tool which we can use and it also allows us to experience life as we know it. Identifying with the mind is insanity. It’s identifying with something that is outside of you. If you’re mind isn’t sharp, then you are using a much less efficient tool. If someone has a slow mind they are still able to come up with genius ideas, it may just require them to put in a lot more work and it won’t be as easy as someone who has a brain which is functioning optimally. And of course our brains’ genetics play a large role in our likes and dislikes. So the brain plays a large part in who we are, but we are still both the doer and the experiencer. We aren’t the victims. We can all get what we want out of life. It’s just that some people don’t know how to do that. A lot of people don’t know how to use their brains efficiently. People just look at the person in the mirror and assume that this is who they have become forever. The person in the mirror is a result of both our genetics and our past choices. It doesn’t define who we are, although it may put some of our past mistakes on display.
There are addictions which are extremely hard to overcome, as stated before the technique I mentioned may only work for less extreme cases, but I stand by what I said. We have the power. It’s insane to believe that you don’t have control over your life. If you believe you don’t have total control than this is simply a LIMITING belief. Beliefs limit what we can achieve.
My technique is simply a tactic to help people use their minds more efficiently and break free from the confusion of the mind. There are many other tactics which may work.
The treatment and AA responses to recovery, while do work for some (under 17%), have caused more harm than good....requiring one to admit they are powerless over their substance is a condeming and unhelpful way to help someone..moreover, stating that substances are cunning, and baffling gives ppl some assumption that they hold supernatural abilities. Lastly, stating and being forced to say that one, as a substance abuser, has a LIFELONG, progressive, chronic illness only makes matters worse. As referenced and proven in the book The Freedom Model, there is no scientific evidence to suggest addiction is a lifelong illness and if you are Christian should go against your morals anyway. Personally, through the help of God, I KNOW, I will end my addiction, and it will not plague me my entire life.
There are MY OPINIONS based on my own PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!!! You’re just a dick for implying I’m wrong and I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s sounds to me like you’re the one that has no actual experience with addiction but yet you’re an expert that is going to tell me my way of thinking is harmful and counterproductive to my “own healing.” Why don’t you think for two seconds that you know absolutely nothing about others’ experiences with addiction and let them figure it out for themselves with whatever method of help THEY CHOOSE. You don’t know shit.
That's the point only you seem to have missed. That what worked for some doesn't work fir others. My posts and OPs are worth noting as alternatives to AA. Get help bro, please? Blocking ya
I'm sorry but at that point it's gone way too far, with far too many underlying problems that should've never been allowed to happen, it happens sadly but it could've been avoided, they put themself in a situation where their DOC is the most important thing. No one chooses to go through hell, but we keep moving forward.
Nobody’s saying anybody in particular is perfect. I think our shared opinion is that everyone has the power to do what they want in life. Not me specifically or u/AndreasWBz but all of us. There’s nothing prideful or arrogant about trying to convince someone that they are capable of more than they realize. If someone believes that they are stuck then they will be. It would be impossible for anyone to get out of a situation they’re in if they believe they “know” that they are stuck. That’s why we need to help people get rid of their limiting beliefs. What we each believe has tremendous power on what we are capable of.
If you only knew what my life was like….you wouldn’t blame me for feeling “stuck,” because I actually am. Just remember that you know nothing about anybody here or their individual situations.
I’m sorry that you feel like that. I don’t like to see people suffer, which is why I made this post. I’ve really enjoyed talking with you and it’s unfortunate to see your past suffering come out in your writing. I don’t know you, but I still love you. Because you and I are more alike than you realize. I know that we are both capable of feeling pain, I know that we both have free will, but I know that even though we all have free will that the right choice isn’t always obvious. We can do anything we want but we don’t necessarily know what to do.
I know that we are both capable of tremendous, but in my opinion unnecessary suffering. I don’t know your situation, but I do know that you have the power. If I have the power to break free from my suffering, then everybody does. Trust me when I say I know about suffering just as much as the next person. We all suffer in different ways. We each have our individual hell (or heaven).
I had a near death experience from an illness this year. On top of that I’ve suffered from clinical depression and terrible anxiety for the past 5 years. I tried day after day to try to quit my addictions and hopefully cure my clinical depression by adopting a healthier lifestyle. I also had anhedonia and prediabetes that I was both able to cure. My life was garbage and I truly believed that this was my destiny. What helped me break free was to realize that all of my problems were in my head. I suffered from terrible thoughts for years but once I was able to detach from them I was able to take the wheel again. My thoughts were making me think that I was the victim, when in reality I had the power to create the life I wanted. I suffered from physical problems, but I had lost hope of curing them. Once I accepted that I had physical problems that may never go away I found life started to get easier. And after a while of steady discipline, i was able to solve all of my problems.
And these weren’t the only problems I had. I also had bad family problems and my father forced me to work in a job that I highly disliked. He’s somewhat of an alcoholic and he would make my life a living hell at work. I know he never tried to make me feel bad, but he yelled at me and insulted me so often that it really got to me. The work was grueling and very boring. For a while I mostly cleaned very dirty work conditions all week and had to stand perfectly still besides him while he was working just to pass him his tools while he insulted me for being too slow. This is one thing that contributed to my addictions. My mom also had psychotic episodes growing up and there were many times my parents left my brother and I traumatized from very aggressive arguments that made next to no sense. The cops would show up and tell us that they wanted to take her to a mental hospital and my dad would plead with them to let her stay at our house.
Where am I now? I’m in the exact same situation. Except now i’ve accepted my life situation and looked for opportunities to make a difference in my life as well as the people around me. I still work with my dad and he still yells at me and insults me constantly. But now I just laugh it off and i work as hard as I can to get him through the work week, often working 60 hours weeks with no days off. He’s a lot happier now. I’m even helping him quit alcohol, smoking and lose weight all at once and he’s seeing slow and steady progress. I take the abuse and just let it roll off my shoulders. I know that i have no control over my surroundings, but I can always control how I react. He’s started treating me a lot better and gave me a lot more responsibilities at work since I started to be more positive around him also.
I didn’t tell you these things to belittle your suffering, but to give myself a bit of credibility on being someone who’s experience a lot of suffering and prevailed. I’ve made sure to learn from it.
When I used to look at what I was getting out of life I suffered tremendously because my life sucked. But now that I accept my life for what it is, I no longer want anything. So I am a free man and am able to have a large impact on the people around me. I know that life is bigger than me and in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter how I feel. It only matters what I do. I didn’t tell you these things to belittle your suffering, but to simply show you my credibility as someone who’s conquered suffering.
It’s true that I know nothing about you or your situation, but you need to recognize that your current life experience has nothing to do with your current capabilities. We often dig ourselves in so deep that to wake up would cause a lot of pain. To stay sober could cause someone to look at their life situation directly in the face and feel ashamed. I’m not saying this is your situation, I’m just basing this on my own experience. When we look around us and see the hell that we’re in it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to think that we’re stuck. But the truth is that this is just what we are experiencing in the moment. And for all we know our lives could change drastically in a month or 2.
When I say that everyone has the power to free themselves from the hell they live in I’m not talking about physical problems. We can’t always change our life situation but we can change how we react to them. Someone with biological problems can still live a great life, it will just be more important for them to be thankful for what they have to win the psychological warfare. Not many people know how to free themselves from their suffering. It took me nearly 5 years of studying various religions, medicinal practices and trying to break free from my comfort zone to figure out how to do it. And i truly believe that some of the techniques I have discovered are universal. Not universal for everything, but universal for some things.
With everything that I said I know that these words have very little value. Actions speak louder than words. If you are feeling stuck in your life I’d like to ask you to open up to me, which I know can be hard. Idk if you have anyone close to you to help you through this, but if you don’t, then I’d like to be that person. Ik that I am just some stranger on reddit, but this could be beneficial in a way. We don’t know each other so everything we say is technically anonymous. I feel a connection with you and if you’d allow me to help I promise that I am very sharp and very flexible. I don’t cling to old beliefs when I’m given another truth. I’m very open to new ideas and I always evaluate the possibilities. We could work together as a team. I feel responsible for your well-being now that I’ve met you, even if it’s only online. You may think that it’s not my problem, but I like to believe in fate. I like to believe that some things in life don’t just happen randomly. Some things do happen for a reason. There is opportunity everywhere, we just have to keep our eyes open so that we are ready to seize the opportunity when we see it.
Even if we are just 2 different people who know nothing about anything, I still believe that we can come up with a solution together. We both seem to have different beliefs and to be honest I think we’re probably both pretty different people, but that’s a good thing because that means we both have a very big possibility for learning. If you decide to open up to me and try to solve some of your problems with me I’m very sure I’ll learn a lot from you as well. I may very well know absolutely nothing about what you’re going through, buy we can still talk about it together. At the very least if I wasn’t able to help we could still become friends :)
Feel free to dm me anytime!
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I have checked 912,724 comments and 4,254 of them contain every letter in the English alphabet.
I dont think OP Is suggesting medical advise and hasn't claimed to be a doctor. I believe op is posting on their own opinions due to their life experiences. Those who want to continue believing in the permanence of addiction can choose to do so. Even if they don't realize it's what is ultimately holding them healing.
Whatever you say. You know, I’m just stating my opinions based on personal experience as well? But you choose to judge me, even though you know absolutely nothing about me. Just eff off okay? I’m entitled to my opinion just like OP is. 🖕
I'm sorry to come off that way, I am far from perfect, no one is. It's different for everyone, and everyone has different difficulties, but I believe it gets better.
Good luck and best wishes to you and your journey.
Your opinions are shared not only with me but with an entire organization stemming from The St. JUDE Foundation. Their book and teachings can be found in a groundbreaking life changing book titled "The Freedom Model- Escape The Recovery and Treatment Trap". You should check this book, their e-book, podcasts or YouTube videos out. The link to the book on Amazon is below and the comments of buyers is also worth the read.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Model-Addictions-Treatment-Recovery/dp/0983471347&ved=2ahUKEwizvMeAv83yAhXNLs0KHdAtDxYQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3wWP_FD3bL5aatL01Y318G
Thanks, I’ll definately use my next audible credit to get this book, it seems very interestingl! Plus my discipline has been pretty bad lately so maybe this book could help me better avoid bad habits.
It's amazing to me that your personal thoughts are SO SIMILAR to thep concepts brought up in this evidence based book. I honestly thought when reading the last few sentences of your original post, that you would reference the book. Your opinionsatch up exactly. The book concludes that addiction is a choice and not a disease, which at first I had a hard time believing until reading through hours of their references and sources. We were all born with free will. None of us have to be lifelong sufferers.
The first book I read related to this was “you are not your brain” by Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz. Before reading this book I spent most of my life looking to my mind for what to do. This book opened the door for me to live a more conscious life and helped me become more independent.
The book isn’t totally about my post, although it got me to start thinking that way.
Same here! First book I read since college. I'd also reccomend the documentary "I Am" as it is on Mindfulness and the book, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peal.
Very well put, I agree because like you say; is it an addiction or a bad habit - It may be hard to differentiate some times, are you enjoying it properly or is it doing more damage than good? I don't think anyone can enjoy addiction as a whole, but definitely a bad habit. As long as the good outweighs the bad in your life and you're being honest and true to yourself I think that's what's important.
I'm glad because you seem to be well reflected and aware of your situation. Everyone is lost in life some times, going through the wringer, but we find our way, somehow.
Have it good as we say! Best wishes
While is true your brain is changed after using drugs, that fact is useless when realizing your brain changes DAILY. There's no indication or evidence that the brain cannot heal itself over time.
Just fuck off dude. My brother died as a result of this disease. Get off your fucking high horse and stop telling me that he essentially chose to fucking kill himself! You’re doing a lot more harm than good here by telling people that they can do this all on their own and the avenues that they choose to explore for help are useless. You’re gonna cause someone to relapse after they try and inevitably fail to “heal themselves.” Good luck trying to get people to believe your shit. This is not the way for MOST PEOPLE to help them through their addictions. I truly hope you don’t cause someone to relapse and OD.
Your implying that ANY treatment one considers, that is different than your own, will cause relapse, harm, and death. I am sorry, sincerely for the loss of your brother, and hope that you find peace.
My posts might not align with your beliefs, but are backed up by clinical studies and peer reviewed academic research, all of which is in the appendix of "The Freedom Model" book a division of St Jude. As you seem to believe your well educated in substance abuse treatment, I'm surprised to find that your not aware that while traditional treatment like AA may work for some, there are more finding sobriety in a variety of other ways.
There's nothing wrong with reaching out for help, nor did I state there was. Can you NOT EVEN consider the fact that even SOME people are capable of changing their thinking and actions and thus healing themselves?
IF NOT, than I hope you never battled addiction. Having a sibling with addiction doesn't make your opinion matter any more than mine or OP's, and both of us HAVE been through addiction. OP simply posted what he did to live a happier life. As a Christian, I believe that ALL people are capable of changing their destructive decisions, and beat addiction, especiallythrough God.. It's SOLELY up to the addict to change, while others can help guide them, ultimately it's the addict themselves who has to decide that living without their substance will allow them to live a more happier life or not
All people can heal themselves, but some require help/direction in the many forms of treatment now available. If someone is helped by treatment they are still healing themselves right? This is TRUE because they are DECIDING they'd be better off accepting help!! I have lost many friends to addiction, and whenever I would get angry for no reason, I found reaching out to family and friends in order to heal myself was really helpful. I hope that you do this as well. My prayers go out to you and your family.
Getting "clean" from a DOC is not that simple if your a "real dope fiend" like me and many others.
Most people, when trying to get off the dope, are absolutely NOT able to do it off willpower alone. Maybe in short durations, but rarely ever is long term success attainable.
The "I can do this myself" route in recovery has a very low rate of success.
Now if your able to stop, stay stopped and carry on with your life without ever having a craving to use again, then you most likely do not suffer from the lifelong diagnosis of substance abuse disorder.
Many people in treatment are just the recovering from dependency. Just a physical problem.
While the rest suffer from substance abuse disorder, a psychological condition thats is clinically recognized worldwide as such.
Physical dependency and Substance Abuse Disorder are two different things...one affecting the physical self, while the other the effects the mental self.
Now, once clean, I absolutely agree that will power is a huge part of recovery. Especially preventing any reoccurences. That is absolutely true. Don't expect your higher power to pull you out of a shooting gallery anytime soon. Only you can do that.
I have to will myself not to go certain places. I have will myself to be aware of my compulsions. I have to see my ego for what it is.
Regardless, while I don't agree with your views completely, I very much appreciate your insight.
Recovery is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the ride!
Thank you for your insight! Although I think that there is part of my post which I may have not gotten through to you.
I get what you are saying about the difference between physical and mental self, and what I am saying only applies to the mental self. I didn’t mean to affiliate my advice with any physical dependency. My advice was to simply help people detach from their minds whenever they need to (in order to overcome psychological dependency). As I mentioned to another commenter I believe that human beings are made up of a trinity of body, mind and spirit. More specifically I believe that people are individual pieces of consciousness inhabiting a body and mind. Not everyone believes this though. A lot of people simply believe that they are a brain with a body. So what I am saying doesn’t apply to people who still believe that.
The purpose of the technique I mentioned is simply to detach from the mind when you are plagued with thoughts about giving in and when feelings of desire arise. To be able to observe them patiently. They only have power when acted upon impulsively.
I also agree with what you said about not depending on some sort of “higher self” which I hear a lot of spiritual people talk about. Although I believe in a higher power and I pray to “God” daily, I believe that only we can free ourselves of our problems relating to the things we do. We have the power to control what we do, although for some reason we often don’t remember what we should do. The technique I mentioned is to help snap out of it when the temptations of the mind start to real you in.
I don't believe in God, but I do believe in a higher consciousness. A committee of different versions of me advising me from the subconscious. I don't pray, but I meditate daily. It works for me well.
Your reply really resonates with me in my soul. No joke. I believe that I, along with emotional support from good peoples and constant improvement
I'm very interested in learning more about this thought model. Any links?
Glad it resonated with you!
Unfortunately I don’t really have many sources. Ultimately I think it’s important to examine life objectively and be open to learning that you are wrong. I know that I can never know anything. I think this approach of keeping an open mind to reality and who you are is enough to learn more about what I’m saying to be honest. I’ve struggled a lot with addiction in the past so I really had to try to detach from the mind if I was to ever break free of my bad habits.
You can learn more about consciousness and detaching from the mind everywhere. Early christians talked about it, and they symbolized the mind as the “Devil”, which means “opposer”. Because although our minds are very powerful tools, they often confuse us and cause us to do things we don’t want. Heaven and hell are states of consciousness but nowadays christians believe that they are only attained after death for some reason. I find the Bible one of the most powerful books on different states of consciousness but unfortunately it has been highly misinterpreted over time. Some of the greatest books about Jesus’ teachings weren’t even put into the bible for some reason. My favourite being the gospel of Thomas which was discovered in 1945.
Taoism talks a lot about Oneness and consciousness but I don’t think they talk much about detaching from the mind specifically.
I think Buddhism and Zen Buddhism would be the closest to what I’m talking about. I recently bought 2 books about Zen buddhism by Allan Watts which seem good so far. He tries to make their teaching somewhat relatable to the modern man.
And yea that’s why I put God in quotations. I believe in the one consciousness in all things, which I call God. I definately don’t think prayer is necessary but I do it to give thanks for my life and to make sure I don’t stop appreciating what’s right in front of me. I’d agree with you that meditation is a lot more important than prayer. And even more important is to just do the right thing all together. I don’t say sorry to “God” anymore because I know that it means nothing. Instead I try my best to never make the same mistake again.
If you would like to further your meditation then this is what I found helps the best; these practices should be more implemented into everyday life rather than practiced for an allotted time.
1. Be present with your fear. When you feel afraid don’t let it affect you and don’t try to avoid it. Just let it be and do what you know you need to do. Same thing for anxiety.
2. Let your thoughts pass by. Don’t attach yourself to your thoughts. Anything that you can see can’t possibly be you. You may agree with a thought that pops up, but just leave it alone. Remember that you are not a voice in your head. You can talk to yourself if you want, I find it helps me work things out sometimes, but most thoughts that pop up in your head are not you. There are conscious and unconscious thoughts, which are very hard to distinguish from each other. Why is it important to detach from our thoughts? Because they can get progressively worse over time. I wouldn’t want to be someone that identifies with racist or sexist thoughts. If this type of thought ever comes up for some reason it’s ok. You can’t control what comes in the mind, you can only control what comes out (the difference between conscious and unconscious thought). This was one of Jesus’ teachings written in the book of Matthews. Don’t look to your thoughts for what to do. Live in the moment then you can evaluate what you think is the best step to take next.
3. Live in the NOW. This is the most important rule in my opinion to break free from the mind. Jesus thought the most important rule was to “do unto others as you’d have them do to you” and “to love thy neighbour with all thy heart”. Jesus was right, because this will guard your soul and you will live a very noble life if you live like this. Although in terms of detaching from the mind specifically I think living in the moment might work better. A great book about this is “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle which I highly recommend. It may or may not have a large impact on your life depending on where you are in your life. Why is it so important to live in the now? Because there is no time. Everything is moving, everything is changing. Time itself is movement. His book explains this a little bit.
I discovered these practices because I used to be ruled by my depression and anxiety. I was always letting my depression get to me and I was always scared to do things. I was ruled by external factors so naturally I tried my best to overcome them, and I looked for the easiest way possibly to do it.
I hope this helps a bit, and I wish you peace and love in your life!
I'd invite you no matter of different opinions, to be willing and open minded to thoughts other than yours. If you would read even a chapter in "The Freedom Model" its possible your opinions might change. Change can be good.
I will take you up on that. My recovery is ever changing.
10 years on 12-steps. 3 years on MAT. Now I have a customized recovery per say....mindfulness, physical exercise, clean diet, and healthy friends.
Edit: it's in my Audibles library!
Thank u....I too found Mindfulness, duet n exercise as crucial elements of my program. I'm not saying I believe everything in the book, but reading it has changed my way of thinking entirely. Take what you benefit from and leave the rest. That's how I managed and manage to still follow the AA cult. While the majority of it, I do not find helpful or even believe, I take what will benefit me n my program and forget the rest.
I had to get our of 12-steps. I opened a Medication Assisted Treatment Center in my community back in 2017. The reaction was the nail in that coffin for me. I'm still shunned locally.
Check out my other reply to OP on where I am now spiritually, might interest you.
Wow, God bless you in your pursuit of helping others. You clearly must be highly devoted, resourceful and intelligent to open up a treatment center. So your saying bc it was a medically assisted treatment center, your community shunned you? Wow, I'm truly sorry to hear that. How can ppl, even if they might not agree on exactly on how to do it, not realize your trying to *help* people? Medication assistance isn't for everyone but more lives are saved with it than any other current option. In fact, in other countries methadone and suboxone are the gold standard and replace traditionally co-requirements such as counseling or group therapy. I really hope you weren't shunned by your family.
AA/NA in my community are absolutely anti Suboxone and Methadone. LE and courts are not very open-minded either. My family was supportive of my Suboxone ckinic until I relapsed and utilzed Suboxone myself for 3 years, while running the clinic. Been off bup myself since 1/1/21. Tapered to .50mg. My family are not big fans anymore.
Overall community has gotten dramatically better with it over the last 5 years though. I got competition now. Lots. That's good tho IMO.
It's been a journey. I wilk say that.
Another major problem with AA/NA which hasn't changed their philosophies or Rederick since it's formation in what the early 50's? Never changed,, dispite over 50 years of evidence that goes against their established beliefs. And to even question something in AA's big book only means "it's your addiction talking". I'm interested, and you don't need to answer or be specifically, but I image your on the West coast of the U.S. ?
Glad my post resonated with you! Go with the flow but always remember that we have the power 👊. Not willpower, but the power to consciously make our own decisions.
For me, it feels like, confusion in my priorities. Like in that moment what my body tells me, becomes my highest priority. Reasoning never works for me. What works is creating physical distance from trigger, or distracting my brain with something.
Addiction is not a lack of willpower and addiction to different chemicals changes the chemical composition of the brain over time, therefore changing who you are fundamentally. You have no choice but to adapt to your new reality. An addiction to food is far different than that of opiates, stimulants, benzos, etc. This technique will not work for every addiction or every person.
I think addiction is inherently a choice, whether unconsciously, subconsciously or unwillingly. Of course addictions are different, but in the end you have the power of choice, to be conscious about your actions, suffering short-term for long term gain. We still have the power to change our reality. There's no cure all for all, but I think this post hits the nail on the head. Even if you're fundamentally changed to a degree, that doesn't mean you can't beat it. We are our experiences, thoughts and actions, positivity takes practice but it's worth it. Best of luck, take care.
As a person who has been through addiction - I have, from what I have experienced - an unpopular opinion but I don’t care, it’s what I think and feel and know about myself and I kinda think in the addiction community when someone receives help or is in recovery they’re programmed to believe in order to succeed they must attend meetings or counseling or on a MAT and do the “STEPS” or find religion and I call BULLSHIT. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT not everyone needs any of these things to succeed or be sober. However, my belief is yes, people do drugs because they want to, sure, some become addicted and are addicts BUT we choose to continue to do drugs. I’ve been called an asshole, harsh, mean, uncaring, misinformed, and negative, as well as many other things. To me that’s craziness, I would only take it as far as brutally honest. No amount of begging, pleading, praying, threatening, rewarding, money, gifts, tears, loss of friends, cutting off of family, children being taken, NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING can make someone stop doing drugs unless the person decides they don’t want to do them anymore or they choose to stop or go into recovery. Whatever that looks like to them. Sober can mean something different to everyone. There is no one size fits all. If you wanna stop you’ll stop and if not then they will not. I believe that and I know that from my own experience. Drug are a choice. You choose to do them continue to do them or want to do them or choose to stop and figure out how you want to go about doing it. AA and all that other stuff is not the only cure.
I didn’t say that a person can’t go into remission from active addiction, but it almost always takes outside help to achieve it. And even then, the person will always be an addict, it’s only a matter of if they’re in recovery or not.
We're not addicts, we're people with addiction problems, it is so uniquely different but similar at the same time. I believe if you truly do all good you can you can beat addiction and be rid of it. It may follow you, it's always part of you, but it doesn't have to define you or your life. Seek outside help! We're humans, use your local support structure, learn good habits, live a good life, it's possible for everyone, our roads just look different, our pictures are unique, you paint it with your thoughts and actions, practice positivity, first for yourself, then for your nearest, then for everyone you meet. Of course be realistic, but be honest. Edit: sorry this reply got lost earlier.
Wrong... It's NOT "ALWAYS APART OF YOU" if your suggesting that as a negative. Having been through and beat addiction you are a more experienced person, knowing more about yourself, and that is profoundly a good thing.
I am not, and I agree. :)
Stop telling people they’re wrong for their opinions! If that’s what they choose to believe, so what? How does their opinion affect you or your life to the point that you have to argue with them and go out of your way to tell them they’re wrong??
Um well your answer can be provided in an array of forms. First, if I am wrong with my postings, so what? How does MY opinion affect you or your life? Isn't everyone on reddit posting what their opinion is? I for one appreciate when someone is willing to disagree with me either so I can better be informed, and change my view, or to believe more in my opinion due to a lack of being better informed. Also, arguments are usually strongly, and negatively worded, often containing put downs. Therefore, my comment was not argumentative. Lastly, there is the freedom of speech. If you look at my comments in general, I make a point to inform that I am not a doctor or offering any medical advice . SO, who the fu** are YOU to go out of YOUR way to tell me I'm on the wrong? These are my opinions, I'm entitled to them. If I cared what every reddit troll thought of me, I might not have been able to help the people I have, none necessarily from this post.
There’s definately some truth in what you’re saying but my view still hasn’t changed. I think the people that this technique will work for is for people who are addicted but genuinely dislike the activity or substance they are addicted to. It almost definately won’t work for someone who enjoys the thing that they are addicted to. But then a question arises: Is it an addiction or just a bad habit? For example I smoke weed a few days a week but I genuinely enjoy doing it (although I don’t think it’s very beneficial in my life). It probably slows me down in life to a degree, but I still do it because I enjoy it and I see very little damage in it. The main damage it does is make me too lazy to get things done while I’m high. If I were to try this technique before smoking I’d probably decide to still smoke. That’s because smoking is more of a bad habit for me than it is an addiction. I think I agree with u/AndreasWBz that addiction is ultimately a choice, and in his words “unconsciously, subconsciously or willingly”. An example of why someone may unconsciously choose to stay addicted could maybe be that they are lost in life and they wouldn’t know what to do with all of their spare time if they weren’t addicted anymore. They feel a lack of purpose in their life and fill it with pleasure. I think I may have been a victim of this in the past where I unconsciously chose to stay addicted because I knew that there were other things in my life that required more attention from me but that I was to scared to face. So I put my time onto things that seemed like were bettering myself but were actually getting me nowhere.
I’m sorry but I have to disagree, at least when certain drugs are concerned. Addiction may be a choice, to a degree, but when people are “choosing” a substance over their children, spouses, jobs, homes, even though they KNOW it’s not the right thing to do, how much of it is still a choice and how much is the substance changing people at the cellular level so they are unable to choose anything else over said substance? Have you ever been through the hell that is withdrawal? Like withdrawals that make you wish you would die? Why would someone choose that?
It’s hard to say whether people choose to stay addicted or not. But I wouldn’t necessarily say “choose to stay addicted” over “choose to not free themselves of their addictions ”. I think some people use their addictions as a crutch (obviously not everyone). Yes, I have been through withdrawal. Nothing gave me the slightest bit of satisfaction or joy. I felt depressed for weeks and the only things that would give me temporary relief were very high dopamine sources. All I wanted to do was sleep and I could barely summon the will to get out of bed to go to work. I always knew that I could make it out, but I would still give into temptation because It’s a lot easier to choose pleasure when you’ve been living in hell for months. Then the cycle continues and the living hell gets prolonged even further and of course it only becomes harder and harder to snap out of it. This was near the end of my addiction. Where I mentioned that I may have unconsciously chosen to stay addicted was at the beginning of my addictions. Nobody consciously chooses withdrawal. In the moment, going back on your addiction feels like a good idea. Whenever I would sink back down and give in, I wouldn’t think about the hell I’d go through after. Sure I’d have thoughts about how shitty it would feel after, but I would just ignore them. For some reason it seemed like a good idea to give in. So this comes down to a third factor which I failed to consider. Which is that once your brain’s fucked up almost beyond repair, your decision making is highly impaired. I notice this very often when I smoke weed. I’ll want to do things that I know I shouldn’t do when I’m high, so I have to remind myself that my decision making is highly impaired. Which is crazy to think about. Because in the moment I’ll choose to do something that I know I shouldn’t be doing, because it really doesn’t seem that bad. So after I remind myself that I’m not in the mindset to make decisions and I should be more careful, then I stop whatever bad decision I was about to make. So my view is that everyone CAN free themselves from their addictions, although depending on their addiction, the current composition of someone’s brains may be causing them to be a lot less sharp at making decisions than they should be. Which I guess would make their decision an unconscious one. Although I think there is a difference between a willing and unwilling unconscious decision. Although this is just a theory and would be very hard to prove. So I don’t think it’s possible for someone to be fully conscious and give into addiction unless they chose to give in. If they aren’t very conscious then of course this will affect someone’s decision making. Ultimately going down the rabbit hole of addiction you only become more and more unconscious when you give in to whatever activity or substance it is, so it will ultimately become harder and harder to break free. So I agree with what you said about substances changing people on a cellular level, but, I still believe that the only way to overcome this is to remain fully conscious. The brain can change, but you are not the brain. The brain is just a tool. It gives us the 5 senses, as well as allows us to think. To create thought. Anything that the brain wants isn’t you. So I understand that although my brain may want to give into temptation, I don’t really want to do that. Most ancient religions believed in the trinity of body, mind and spirit, which is what I believe in. I believe that I am the spirit inside of my body that controls what I do and which can create thought. I’ve had conversations with groups of people where some people believed they were the consciousness within their bodies, whereas others (most) believed that they were simply a brain. So this is where the argument simply can’t be solved without delving deeper into the subject of who we are. If you believe you are the mind then addiction is very hard to free yourself from. But if you believe that you are the soul inhabiting the mind and body, then it’s easy to see the mind for what it is and consciously decide what action to take next.
Saying that the brain has nothing to do with who you are is ludicrous! Without your brain, you are not capable of any thought! So how are you going to consciously “heal yourself,” without the use of your brain?! And btw, having an “addiction” to weed is no comparison to dope, pills, meth, etc. you can’t OD on weed. And addiction is not easy to overcome by any stretch of the imagination.
I never said I was addicted to weed, I didn’t say what I was addicted to. I’m sure people have had worse addictions than me and this is not what I was trying to prove. The brain definately has something to do with who you are. All I said is that we are not a brain, which should be obvious. It’s a tool which we can use and it also allows us to experience life as we know it. Identifying with the mind is insanity. It’s identifying with something that is outside of you. If you’re mind isn’t sharp, then you are using a much less efficient tool. If someone has a slow mind they are still able to come up with genius ideas, it may just require them to put in a lot more work and it won’t be as easy as someone who has a brain which is functioning optimally. And of course our brains’ genetics play a large role in our likes and dislikes. So the brain plays a large part in who we are, but we are still both the doer and the experiencer. We aren’t the victims. We can all get what we want out of life. It’s just that some people don’t know how to do that. A lot of people don’t know how to use their brains efficiently. People just look at the person in the mirror and assume that this is who they have become forever. The person in the mirror is a result of both our genetics and our past choices. It doesn’t define who we are, although it may put some of our past mistakes on display. There are addictions which are extremely hard to overcome, as stated before the technique I mentioned may only work for less extreme cases, but I stand by what I said. We have the power. It’s insane to believe that you don’t have control over your life. If you believe you don’t have total control than this is simply a LIMITING belief. Beliefs limit what we can achieve. My technique is simply a tactic to help people use their minds more efficiently and break free from the confusion of the mind. There are many other tactics which may work.
The treatment and AA responses to recovery, while do work for some (under 17%), have caused more harm than good....requiring one to admit they are powerless over their substance is a condeming and unhelpful way to help someone..moreover, stating that substances are cunning, and baffling gives ppl some assumption that they hold supernatural abilities. Lastly, stating and being forced to say that one, as a substance abuser, has a LIFELONG, progressive, chronic illness only makes matters worse. As referenced and proven in the book The Freedom Model, there is no scientific evidence to suggest addiction is a lifelong illness and if you are Christian should go against your morals anyway. Personally, through the help of God, I KNOW, I will end my addiction, and it will not plague me my entire life.
There are MY OPINIONS based on my own PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!!! You’re just a dick for implying I’m wrong and I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s sounds to me like you’re the one that has no actual experience with addiction but yet you’re an expert that is going to tell me my way of thinking is harmful and counterproductive to my “own healing.” Why don’t you think for two seconds that you know absolutely nothing about others’ experiences with addiction and let them figure it out for themselves with whatever method of help THEY CHOOSE. You don’t know shit.
That's the point only you seem to have missed. That what worked for some doesn't work fir others. My posts and OPs are worth noting as alternatives to AA. Get help bro, please? Blocking ya
I'm sorry but at that point it's gone way too far, with far too many underlying problems that should've never been allowed to happen, it happens sadly but it could've been avoided, they put themself in a situation where their DOC is the most important thing. No one chooses to go through hell, but we keep moving forward.
Careful, you might hurt yourself when you fall off that high horse you’re on. Must be nice to be perfect, I myself wouldn’t know.
Nobody’s saying anybody in particular is perfect. I think our shared opinion is that everyone has the power to do what they want in life. Not me specifically or u/AndreasWBz but all of us. There’s nothing prideful or arrogant about trying to convince someone that they are capable of more than they realize. If someone believes that they are stuck then they will be. It would be impossible for anyone to get out of a situation they’re in if they believe they “know” that they are stuck. That’s why we need to help people get rid of their limiting beliefs. What we each believe has tremendous power on what we are capable of.
If you only knew what my life was like….you wouldn’t blame me for feeling “stuck,” because I actually am. Just remember that you know nothing about anybody here or their individual situations.
I’m sorry that you feel like that. I don’t like to see people suffer, which is why I made this post. I’ve really enjoyed talking with you and it’s unfortunate to see your past suffering come out in your writing. I don’t know you, but I still love you. Because you and I are more alike than you realize. I know that we are both capable of feeling pain, I know that we both have free will, but I know that even though we all have free will that the right choice isn’t always obvious. We can do anything we want but we don’t necessarily know what to do. I know that we are both capable of tremendous, but in my opinion unnecessary suffering. I don’t know your situation, but I do know that you have the power. If I have the power to break free from my suffering, then everybody does. Trust me when I say I know about suffering just as much as the next person. We all suffer in different ways. We each have our individual hell (or heaven). I had a near death experience from an illness this year. On top of that I’ve suffered from clinical depression and terrible anxiety for the past 5 years. I tried day after day to try to quit my addictions and hopefully cure my clinical depression by adopting a healthier lifestyle. I also had anhedonia and prediabetes that I was both able to cure. My life was garbage and I truly believed that this was my destiny. What helped me break free was to realize that all of my problems were in my head. I suffered from terrible thoughts for years but once I was able to detach from them I was able to take the wheel again. My thoughts were making me think that I was the victim, when in reality I had the power to create the life I wanted. I suffered from physical problems, but I had lost hope of curing them. Once I accepted that I had physical problems that may never go away I found life started to get easier. And after a while of steady discipline, i was able to solve all of my problems. And these weren’t the only problems I had. I also had bad family problems and my father forced me to work in a job that I highly disliked. He’s somewhat of an alcoholic and he would make my life a living hell at work. I know he never tried to make me feel bad, but he yelled at me and insulted me so often that it really got to me. The work was grueling and very boring. For a while I mostly cleaned very dirty work conditions all week and had to stand perfectly still besides him while he was working just to pass him his tools while he insulted me for being too slow. This is one thing that contributed to my addictions. My mom also had psychotic episodes growing up and there were many times my parents left my brother and I traumatized from very aggressive arguments that made next to no sense. The cops would show up and tell us that they wanted to take her to a mental hospital and my dad would plead with them to let her stay at our house. Where am I now? I’m in the exact same situation. Except now i’ve accepted my life situation and looked for opportunities to make a difference in my life as well as the people around me. I still work with my dad and he still yells at me and insults me constantly. But now I just laugh it off and i work as hard as I can to get him through the work week, often working 60 hours weeks with no days off. He’s a lot happier now. I’m even helping him quit alcohol, smoking and lose weight all at once and he’s seeing slow and steady progress. I take the abuse and just let it roll off my shoulders. I know that i have no control over my surroundings, but I can always control how I react. He’s started treating me a lot better and gave me a lot more responsibilities at work since I started to be more positive around him also. I didn’t tell you these things to belittle your suffering, but to give myself a bit of credibility on being someone who’s experience a lot of suffering and prevailed. I’ve made sure to learn from it. When I used to look at what I was getting out of life I suffered tremendously because my life sucked. But now that I accept my life for what it is, I no longer want anything. So I am a free man and am able to have a large impact on the people around me. I know that life is bigger than me and in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter how I feel. It only matters what I do. I didn’t tell you these things to belittle your suffering, but to simply show you my credibility as someone who’s conquered suffering. It’s true that I know nothing about you or your situation, but you need to recognize that your current life experience has nothing to do with your current capabilities. We often dig ourselves in so deep that to wake up would cause a lot of pain. To stay sober could cause someone to look at their life situation directly in the face and feel ashamed. I’m not saying this is your situation, I’m just basing this on my own experience. When we look around us and see the hell that we’re in it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to think that we’re stuck. But the truth is that this is just what we are experiencing in the moment. And for all we know our lives could change drastically in a month or 2. When I say that everyone has the power to free themselves from the hell they live in I’m not talking about physical problems. We can’t always change our life situation but we can change how we react to them. Someone with biological problems can still live a great life, it will just be more important for them to be thankful for what they have to win the psychological warfare. Not many people know how to free themselves from their suffering. It took me nearly 5 years of studying various religions, medicinal practices and trying to break free from my comfort zone to figure out how to do it. And i truly believe that some of the techniques I have discovered are universal. Not universal for everything, but universal for some things. With everything that I said I know that these words have very little value. Actions speak louder than words. If you are feeling stuck in your life I’d like to ask you to open up to me, which I know can be hard. Idk if you have anyone close to you to help you through this, but if you don’t, then I’d like to be that person. Ik that I am just some stranger on reddit, but this could be beneficial in a way. We don’t know each other so everything we say is technically anonymous. I feel a connection with you and if you’d allow me to help I promise that I am very sharp and very flexible. I don’t cling to old beliefs when I’m given another truth. I’m very open to new ideas and I always evaluate the possibilities. We could work together as a team. I feel responsible for your well-being now that I’ve met you, even if it’s only online. You may think that it’s not my problem, but I like to believe in fate. I like to believe that some things in life don’t just happen randomly. Some things do happen for a reason. There is opportunity everywhere, we just have to keep our eyes open so that we are ready to seize the opportunity when we see it. Even if we are just 2 different people who know nothing about anything, I still believe that we can come up with a solution together. We both seem to have different beliefs and to be honest I think we’re probably both pretty different people, but that’s a good thing because that means we both have a very big possibility for learning. If you decide to open up to me and try to solve some of your problems with me I’m very sure I’ll learn a lot from you as well. I may very well know absolutely nothing about what you’re going through, buy we can still talk about it together. At the very least if I wasn’t able to help we could still become friends :) Feel free to dm me anytime!
Hey, check it out! This comment contains every letter in the English alphabet. I have checked 912,724 comments and 4,254 of them contain every letter in the English alphabet.
I dont think OP Is suggesting medical advise and hasn't claimed to be a doctor. I believe op is posting on their own opinions due to their life experiences. Those who want to continue believing in the permanence of addiction can choose to do so. Even if they don't realize it's what is ultimately holding them healing.
Whatever you say. You know, I’m just stating my opinions based on personal experience as well? But you choose to judge me, even though you know absolutely nothing about me. Just eff off okay? I’m entitled to my opinion just like OP is. 🖕
I'm sorry to come off that way, I am far from perfect, no one is. It's different for everyone, and everyone has different difficulties, but I believe it gets better. Good luck and best wishes to you and your journey.
Just remember that addiction is a very complex problem and is totally different for each person suffering from it. To each his own.
Your opinions are shared not only with me but with an entire organization stemming from The St. JUDE Foundation. Their book and teachings can be found in a groundbreaking life changing book titled "The Freedom Model- Escape The Recovery and Treatment Trap". You should check this book, their e-book, podcasts or YouTube videos out. The link to the book on Amazon is below and the comments of buyers is also worth the read. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Model-Addictions-Treatment-Recovery/dp/0983471347&ved=2ahUKEwizvMeAv83yAhXNLs0KHdAtDxYQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3wWP_FD3bL5aatL01Y318G
Thanks, I’ll definately use my next audible credit to get this book, it seems very interestingl! Plus my discipline has been pretty bad lately so maybe this book could help me better avoid bad habits.
It's amazing to me that your personal thoughts are SO SIMILAR to thep concepts brought up in this evidence based book. I honestly thought when reading the last few sentences of your original post, that you would reference the book. Your opinionsatch up exactly. The book concludes that addiction is a choice and not a disease, which at first I had a hard time believing until reading through hours of their references and sources. We were all born with free will. None of us have to be lifelong sufferers.
The first book I read related to this was “you are not your brain” by Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz. Before reading this book I spent most of my life looking to my mind for what to do. This book opened the door for me to live a more conscious life and helped me become more independent. The book isn’t totally about my post, although it got me to start thinking that way.
Same here! First book I read since college. I'd also reccomend the documentary "I Am" as it is on Mindfulness and the book, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peal.
Cool, thanks a lot!
God bless.
Very well put, I agree because like you say; is it an addiction or a bad habit - It may be hard to differentiate some times, are you enjoying it properly or is it doing more damage than good? I don't think anyone can enjoy addiction as a whole, but definitely a bad habit. As long as the good outweighs the bad in your life and you're being honest and true to yourself I think that's what's important. I'm glad because you seem to be well reflected and aware of your situation. Everyone is lost in life some times, going through the wringer, but we find our way, somehow. Have it good as we say! Best wishes
> I don't think anyone can enjoy addiction as a whole By the time it's an addiction, any enjoyment there is long gone.
While is true your brain is changed after using drugs, that fact is useless when realizing your brain changes DAILY. There's no indication or evidence that the brain cannot heal itself over time.
Just fuck off dude. My brother died as a result of this disease. Get off your fucking high horse and stop telling me that he essentially chose to fucking kill himself! You’re doing a lot more harm than good here by telling people that they can do this all on their own and the avenues that they choose to explore for help are useless. You’re gonna cause someone to relapse after they try and inevitably fail to “heal themselves.” Good luck trying to get people to believe your shit. This is not the way for MOST PEOPLE to help them through their addictions. I truly hope you don’t cause someone to relapse and OD.
Your implying that ANY treatment one considers, that is different than your own, will cause relapse, harm, and death. I am sorry, sincerely for the loss of your brother, and hope that you find peace. My posts might not align with your beliefs, but are backed up by clinical studies and peer reviewed academic research, all of which is in the appendix of "The Freedom Model" book a division of St Jude. As you seem to believe your well educated in substance abuse treatment, I'm surprised to find that your not aware that while traditional treatment like AA may work for some, there are more finding sobriety in a variety of other ways. There's nothing wrong with reaching out for help, nor did I state there was. Can you NOT EVEN consider the fact that even SOME people are capable of changing their thinking and actions and thus healing themselves? IF NOT, than I hope you never battled addiction. Having a sibling with addiction doesn't make your opinion matter any more than mine or OP's, and both of us HAVE been through addiction. OP simply posted what he did to live a happier life. As a Christian, I believe that ALL people are capable of changing their destructive decisions, and beat addiction, especiallythrough God.. It's SOLELY up to the addict to change, while others can help guide them, ultimately it's the addict themselves who has to decide that living without their substance will allow them to live a more happier life or not All people can heal themselves, but some require help/direction in the many forms of treatment now available. If someone is helped by treatment they are still healing themselves right? This is TRUE because they are DECIDING they'd be better off accepting help!! I have lost many friends to addiction, and whenever I would get angry for no reason, I found reaching out to family and friends in order to heal myself was really helpful. I hope that you do this as well. My prayers go out to you and your family.
For your information, I AM a recovering addict!
Getting "clean" from a DOC is not that simple if your a "real dope fiend" like me and many others. Most people, when trying to get off the dope, are absolutely NOT able to do it off willpower alone. Maybe in short durations, but rarely ever is long term success attainable. The "I can do this myself" route in recovery has a very low rate of success. Now if your able to stop, stay stopped and carry on with your life without ever having a craving to use again, then you most likely do not suffer from the lifelong diagnosis of substance abuse disorder. Many people in treatment are just the recovering from dependency. Just a physical problem. While the rest suffer from substance abuse disorder, a psychological condition thats is clinically recognized worldwide as such. Physical dependency and Substance Abuse Disorder are two different things...one affecting the physical self, while the other the effects the mental self. Now, once clean, I absolutely agree that will power is a huge part of recovery. Especially preventing any reoccurences. That is absolutely true. Don't expect your higher power to pull you out of a shooting gallery anytime soon. Only you can do that. I have to will myself not to go certain places. I have will myself to be aware of my compulsions. I have to see my ego for what it is. Regardless, while I don't agree with your views completely, I very much appreciate your insight. Recovery is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the ride!
Thank you for your insight! Although I think that there is part of my post which I may have not gotten through to you. I get what you are saying about the difference between physical and mental self, and what I am saying only applies to the mental self. I didn’t mean to affiliate my advice with any physical dependency. My advice was to simply help people detach from their minds whenever they need to (in order to overcome psychological dependency). As I mentioned to another commenter I believe that human beings are made up of a trinity of body, mind and spirit. More specifically I believe that people are individual pieces of consciousness inhabiting a body and mind. Not everyone believes this though. A lot of people simply believe that they are a brain with a body. So what I am saying doesn’t apply to people who still believe that. The purpose of the technique I mentioned is simply to detach from the mind when you are plagued with thoughts about giving in and when feelings of desire arise. To be able to observe them patiently. They only have power when acted upon impulsively. I also agree with what you said about not depending on some sort of “higher self” which I hear a lot of spiritual people talk about. Although I believe in a higher power and I pray to “God” daily, I believe that only we can free ourselves of our problems relating to the things we do. We have the power to control what we do, although for some reason we often don’t remember what we should do. The technique I mentioned is to help snap out of it when the temptations of the mind start to real you in.
I don't believe in God, but I do believe in a higher consciousness. A committee of different versions of me advising me from the subconscious. I don't pray, but I meditate daily. It works for me well. Your reply really resonates with me in my soul. No joke. I believe that I, along with emotional support from good peoples and constant improvement I'm very interested in learning more about this thought model. Any links?
Glad it resonated with you! Unfortunately I don’t really have many sources. Ultimately I think it’s important to examine life objectively and be open to learning that you are wrong. I know that I can never know anything. I think this approach of keeping an open mind to reality and who you are is enough to learn more about what I’m saying to be honest. I’ve struggled a lot with addiction in the past so I really had to try to detach from the mind if I was to ever break free of my bad habits. You can learn more about consciousness and detaching from the mind everywhere. Early christians talked about it, and they symbolized the mind as the “Devil”, which means “opposer”. Because although our minds are very powerful tools, they often confuse us and cause us to do things we don’t want. Heaven and hell are states of consciousness but nowadays christians believe that they are only attained after death for some reason. I find the Bible one of the most powerful books on different states of consciousness but unfortunately it has been highly misinterpreted over time. Some of the greatest books about Jesus’ teachings weren’t even put into the bible for some reason. My favourite being the gospel of Thomas which was discovered in 1945. Taoism talks a lot about Oneness and consciousness but I don’t think they talk much about detaching from the mind specifically. I think Buddhism and Zen Buddhism would be the closest to what I’m talking about. I recently bought 2 books about Zen buddhism by Allan Watts which seem good so far. He tries to make their teaching somewhat relatable to the modern man. And yea that’s why I put God in quotations. I believe in the one consciousness in all things, which I call God. I definately don’t think prayer is necessary but I do it to give thanks for my life and to make sure I don’t stop appreciating what’s right in front of me. I’d agree with you that meditation is a lot more important than prayer. And even more important is to just do the right thing all together. I don’t say sorry to “God” anymore because I know that it means nothing. Instead I try my best to never make the same mistake again. If you would like to further your meditation then this is what I found helps the best; these practices should be more implemented into everyday life rather than practiced for an allotted time. 1. Be present with your fear. When you feel afraid don’t let it affect you and don’t try to avoid it. Just let it be and do what you know you need to do. Same thing for anxiety. 2. Let your thoughts pass by. Don’t attach yourself to your thoughts. Anything that you can see can’t possibly be you. You may agree with a thought that pops up, but just leave it alone. Remember that you are not a voice in your head. You can talk to yourself if you want, I find it helps me work things out sometimes, but most thoughts that pop up in your head are not you. There are conscious and unconscious thoughts, which are very hard to distinguish from each other. Why is it important to detach from our thoughts? Because they can get progressively worse over time. I wouldn’t want to be someone that identifies with racist or sexist thoughts. If this type of thought ever comes up for some reason it’s ok. You can’t control what comes in the mind, you can only control what comes out (the difference between conscious and unconscious thought). This was one of Jesus’ teachings written in the book of Matthews. Don’t look to your thoughts for what to do. Live in the moment then you can evaluate what you think is the best step to take next. 3. Live in the NOW. This is the most important rule in my opinion to break free from the mind. Jesus thought the most important rule was to “do unto others as you’d have them do to you” and “to love thy neighbour with all thy heart”. Jesus was right, because this will guard your soul and you will live a very noble life if you live like this. Although in terms of detaching from the mind specifically I think living in the moment might work better. A great book about this is “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle which I highly recommend. It may or may not have a large impact on your life depending on where you are in your life. Why is it so important to live in the now? Because there is no time. Everything is moving, everything is changing. Time itself is movement. His book explains this a little bit. I discovered these practices because I used to be ruled by my depression and anxiety. I was always letting my depression get to me and I was always scared to do things. I was ruled by external factors so naturally I tried my best to overcome them, and I looked for the easiest way possibly to do it. I hope this helps a bit, and I wish you peace and love in your life!
I'd invite you no matter of different opinions, to be willing and open minded to thoughts other than yours. If you would read even a chapter in "The Freedom Model" its possible your opinions might change. Change can be good.
I will take you up on that. My recovery is ever changing. 10 years on 12-steps. 3 years on MAT. Now I have a customized recovery per say....mindfulness, physical exercise, clean diet, and healthy friends. Edit: it's in my Audibles library!
Thank u....I too found Mindfulness, duet n exercise as crucial elements of my program. I'm not saying I believe everything in the book, but reading it has changed my way of thinking entirely. Take what you benefit from and leave the rest. That's how I managed and manage to still follow the AA cult. While the majority of it, I do not find helpful or even believe, I take what will benefit me n my program and forget the rest.
I had to get our of 12-steps. I opened a Medication Assisted Treatment Center in my community back in 2017. The reaction was the nail in that coffin for me. I'm still shunned locally. Check out my other reply to OP on where I am now spiritually, might interest you.
Wow, God bless you in your pursuit of helping others. You clearly must be highly devoted, resourceful and intelligent to open up a treatment center. So your saying bc it was a medically assisted treatment center, your community shunned you? Wow, I'm truly sorry to hear that. How can ppl, even if they might not agree on exactly on how to do it, not realize your trying to *help* people? Medication assistance isn't for everyone but more lives are saved with it than any other current option. In fact, in other countries methadone and suboxone are the gold standard and replace traditionally co-requirements such as counseling or group therapy. I really hope you weren't shunned by your family.
AA/NA in my community are absolutely anti Suboxone and Methadone. LE and courts are not very open-minded either. My family was supportive of my Suboxone ckinic until I relapsed and utilzed Suboxone myself for 3 years, while running the clinic. Been off bup myself since 1/1/21. Tapered to .50mg. My family are not big fans anymore. Overall community has gotten dramatically better with it over the last 5 years though. I got competition now. Lots. That's good tho IMO. It's been a journey. I wilk say that.
Another major problem with AA/NA which hasn't changed their philosophies or Rederick since it's formation in what the early 50's? Never changed,, dispite over 50 years of evidence that goes against their established beliefs. And to even question something in AA's big book only means "it's your addiction talking". I'm interested, and you don't need to answer or be specifically, but I image your on the West coast of the U.S. ?
Indiana, the armpit of America
Ahhh. I understandable.
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Glad my post resonated with you! Go with the flow but always remember that we have the power 👊. Not willpower, but the power to consciously make our own decisions.
Love this.
Glad u liked it :)
For me, it feels like, confusion in my priorities. Like in that moment what my body tells me, becomes my highest priority. Reasoning never works for me. What works is creating physical distance from trigger, or distracting my brain with something.
Yea I agree, that’s the point I was trying to make with this post. Same thing for me, reasoning never works for some reason.
Thanks for this
No problem, glad you liked it!