#substance use recovery

[hekate-brimo2]

I recently wrote three VicTORIous fics that I think are better than they have any right to be, so Tumblr gets them too. They’re all rated Explicit, and two of them contain sexual situations, so Reader Beware

[wsccinci]

Substance Use and Addiction: 10 Telltale Warning Signs

Substance addiction is a challenging and destructive condition that can profoundly impact individuals and their loved ones. Most people in recovery have a special ability to recognize another addict. For others, it’s not so easy. Addiction is a subtle invader and can slowly and destructively destroy your life. Recognizing the warning signs of addiction is crucial for early intervention and…

[neuroticboyfriend]

relapse is not a moral failure. substance use and addiction are not a moral failure. mental illness is not a moral failure. disability is not a moral failure. you have a health condition. you are struggling. recovery is not mean to be perfect, and if you're not in recovery, surviving is good too. i'm glad you're here, and i hope life treats you better soon. please know this is not your fault. you do not need to feel guilty over your own health.

[chronicallycouchbound]

People who use drugs deserve love and kindness.

Abstinence is not the only form of recovery. AA/NA doesn’t work for everyone. Sometimes people choose to use instead of meeting other needs, which is valid. Some people use for recreational purposes. Some people use for medicinal purposes. Some people who use have substance abuse disorder. Treatment looks different for everyone. Not everyone needs or wants treatment, for various reasons. The only thing Naloxone enables is breathing. Active use is not shameful. People who use drugs often also deal drugs. People in recovery should not shame active users. Active users deserve love. Active users deserve someone to check in on them, get them safer use supplies, and get them pizza. Active users deserve to be listened to. They deserve better than to have that be the first time anyone ever treated them as human since they began using.

Let’s care for each other.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Here’s some positivity for systems who struggle with addiction and/or substance abuse!

Lots of systems may find that substance abuse or addiction is a part of their lives. Those of us with mental illness, neurodivergence, little access to a good support network, and few treatment options may turn to substance abuse as a way to cope, and subsequently become addicted. Regardless of your situation, all systems deserve love and respect, even those of us who struggle with addiction and/or substance abuse. This post is for those systems!

☀️ Shoutout to systems who have struggled with addiction for many years or decades!

☁️ Shoutout to systems who want to get help for their addiction, but are scared, nervous, or don’t know how!

🌈 Shoutout to systems with headmates who are addiction or substance abuse holders!

☀️ Shoutout to systems who are in recovery! We know it’s hard, but we believe in you and are rooting for you!

☁️ Shoutout to systems who have joined or want to join a step program or some other kind of recovery group!

🌈 Shoutout to systems who are addicted to something that is usually considered non-addictive!

☀️ Shoutout to systems who are not interested in or ready to stop or curb their substance abuse - you get to make your own decisions regarding your own recovery!

☁️ Shoutout to systems who are in therapy or otherwise are receiving treatment or care for their addiction!

🌈 Shoutout to systems with plurality or headmates that formed due to addiction or substance abuse!

☀️ Shoutout to systems with a familial history of addiction or substance abuse!

☁️ Shoutout to systems who are currently sober, are trying to maintain sobriety, and/or who keep track of how many days, weeks, or months they have been sober!

🌈 Shoutout to systems who have recently relapsed - relapsing does NOT invalidate your recovery journey in any way, shape, or form!

☀️ Shoutout to systems who are currently under the influence or who have abused a substance recently - your life still had value and you matter, no matter how inebriated you are!

Friends, we know how difficult, painful, confusing, and all-consuming it can be to struggle with addiction and substance abuse. Please know that you are not alone - we see you and we understand the challenges you’re facing! We care about you and we want to support and uplift you however we can. Your system has worth, your voices matter, and you still belong in our spaces just the way you are, no changes necessary!

We hope you can do your best to take it easy today. Please don’t judge yourself to harshly and try to show yourself and your system some kindness and compassion! Everyone’s relationship to substance abuse, addiction, sobriety, and recovery looks different. Know that it’s okay to take things one day, one hour, or one minute at a time. We love you and we are wishing you the very best in all that you do, whether or not you are sober or in recovery. Thank you so much for reading, and take care!

[longreads]

Unknown Costs

“Addicts and alcoholics cannot prove their need for treatment by requesting it. They’ve gotta bleed and pee for it. And even that might not be enough.”

A powerful new Longreads essay on addiction recovery is out today. Take some time to read it here. 

[snapnarcissisticabuserecovery]

[imbecominggayer]

How To Write Characters With Addiction

From @differentnighttale: "I am curious if you give advice about writing people with addictions for example substance. I have reasons my male MC does it. But how can I describe the addictions the MC has correctly."

In this post we are going to be talking about addiction! From alcoholism, substance abuse, nymphomania, to everything else that can be a possible addiction. This post will be all about making this realistic and complex :)

A) What Are The Benefits?, Make It Convincing

Grab a fucking piece of paper or whatever you have and just write a paragraph from your addict's perspective on the situation. Omit the bad stuff. Make it highly convincing. if you aren't thinking "hmm, understandable" after you've written and read it, you did it wrong.

What do they get out of it?

Why did they like it at first?

Are they calmer, more intensely concentrated, does it take the edge off?

Are they more confident?

Does it ease the sense of being fundamentally wrong or dull some other pain?

Is it fun to do something rebellious?

What made them like this thing so much they tried it again, and again, and again?

B) Think About The Consequences, And Ignore It

Oftentime, at least in my experience, people will continue with a bad habit if it means they don't have to be the one to think about the consequences.

The Consequences For Addiction Include:

Financial. Depending on what your character uses to get their fix and how much they use, they might be spending hundreds a week if they are a particularly aggressive user. People often steal money from their loved ones. Addiction also tends to get people fired. Write a scene where your drunk character gets fired for operating machinery. Have them be a burdenous sponge.

Social. It's common for addicts to lose their loved ones since it often gets to a point where it's impossible to care about these people despite how much you love them. Make love ones leave your character! And don't blame them

Physical. STDs, Overdose, Liver Failure, and a shit ton of other issues from the chronic to the fatal either cause, exacerbate, or are linked with addiction. Recovery can't automatically save your character so don't write that story.

Psychological. Being an addict isn't fun since you get to struggle with points 1, 2, and 3 all at the same time! Write about your character issues. Their lack of control. Their spiralling life.

Write all about your character's suffering. And then have them justify it. Make it convincing.

They need it. It's not their fault that this is the only that helps them! Everyone just doesn't get it. I'm trying to work on it, OK?! It'll all work out! They know that it's wrong but...

My most hated shit is when a character's arc is easy. They struggle with some things like a big dramatic argument with their wife, they cry a bit, and then they learn that "drugs are bad" so everything is fine :D

NO!!! Why don't you write about a friendship that doesn't get mended? A chronic illness they now have to pay huge medicine bills for? A fucked-up rap sheet that they can't escape?

And it's not because we want to punich addicts. It's because it doesn't matter if you care about addicts if you don't care about the messy shit!

It's easy to sympathize with an addict if you make them the most innocent victim who never hurts someone intentionally and who gets rid of the addiction in a second and never struggles with it ever again!

Do the hard shit. Make your readers sympathize with the unsympathetic asshole addict! Addicts aren't always good people! They can be dickbags. And they still deserve resources. Life isn't some kind of karma game where dickbags suffer and good people rise! Everyone deserves to not suffer!

Addiction is ultimately a disease. But it's a disease that can make someone you love into an absolutely unlikeable person. And this is coming from someone with an alcoholic dad <3 He does good things and bad things. I can sympathise with my dad and not let him walk all over me.

C) Withdrawal Is Leaving An Ex, Relapse Is Returning

Addiction is a motherfucker trying to leave. It's basically the equivalent of a clingy ex who keeps contacting you, asking for just one conversation, and the moment you so much as acknowledge them you are fucked.

And suffering the brunt of a clingy ex who won't take the hint tends to cause the same symptoms as withdrawal!

Obviously, withdrawal symptoms depend on what type of ex you have and what age you are and yada yada yada. Research for specificity :)

Withdrawal symptoms can include:

Headaches

Insomnia

Fatigue

Hallucinations

Seizures

Tremors

Cravings

etc.

BE AWARE: Relapses are when someone returns back to their drug if they were going cold turkey or going back to their original dose. Relapses can sometimes result in an overdose due to the fact that the brain has been weened off the substance and is now overwhelmed by the high dose.

Relapses often happen when a person makes the deliberate choice in order to stop these fucking nightmarish symptoms. To use the analogy of a clingy ex, you start talking to them in order to tell them to stop contacting.

Relapses can also happen through being in a setting where the behaviors associated with the addiction such as sex, gambling, drinking, substance use, and all manner of things are normalized.

This setting could be a party, a bar, or even a friend group.

Relapse is made more likely if someone is self-detoxing away from a support group or a doctor.

Writing about withdrawal and relapses are an important part in making a story feel more authentic. Just like with mental illness, people rarely learn the lesson and follow it perfectly. They make mistakes. Slip back into old habits. Do shitty things.

We aren't writing their suffering to punish them. We are doing it because you can't say you care if all you are willing to do is look at the easy parts.

D) Little Tidbits To Keep Track Off

This is the miscellanious things that didn't fit into their own boxes.

Friends!

Do they have friends who also have their addiction? How do they hang out? What are they like? How are their substance using friends different from their non-addict ones?

Slang!

Don't just look up slang for your substance of choice. You'll need to look at some first-hand accounts of addiction. Find an influence who has struggled with substance abuse in the past and see how they talk about it!

Variables!

Remember to keep their geographical location, socioeconomic status, time, and a host of other factors. If your character is a penniless alcoholic then it's unlikely they'll get their hands on some type of expensive gin. They'll probably use rubbing alcohol. Keep the price of your drug in mind.

A character's status will also impact their slang. No one unironically says doobie anymore.

A character's location will also impact how they get their shit and how other characters will react to that addiction.

A character's financial status also impacts how the consequences of their actions impact them. A low-income character wont be able to afford the same medication as a rich addict. They also won't have the same luxury for quality therapy, rehab, programs, time, anything really.

Look At The Addict And The Loved Ones

Try not the skew the reality of addiction to paint the addict as the victim and the loved ones as evil for not being forgiving and tolerant enough.

Keep sympathy for both the addict and the loved ones. Or drop sympathy for both of those characters.

E) RESOURCES

FDA and DEA online databases and drug resources

Social Networking Groups

Medical Journals

Local medical professionals, police, and medical examiners

The US national poison center

[red-umbrella-811]

This one’s for all my friends on here with problems.

If you’re having a trauma or anxiety episode, if you’re thinking about killing yourself, you just need to make it through tonight. The morning won’t make everything good, but things will be better.

Do what you need to do. If you’re struggling to make it through this moment, there are things like exercise for anxiety, cold water on the face for anxiety or flashbacks, other distress tolerance skills. Use your skills, white knuckle it. Don’t use substances or behaviors. Surf the urge.

Try to get some sleep. It’ll be better if you do, but the morning will still be better than the night if you don’t. If you can’t sleep, see if you can lie down and listen to or watch something comforting, maybe with your eyes closed.

If you can’t do that, see if you can be kind to yourself. Maybe that feels natural right now, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe you don’t deserve it. Try it anyway. If there’s some cosmic (or literal) debt to be paid for it, you can pay it in the morning.

Try to be kind. If you can eat, eat something comforting. If you’re in a bed or couch, maybe curl up with a soft blanket or stuffed animal. Smell something that smells like home.

This isn’t about solving the problem, this is about getting you to a place where solving the problem might be possible. It’ll probably take more than a night. But right now, we’re just making it through to see the sun again.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

TW: addiction, substance abuse, IV drug use

'I don't need help,' Whumpee flinches away from Caretaker as if they're going to steal with syringe of precious relief right from their fingers.

'Can I at least do your dishes?' Caretaker glances at the small but existent collection of used dishes in the sink.

'If you insist,' Whumpee mumbles, already focused on finding a vein.

Quietly, Caretaker steps over and turns on the faucet. As Whumpee leans back quietly on the couch, their withdrawal symptoms fading, Caretaker ventures a comment, 'Hey Whumpee?'

'Mhm?'

'You know if you ask for help, it can just mean dishes, right?'

[she-is-ovarit]

Passing this along for people who might be in recovery, have addictive tendencies, etc.

This is also a good lesson to not just blindly trust products marketed as plant-based, sustainable, etc.

TL;DR - Don't drink the "Feel Free Drink", a product by Botanic Tonics based in California.

[neuroticboyfriend]

hey you. are you frustrated with yourself? are you beating yourself for not coping better? for not doing things you know can help you? for being afraid, angry, or depressed? ask yourself that, honestly.

if the answer is yes, i want you to know one thing: you're gonna be okay. it may not feel like it, but you're doing your best. you can't hate yourself into knowing better, and hating yourself still won't help you with the things you do know. knowledge and awareness and willpower can only get you so far.

you're not a computer. you're not a textbook. you're a living breathing being. you have feelings and beliefs, and it's going to take some time to work through those. it's okay to be scared. it's okay to be frustrated. it's okay to not be okay. no one can be good and fine all the time, and many of us can't be so often.

so, this is your sign to meet yourself where you're at. keep your head where your feet are. you're exactly where you're meant to be. you can't force yourself to be someone you're not, and the only way this gets better is if you accept yourself first.

so just focus on that. what you're experiencing right now will pass. future you will figure things out. for now, just be. just be. that's all you have to do. you exist and that's good. you're doing great. keep going. you'll be surprised at what you're capable of. ♡

[inniave]

pharmacies should automatically give you (or at the very least offer) naloxone any time you get an opioid prescription

[thursdayglrl]

honestly I'd wager it's not even a question of degrees of removal u probably personally know an addict. or a recovering addict

[there-will-be-a-way]

Today's affirmation:

Someone who enables my consumption is not my friend.

[smashing-yng-man]

I've done it all - attended Alcoholics Anonymous twice a day, five days a week. Memorized the fourth edition of the "Big Book" from cover to cover. Admitted myself into two different rehabs, staying 60 days each time.

What has ultimately kept me sober from drinking is confiding in my therapist and taking a combination of Acamprosate and Naltrexone twice a day to curb alcohol cravings.

I drank heavily for nearly two decades, and frankly have the experience and genetic predisposition to confirm that addiction is not a choice.

But sobriety and self-care are.