Topic : 07/31 Strung Out!

And to wish I was able to get off the narcotics.I am a chronic pain person and I would certainly love DR Phills help. is there a way to get pain patienst off these drugs. I feel trapped and not able to go anywhere because i have to make sure that i wont run out of my medications.

you should be greatful he's there to help you. I wish I could tell my story,so he can help me,however i am so confused if i would be doing the right thing. my pain doc said whenever i am ready. ive been ready my bod beeing in so much pain confuses me if this is the right thing to do,however i would NEVER go to the treatment centers in my area,I know of to many people say it was the worst experience in there lives and they just put you in a bed and let you suffer I wuld take Dr Phills advice as long as it wont hurt me anymore by sending me to a place that your just a number.

D Mlady

dmlady40@aol.com

 

   I am 3 years clean & sober, happy and completely fulfilling my life without the use of medication that is not perscribed by VETERANS ADMINISTRATION PHYSICIANS, I won't even take a over the counter asprin.  I had a 33 year addictition, I missed sooooo much in my life that I resent myself, however, I would not be who I am today if I had not done what I did then.

 

I faced the UGLY MONSTER AND BECAME HONEST, OPEN, AND WILLING to admit I was completely powerless over mind altering drugs!! 

I also realized that telling LIES about my "being clean" was so darn much trouble because it made me think and plan harder about who I told what....be HONEST, FACE THE UGLY BEAST, Stick with what DR.PHIL OFFERS YOU ...YOU WILL NOT REGRET THE INTERVENTION..because he has your best interest and your future in his capable and powerful hands.   

 

LIFE IS WORTH SEEING THE REALITY AND GOD HAS WONDERFUL PLANS FOR YOUR FUTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HANG ON AND ENJOY THE RIDE!!!!!!!!!

I WAS A DRUG ADDICT FOR 10 YRS! HOW EMBARASSING THIS USED TO BE TO ADMITT BUT IT'S A COLD HARD FACT, ONE CHRISTMAS MY KIDS GOT NO PRESENTS , NO TREE!BECAUSE MY HABBIT WAS MORE IMPOTRANT, I CAN NEVER TAKE THAT BACK, CAN NEVER CHANGE IT, I WAS A MOM OF 4, WHEN I DECIDED TO HAVE KIDS THEY SHOULD'VE COME FIRST, MY ADDICTION MADE ME LOOSE IT ALL, A HOUSE, CARS, MY SELF RESPECT, I SOLD MY BELONGINGS ONE BY ONE, TILL I HAD LOST IT ALL, MY POOR KIDS, YOUR POOR KIDS, THEY WILL TAKE THIS WITH THEM FOREVER, I MEAN FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT TOOK ME YEARS TO PROVE MYSELF TO THEM AGAIN, I CAN NEVER MAKE UP FOR ALL I DID TO THEM, TAKE A STEP BACK AND LOOK AT WHAT YOUR NOT DOING FOR THEM, WHAT OUR JOB AS A PARENT IS SUPPOSED TO BE, YOUR HURTING THEM, REALLY HURTING THEM, THEY NEED YOU NOW, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND DON'T WASTE 1 MORE DAY, MY LIFE NOW WITH BEING THE MOM i AM SUPPOSED TO BE ( NOW i ONLY HAVE 1 LEFT AT HOME) IS WAY MORE FUFILLING THAN ANY HIGH EVER GOT ME, BUT THE GUILT IS STILL THERE, I'M SO ASHAMED OF WHAT ALL I PUT THEM THRU AS YOU SHOULD BE DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE NOW, DON'T WAIT 1 MORE DAY!

I too had a drug addiction along with my(now)ex- husband. It's not hard to point out someone elses drug problem, but before they do that they need to admit their own. I did that. Got clean and sober first. When my ex- husband continued with his addiction I knew that it would be so easy to go back, that is why he is now the ex. You can not point fingers at someone for doing drugs if you are doing drugs yourself. And what is that teaching the children? Maybe something like this..."well my parents do drugs, so they won't care if I do drugs" Addiction to drugs is just that...whether it is prescibed by a doctor or street drugs. It messes your life up and you lose valuable parts of your life. It's not worth it.

In America there is a common misconception that children runaway from home because they are societal delinquents who want to be free of authority. The media depicts homeless and street kids as "rebels without a cause", as children who have no regard for society, who have no dreams and no aspirations for life but to get high.  

 

We know this portrayal of homeless and street kids to be false. In fact we know that 90% of children who run away have encountered mental, physical, emotional, and/ or sexual abuse. No child wants to live on the streets. No child wants to have to beg, steal, sell drugs, and/ or themselves just to survive.

 

More than half of the children on the streets are still under the age of 15.  Unable to legally work, these kids get involved in criminal activity just to survive.  Based on current estimates, there are more than one and a half million children, teenagers and young adults trying to survive on the U.S. streets today.  Children now make up 27 percent of the fastest growing segment of the U.S. homeless population.

 

For more info:  www.turnpurple.org 

 

The Turn Purple Campaign is the nations' first campaign against child abuse and the resulting problem of youth homelessness. 

 

 

 

DON'T RUNAWAY - TELL SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST

 

 

Though harder to spot, emotional abuse is easier to deny.  But just as physical and sexual abuse have signposts to mark their presence, emotional abuse, being a systematic attack on one's sense of self, has common traits.  Just as physical and sexual abuse come in degrees of severity, emotional abuse runs the gamut of intensity and damage.

 

Anyone who had the misfortune of being raised by a parent who is cruel, vicious, vindictive, calculating, manipulative, a liar, cheat, selfish or neglectful may benefit from reading some of my favorite books on the subject: 

 

 

Why is it Always About You?  The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism by Sandy Hotchkiss 

 

Emotional Blackmail:  When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation and Guilt to Manipulate You by Susan Forward 

 

Understanding the Borderline (Parent) Mother Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable and Volatile Relationship by Christine Ann Lawson

 

Surviving a Borderline Parent:  How to Heal Your Childhood Wounds & Build Trust, Boundaries and Self-Esteem by Kimberlee Roth and Freda Friedman OR The Angry Heart:  Overcoming Borderline and Addictive Disorders by Joseph Santoro and Ronald Cohen

 

How to Journal for Therapy:

http://arar.essortment.com/therapyjournali_repu.htm 

  

 

If you tell your problem to someone that you can trust and still feel unhappy, unsafe, or uncomfortable, or if you don't trust anyone that you know, then you should CALL these numbers untill you speak with someone you can trust:

 

National Runaway Switchboard  1-800-RUNAWAY or 1-800-621-4000

Covenant House Nine Line 1-800-999-9999

Child HELP USA 1-800-4ACHILD

Stand Up for Kids 1-800-365-4KID

Volunteers of America  www.voa.org

 

 

If you are unhappy or uncomfortable with something in your life it is up to you to change your situation and tell someone that you can trust. 

 

 

Hope it helps!

 

 

My ex-husband and I have been addicted for more than 10 years to meth and pot. We were married for 6 1/2 years when I learned that he had cheated on me and then lied about it for several years. His excuse for cheating was his addiction! So I stopped using and tried to straighten out my life. I ended up filing for divorce 3 months later. When I was 6 months into being clean, my son was at our home with a sitter when the law showed up and took him away from me. My ex has a very long rap sheet for drugs and he also is very wealthy and the county we live in hates us. I fought for a 1 1/2 in juvenile court to get my son back with me but did not succeed, my parents now have custody of him.

It has been almost 3 years since they took my son from me. I still and always will battle my addiction! My ex and I are living together again, I still have hope that he too can stop using and I am trying to get hm too every day. He has a son also who is 16 years old. Just a couple weeks ago he was riding around with some of his friends and they got pulled over, his friend was driving without a license and another one had some pot on him. They all went to juvie! He stayed there for more than a week before the judge let him out on very strict orders to follow. I'm worried that he will not make this 6 month probation period, he is too much like his father. He has a piss-pour additude about it all for one. I just try to think possitive about it all and hope for the best!

I would love nothing more than to have my son back with me. My parents and I do not get along, never have! They don't like my ex and have made several comments to people that as long as I am with him they could care less about me! He is my son's father! Neither one of us ever put him in danger! Yes we used drugs but not around him, I would not allow anyone to even mention drugs in front of him or they were out the door! Any money that I had saved up is gone from paying lawyer fees to get him back! I can't afford another lawyer and every lawyer that I have talked to wants $2000 up front to just tell me if I stand a chance getting custody again! I worry every second of every day that my son will think that I don't care about him! I cry all the time! My son is my whole entire life, he use to be such a happy kid. His eyes always sparkled and now he stays depressed. I worry that he too will start using just b/c his parents did! I would give anything in the world to have him back with me all the time! I need him just as bad as he needs me!

my son is slowly killing himself, he was in a very bad motorcycle accident  almost 2 years ago, and is so depressed and hooked on the pain meds he takes. I live 700 hundered miles from him, but is so high sometimes when I talk to him, my other son has found him throwing up blood, passed out for hours at a time, he doesn't eat I just don't know what to do or where to even start!!! I am afraid someone is going to find him dead on of these days!!!!!!

 Getting clean from a meth addictions is extremely difficult, but I'm living proof it can be done.  I lost everything before I got clean.  My home, my business, my child.  I got arrested for the first time in my life at 42 years old. 

I was lucky, there was one person who didn't give up on me, lord knows I tried to push everyone away that wasn't using with me or that I couldn't con money out of. 

I went to treatment in 2002, and was high on meth until the minute I walked through the doors.  Treatment is hard work, but I did everthing they told me to do-even when I didn't understand why or thought it would do no good.  (I thought I was unique-different from all other addicts-special...) I was there for 30 days and when I left I still did what they told me to, because by then I believed, and the fog in my brain was just beginning to clear, so I did 27 weeks of IOP (intensive outpatient therapy) and I did 90 in 90 (90 AA meetings in 90 days), I got a sponsor and I continued to work on staying sober.

Slowly but surely things really did change.  I learned I could have fun and be sober-that was a big one-as the fog continued to lift (it takes a lot longer than you might believe to start thinking clearly after you've messed up your brain chemistry for so long) I realized that miracles had been happening all around me since the day I walked through the doors of the Betty Ford Center.

I work again, I have a home, and best of all my son lives with me again.  I'm grateful I'm strong now, because now we are dealing with the problems that he has because of my addiction.  I still cringe when I think of what I put him through from 8-10 years old. 

I guess what I want to say most is that, for me anyway, I didn't want to get clean, but I had to.  I didn't have an intervention, but my enablers finally, fortunately quite enabling me.  I could go to treatment or I would go to jail.  Silly me, I thought treatment would be easier. 

I'm happy today.  I'm alive today.  I'm not using today. 

Looking foreward to this one. It's nice to have a break from the abuse stories.

I saw this topic and I cant wait to watch the show..I see my mother in alot of these storys. She was addicted to tylenol with codene and vicodine since she was 12. I always wondered if her pills were more important than the life she gave. She often showed me that they were by going on "vacation" for a few days, waking up very mad and very abusive to my brother and I and then be fine for a few days and be "gone" again. Even though she was always home , in bed with excuses , she made my brother and I suffer for her problems. We were the cause and consiquence. In fall 2003 she almost killed herself while taking these pills. She was in the ICU for about 2 weeks and then in the hospital for about 2-3 wks after that. The DR.s told me she wasnt going to make because her body was having bad withdrawls and was shutting down. On top of the pills she smoked almost 2 packs a day. They finally got her clean and some help back on her feet within 6 months, all to this again the summer of 2006. She took her sleeping pills and forgot she took and took them again an hour later. She fell asleep on my sofa bed and wouldnt wake up. This time she did this at my house, with my children present. My husband and I had no choice but to call 911, and if we didnt she might of died again as well.

I personally dont think there is enough INFORMATION OUT ABOUT PERCRIPTION DRUGS and the consiquences of not taking them properly. You often see on the labels " for the intended purpose", or " percribed for the person on the lable", but you dont see anything about OVERDOSE or the fact that you can die if not taken correctly. If these are the on the lables are in the fine print and can not be seen by someone who doesnt look at the labels. Too many people are devloping addictions and dying from these medications on a daily basis.The Dr's need to start educating there patience about the drugs they percribe.

I cant say anymore about this because with her abusing the medications, she abused and neglicted my brother and I and its a aweful scary heartaching trip down memory lane....

 

Mgar401@aol.com