What is Heroin Addiction
Heroin or diacetylmorphine (INN) is a semi-synthetic opioid. It is the 3,6-diacetyl derivative of morphine (hence diacetylmorphine) and is synthesised from it by acetylation. The w...
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Why meetings dont work.
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I know Im going to get a lot of shit for this, but I dont care. It needs to be addressed.
Harvard Medical School has CLINICALLY PROVEN that AA does not work, and in some cases, causes more deaths and binge drinking. dont get me wrong. I learned SO much about addiction and how it worked from going to meetings, but that didnt make me want to stop. As much as AA'ers dont want you to believe, 95% of people who quit using drugs and alcohol did it own their own. Going cold turkey, withdrawing on a couch, bed, wherever. Not in a residential treatment center sitting in an AA meeting. If you dont believe me, google it. read the statistics from the clinical trials. Now, on the other hand, I do not believe AA should be called a "cult" but I dont think people should live their lives religiously around a meeting. Addiction has a natural course. it either A- ENDS ABRUPTLY or B- KILLS YOU. AA does not make addiction END. it has to end on its own. "rock bottom" Alcoholics Anonymous has a 5% rate of lifelong recovery. thats 5 out of every 100 people sittin in a meeting saying they are clean and will be forever. WRONG. If meetings work for you, by all means, CONTINUE! I didnt post this to BASH AA/NA. I just posted it for the people who need other options. Like me, I personally couldnt handle someone telling me I was powerless and had no control over my life. In fact, I have more control now than I did when I was in AA. Everyday I went to AA. Everyday I thought about using. and i relapsed about 25 times. Now, I dont go to meetings EVER. and I think about using as much as I go to meetings. NEVER. Granted, I think about my addiction, but not USING. yeah. google it. Posted on 06/09/08, 12:06 am |
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Well I'll add to the many comments to this message before me, speaking in good faith of the 12-step program and the power that God moves there when you see him with ALL your heart. Many people think that within the 12 step program sobriety is our only goal...yet SO MUCH MORE comes from working the steps. Alcohol, drugs, sex, masturbation, pornography, and rage were all symbols of a deeper spiritual malady. Page 82 in the Big Book says, "We feel a man (or woman) is unthinking when he/she says that sobriety is enough." Staying clean and sober is only half the battle...and what the big book promises is that "our attitude and outlook on life will change." DO NOT be a slave to statistics! They do NOT attribute to faith in recovery at all. They are not the percentage of people that tripped and fell on a needle or a bottle after an AA meeting. They're the percentage of people who wanted to find ANY lame excuse to go do what they do best....PISS their problems away! Kudos to your found sobriety. I just pray that you find what you could be missing out on after working the 12 steps, even if you don't find it there. I'll admit that the program isn't for the faint of heart. Sometimes it's "sh*tty or fuc*ed!" Ultimately you have to choose...so you're not TOTALLY powerless over your fate...you reap what you sew... 
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The important thing about what DOES work has nothing to do with Harvard or heroin. It has everything to do with the role of God, His Son, and the Bible in making healing available. Most of those in recovery have tried just about everything they think will lift them up--drugs, legal and illegal, alcoholl, and all the rest. But the success of the early A.A. fellowship and its Original program of 1935 provides ample proof that God is ready, willing, and able to heal and deliver if He is diligently sought and believed. The issue is whether a reader really wants God's help and is willing to quit and go to every possible length to abstain. God Bless, Dick B.
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AA and NA have changed over the years, but Bill hit the nail on the head about how it was in AA and NA quite a number of years ago. I got into the 12 step program 22 years ago, the newbies went into one group with a few old timers, working only the first, second and sometimes the 3rd step, and yes the newbies needed to listen, take what they needed to hear, and leave the rest. A newly recovering addict doesn't have a clue and wants to talk about using and the bullshit war stories - those are triggers and not good for either the old timers or the newbies - I learned alot back in the day at the meetings - and it's been said time and time again - "It works if you work it" - take what you need and leave the rest, one day at a time, it's a simple program, but not easy. Stastics are just that stats - coming from medical people who went to school to learn about addiction - not recovering addicts that know addiction first hand and how it works - unless you have lived with addiction, been an addict, - walked the walk, talked the talk, the researchers and stat's don't mean shit - when they have walked in the addicts shoes, hit bottom, gotten clean and sober, and work some type of program AA, NA or other programs out there all the research in the world is nothing but numbers on paper. Ok my big question is are you clean and sober today?
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I totally agree. My boyfriend was going to meetings habitually. He went to three a week, every week. But that didn't keep him from using. Instead, he ended up relapsing and using the time when he was supposedly at meetings to go shoot up. Now, he's found something that makes him want to quit, he's found something that makes him think he can truly have a decent life, and he hasn't been using. He didn't go back to meetings because he realized they weren't helping. He relapsed while going to meeting three times a week. Now, his mom wants him to go back, but he's told us,
"When I'm there, people joke and talk. Sure they tell their stories, but they aren't always bad. Some tell funny stories about when they were high. I can't sit there and listen to them talk like that and not think about using. These people have been clean for YEARS and that's why they can joke about it and talk about it like they do and leave that meeting without wanting to use. However, I haven't been clean for years and I leave that meeting thinking about using." As much as I originally thought he should go back to meetings, I don't anymore. He doesn't want to and he says it wasn't working for him and that's not something he should be forced into doing. I'm sure meetings DO work for some people and those people should KEEP GOING. But if you're just leaving the meeting, thinking about using and how great it feels sometimes...how is that helping?
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I must agree that AA/NA is not the best way to "stop" addiction. It is a great place to get human interaction, advice and support; but that is as far as it goes in My Book.
Sure, for some it does provide twelve steps to maintain abstinence. If that works, great, but the majority of folks, for one reason or another, end up relapsing. I am sure the same thing goes for ANY abstinence program: therapy, rehabilitation, medication like suboxone. The problem is that there is that the two most deadliest substances known are LEGAL: CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL. Its sad that United States wants to keep people off of addicting and life ruining substances yet keeps the absolute WORST legal time and time again! We see all these adds for how bad meth is but where are the ones for how truely poisonous the rest are: EtOH, Morphine, Opiates, Nicotene, Sugar etc... We are trying to teach a message about substance abuse and keep the biggest killers and offenders legal. If you want support, go to SMART Recovery. Its free and there is an actual medical professional to moderate the groups... Not someone who had God only help him stay 20 years sober but not the rest of the 95% around him. Yeah... so much for that guy helping all of us and supplementing low willpower with his. In the end, its up to YOU to finally quit and never want to go back. No one, not even a magical voice from the sky or your head, is going to prevent you PHYSICALLY from taking actions to get you loaded. If you cannot find the power to stop then seek support and medical assistance. It may take some time to realize how much damage actively seeking certain chemicals are, regardless of how much dopamine or endomorphins they may skyrocket in your brain...
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