How to Know When You’re Ready for Opiate Withdrawal
Some people say that you can’t be successful in recovery if you’re not ready. Others say it goes deeper than that, that you have to lose everything before you can fully understand how vital it is to get clean.
Personally, I don’t agree.
You Have to Need It
Maybe this idea of “hitting rock bottom” is true for some people, but not all. I don’t even think that you have to want to get clean for an inpatient treatment program to have some impact. Addiction, is after all, a chronic disease and everyone has to start somewhere. However, I do think that if you’re going to attempt an outpatient treatment like a Suboxone detox, you not only have to want it, you have to need it. You have to equate getting (and staying) clean with the other human needs (air, food, water, shelter). It’s that basic and that necessary. If you’re not on that level, if you’re still qualifying your choices and justifying “just one…” then you’re not ready.
You Have to Be “Over It”
If you’re still enamored with “the life” of using, if you’re still nostalgic about “getting high,” if you’re still interested in the drama that goes along with chasing a bag or pills, then you’re not ready. Don’t get me wrong: even those who have been clean for years, even decades, are tempted sometimes. You may even have a few funny or good memories of getting loaded. But if you don’t also remember how sick the drugs make you when they wear off, how miserable you were on the roller coaster of chasing a high, how miserable everyone around you was while you destroyed your relationships and yourself, then the nostalgia will win and you’ll end up back out there.
You Have to Have a Plan
Just saying you want to get clean isn’t enough. Getting on Suboxone is a great start because it covers the physical aspect of addiction, but you have to have a plan for how you’re going to occupy yourself. Getting loaded takes a lot of energy. What are you going to do with all your free time? What are you going to do when you feel tempted to use? Having a plan in place before you are faced with these issues is big part of a successful recovery from drug addiction.
What’s your plan?
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May 26th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I don’t agree with a lot of this post. If I could go the rest of my life doing opiates every single day without financial distress or negative impacts in the workplace and at home, I would. But I can’t, so I had to get clean. I’ve known a lot of user over the years — all different kinds — and I would have to say that a majority of those I’ve known have not destroyed their lives with opiates. But they, and myself, have all reached a point where taking them is no longer fun, or worth it, and it’s time to stop. There are all kinds of addicts, and not all of them destroy their lives and those around them by using. Plenty of people out there stop because they realize it’s time.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
That’s great, Daniel, that you could see that it was so clear for you and simple to stop. I wish it was so easy for everyone. Any tips on how to recognize that it’s time to leave the pills behind and how to do that?
June 11th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Not to answer a question for Daniel; but I reached the “tipping point” he refers to, drama free. I took responsibitity for my sefish actions and knew it just didn’t add up anymore. You dont have to be a mathematician to figure this out. People in the rehab business would rather complicate things to justify their own existence. As for tips on how to recognise the “time to quit” this is highly personal and different apart as snowflakes.Personally, a sense of survival instincts showed at just the right time and I quietly changed my life.