Former Drug Users: What Made You Stop Using?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I rarely drink, maybe a draft beer with hot wings or something. It’s just not something I care about. I got really drunk in my early 20’s to the point of throwing up, losing things, and getting rowdy. The hangovers were excruciating. I finally realized I wasn’t having fun any more so I just didn’t drink any more. It wasn’t hard to do cause I didn’t care much about it. It was no big deal.

Pot on the other hand, I felt was a harmless diversion. I did enjoy smoking a joint in the evening or on weekend because it relaxed me. Then a year ago in April of 2000, I was injured at work and drug tested. It had been about a week since I last smoked but I didn’t realize that pot takes up to 6 weeks to get out of your system. I was fired from my job of 16 years as a registered nurse three weeks later cause they felt I should test negative by that time and I didn’t. I quit smoking pot because I had to. I was forced to go to counseling and would be tested randomly. I really didn’t want to quit smoking pot cause I liked it–plain and simple. It was very hard the first few weeks. But after not smoking at all for about 2 months, it suddenly occured to me that I just didn’t want it anymore. I still don’t.

I’ve lost 20 pounds without even trying cause I don’t get the munchies anymore.

Yesterday I got a great job making more money than I ever have. It’s in a larger city and 20 miles away. I never would have made the change if I hadn’t been forced to. Now for once, I’m not terrified of taking a drug test cause I know that it’s clean and pristine.

22

I think that the LSD/hallucinogenic thing is in more cases than not just a phase. I did LSD probably about 150 times between the ages of 19 and 23, and I never had a “bad trip”, I never thought I could fly, any of that sort of thing. It just stopped being fun. Mix in about 20 times with mushrooms, one time with X, and one time with (supposed) mescaline. I shudder at the thought of ever doing any hallucinogens now. Realistically speaking for me, the last few times I did any of those, it was about a half hour of giggling, about an hour of some good visual stimulation, and then several hours of miserable, “god, I want this to be over” time. The bad just seemed to weigh much heavier than the fun time. From my experience I don’t think it’s a bad thing for people to try, but at the same time I realize that everyone’s brain chemistry is different and that people are going to react differently to the same drug/amount. I always seemed to be able to keep it together pretty well, but I also was around some people who didn’t.

Started on weed when I was 17, smoked pretty much everyday until I was 24. Now I do it occasionally (once or twice a month). Nothing wrong with weed (except lung damage), if you can keep it in moderation.

Around 23-24 I got into the heavy stuff. Snorting coke, freebasing, smoking crack, and snorting heroin. Also, pills, pills, pills. Percosets, percodans, darvocets (sp?), vicidans, lortabs, Xanex, Valium, you name it. I did this for about 9 months, I am SO glad I never got into needles. Many of my friends did. For me, quitting all the hard stuff was pretty easy. A good friend of mine OD’ed in my living room, right in front of me. Then another good friend died from OD 2 months later. It was pretty easy then to decide I wanted no part of that anymore.

So, in my case, how I came to stop depended on the drugs being used. From the ones described in the OP, (for me, anyway) Those things were a phase that I grew out of.

23

I tried smoking pot on three occassions. I was drunk the first two times, so it’s hard for me to judge my reaction to it. The third time, without being drunk, I thought it was about the most boring thing I ever did. So I never did it again.

I’m stealing this idea from someone else, but I think it’s true: If you want to cut down on drug usage, tell the truth about how boring it is.

Then again, there will always be those who are easily amused.