Addiction is a diseases in which the afflicted organ may choose to heal itself.
This guide is for the mind which recognize that continued use is self destructive.
Step 1. Free your mind.
Toss your stash. As soon as you take that sip, drag or snort and guilt sets in for going down that path again, throw the rest of your stash away. As soon as the first negative event occurs, sacrifice your supply. Don’t worry, you’ll be under the influence and won’t feel a thing.
My first instinct was to explain that most people in recovery from opioids have simply received a Buprenorphine product to replace their need for opioids.
Alcoholics on the other hand have made a choice to stop drinking.
Look at the two arguments again. The Alcoholic who chose to stop drinking, did so by having an entire mental shift to choose not to drink, despite alcohol being readily available in most homes, every gas station, grocery store and corner liquor store.
The opioid addict did not make a mental shift, instead made a physiological shift. Their body are still getting a partial agonist opioid. Their mind did not have to make a radical change to prevent further use.
My collegue explained his reason for this.
“The Alcoholic has made many more publicly seen foolish decisions that they can now put behind them. They no longer act like a drunk. They act like a upstanding citizen. They reveal their confidence that was previously masked by their alcohol abuse. Alcohol use and overuse is much more socially acceptable. Opioid users tend to be vilified and judged more than others.”
Some addicts are incredibly hard workers. To hustle enough money to pay for an opioid addiction that cost upwards of $80 to $150 per day takes incredible effort. Now imagine taking away the addiction and applying that same drive to building a business or working for someone. Incredible results to follow.
Many of my patients in recovery struggle to find a job. The reasons are endless.
Covered in Tattoos
History of a Felony
What do you mean you’re in recovery?
Poor work history
Maybe, just maybe there is a better option.
Do you have any skills? Do you know some plumbing, masonry, electrical or even construction? Can you clean, walk someone’s dog, mow a lawn or provide any basic service?
These skills are worthless if you can’t trade them for money right? So how do you market yourself? Very easy…
Step 1: Create your Business on Google, it’s called “Google My Business”. This is used to register your business so that people can look you up on google and google maps. For example, say you can do some plumbing. Name your company, say “Friendly Plumber”, register the name, address and phone no with Google my Business. They will mail you a card with a code to confirm the address. Go back into your profile, complete the registration and done. Now someone in your area looking for a plumber can find you. They can call you and set up an appointment.
Step 2: You may need a website. Have no computer skills? No problem. I had no skills and was able to build this website on WordPress.com. The most basic website, which I would recommend to start off with will cost you $4 per month. To register your domain (which is the name of your website) is a low yearly fee of around $15. Again, choose something that people will be drawn to. Something like FriendlyNeighborhoodPlumbing.com
Step 3: Increase your sales by using Google AddWords. This is the real magic of google. You can choose to pay a small fee to advertise your business based on keyword searches. Say someone searches for your zipcode or town and plumber. You can put these as your keywords and your add will show up above any other business in town (unless of course they are also doing this). Again, this service cost money but remember, if it brings you more income it may be a good trade off.
Step 4: Provide the BEST, MOST RELIABLE, FRIENDLY, CONVENIENT service you possibly can. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. Provide enough value to people and they will return your service with a multiple reward. The customer is always right (at least make them believe they are).
Do need supplies or tools for cheap? Try Estate Sales. You can find incredible deals for tools and other supplies here.
Alcoholics Anonymous didn’t make it this easy, so do this:
Google your “City” and “AA”
Find the Home Page to your City’s AA Meetings
Look for Online Meetings or Zoom meetings link
See example below:
In my opinion it is still better to go to a meeting in person if you can or during times like this to meet with your sponsor or talk with them as often as you can.
Most addicts relapse because of this one reason: They stopped working on their recovery
Al-Anon Electronic Meetings https://al-anon.org/al-anon-meetings/electronic-meetings/ This forum and recovery chat room for Narcotics Anonymous members features voice chat, Skype, and text chat meetings connecting people from around the world.
Families Anonymous Virtual Meetings Online meetings for parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, significant others, other family members and friends of those with a current, suspected or former drug problem.
Disclaimer: this is very basic information, please see your doctor before starting any of these medicines and see the links below for further information.
If addiction is a disease and addicts caught with possession go to jail, does that mean we imprison them because of their disease? Can we do better? Most argue for decriminalization but some even argue for legalization. Let’s look more closely.
