@The Psyentist 533918 wrote:
I’m sure most of you by now are aware that I really like drugs. I’ve smoked weed for 7 years now (pretty much daily) and have been taking ecstasy in both pill and crystal form on and off for 5. I’ve also tried a lot of other stuff but they’re my 2 favourite and most frequently used. Both of which I can say I have been addicted to in the past but that was over 3 years ago.
Last time I found myself caught up in an addicts cycle I was spending about £60 a day to feed my habit which lasted 6 months or so before I retook control of life. Recently though I feel I’ve developed a new kind of addiction, this time I’m not so much craving any particular substance(s) but become possessed by a general desire to escape sobriety.
When I’ve experienced addiction in the past pretty much every waking moment I wasn’t high on MDMA or weed I craved them, and that was the type of high I felt I needed. Now however I can go about my working week with only a few joints no problem, hard drugs may not even cross my mind. But once I reach the weekend I just want to get totalled, but again I don’t seek any particular high just whatever I can get hold of.
My urge to get high though doesn’t surpass rational thinking meaning I don’t take drugs I wouldn’t normally take nor do I buy if I can’t afford. This means I can and will stay away from drugs if need be. The only problem with this is that I seem to experience comedown like symptoms anyway.
A few times recently I’ve reached Sunday night or Monday morning and I become an irritable antisocial gremlin because I haven’t had drugs.
Is this some sort of psychological addiction or do I just like drugs too much?
Addiction is psychological. Yes certain substances have physical sides to them too but simple detox / abstinence is the easy part. The psychological addictive insanity which gets you to relapse over and over is the real thing to conquer.
Classic signs of addiction, to anything.
Putting drugs before, health, family, friends, money, food etc, moral code…
Isolating yourself.
Being totally preoccupied mentally about drugs (day dreaming etc).
Progression from when you started.
Hiding how much you use from others.
Mixing with people who use as much as you to feed into the delusion that it’s normal.
If you’re doing any of these things then you probably suffer from addiction which is characterised by an obsessive mind, physical cravings and a belief that substances are the only way. If you can abstain from anything for long enough the obssession, craving and a desire to use will go away but relapse will bring all three back so really it’s about filling in the hole from drugs sort of like GL identified with his job, he hasn’t got time to take drugs anymore.
If you tried and failed many times to quit but really want to then asking for help is the only other option as addiction comes from within and is pretty hard to ‘cure’ a mental condition with the mental head.
