Inspired by this trainwreck of a thread:
Do you have or had you have substance abuse and/or addiction problems? To what?
Do you consider yourself a using addict, a recovering addict, or a former addict?
Recovering addict.
Drugs of choice: alcohol, marijuana, hallucinogens (abstinent from all three 19 years plus); nicotine (abstinent for 6 years plus).
Alcohol was the drug of choice, and of course, I’m in recovery…
Good analogy Annie that was a trainwreck of a thread.
Alcohol – in recovery 14 + – so far so good -----
Nicotine – in recovery – second time — 6+ years this time.
That thread isn’t even close to being a trainwreck. There’s a good exchange of ideas going on…even if they don’t all agree with yours.
Sorry for the hijack…Back to your regularly scheduled poll…
I’m a recovered alcoholic. Slight semantic alteration; to me, “recovering” implies that I’m still struggling with it, and I haven’t had a serious desire to drink in many years. I’m still very much an alcoholic, since those thought patterns are definitely still present in my brain, it’s just more automatic to turn away from those thoughts now than it once was.
I also used and abused various other substances, but alcohol was far and away my #1 problem.
Used to have a half-case of beer (minimum) per night drinking habit. I’ve been sober for 11 years now, and I consider myself a former alcohol abuser. I don’t say alcoholic, because I feel it was a habit rather than an addiction. An event that occured while I was drunk one night persuaded me that it was time to stop, and I quit cold turkey with no withdrawal or cravings. Today I work in a bar, and don’t feel tempted.
I never tried anything harder than marijuana, and that only three times, each incident several years apart (at ages 15, 20 and 26). Each time I found the experience extremely unpleasant. I didn’t think weed was supposed to make you throw up…
Heroin and its assorted pharmaceutical substitutes–next month it’ll be 4 years clean.
I consider myself a former addict–that person I was is a stranger to me now, and a fairly repulsive one at that.
Smoking and crystal meth.
Haven’t smoked in a month, havent done meth in 6 years. Former addict on meth and recovering addict on cigarettes. Still get some mean mouthwatering desires for a cigarette. Meth however i haven’t the slightest desire to do.
Recovering alcoholic
1 year in recovery
Recovering addict and alcoholic, free of those mood-altering substances for over 15 years now. Nicotine free for over 8 years now.
My only vices left are caffiene and sex. And I’m not giving up caffiene!! 
Recovered addict & alcoholic. Addiction to codeine & nicotine; codeine free 12+ years, nicotine free 10+ years; alcohol free 12+ years. I have absolutely no temptation for any of the listed stuff anymore.
My biggest struggle was meth, so I’ll stick to that for this post. I think I’m a “former addict”. I used to smoke all the time, every day. I stopped smoking quite a few years ago and I was completely clean for a while. I’ve done it a few times “socially” since and I didn’t spiral out of control, but I haven’t touched it at all for a few years. I’ve had a lot of opportunities that I’ve turned down, and it’s a struggle when I think about it (this thread alone had my heart rate up for a minute), or when I’m around someone who I know uses, but in my regular day to day life, I don’t even think about it. The rare occasions that it comes up are close to agony though. So maybe I’m still “recovering”? I dunno.
Current nicotine and caffeine addict. Kicked the nicotine for a year about 2 years ago, but made the mistake of thinking I could get away with a few and not get drawn back in. Still enjoying it for the most part so I haven’t really tried to quit again yet, though I am starting to get those nasty, deep, phlegmy coughs and they’re scaring me a little.
As far as anything else, I have never been addicted to any one drug per se, but I did go through a period of about 7 years where I was addicted to drugs in general. The escapism they allowed. If I could get my hands on it, I did it. Any quantity, any combination, any time. Very self-destructive period.
I realize that that isn’t what most people would call an addiction because it wasn’t to a specific drug like alcohol or cocaine, but I would argue that it was the exact same physiological and psychological addiction as that an alcoholic or chronic gambler suffers.
I consider myself a former addict… that was a whole other life.
Recovering Addict - prescription painkillers (clean since 3/30/05)
Recovering Addict - nicotine (clean since 8/3/05 - the day I found out I’m pregnant)
Recovering Addict* - alcohol (clean since 8/2/05 - the day before I found out I’m pregnant)
Current Addict - caffeine (I can have the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee a day while pregnant - I won’t give it up)
*I was using alcohol to replace the drugs. It started out with a small bottle of wine a couple of nights a week, then grew to almost every night, so yeah, I guess I was addicted.
Even though I hadn’t had urges for painkillers in a while, for the first 4 nights after I found out I was pregnant, I had “drug dreams”. Either I was almost out of pills and desperately had to find more or I was taking them without realizing it and was panicked about withdrawls. I guess my psyche had a few kinks to work out.
Every once in a while, I’ll get a cigarette craving, but it passes. Same with alcohol.
Cigarettes: Former addict. Smoked 1/2 pack a day for 17 years but grew sick of it and have no desire to even be around them.
Marijuana & cocaine: Former user. Was around it in HS and college but never used that much and frankly don’t miss it one bit.
Meth: Former addict. Used it fairly frequently for a year or two but haven’t had a sniff for over seven years now. Just made a point of disassociating myself from the people and places where it was prevalent. Pretty unlikely I’ll ever experience it again.
Alcohol: Using addict. Drink fairly regularly but enjoy in moderation now, not to excess like before. I’ve no plans to quit since it’s not causing a problem but should it begin to, I’m pretty sure I’ve got the willpower to slow down even more or quit altogether.
I’ve been around different pain killers, muscle relaxers and the like but for some reason I just don’t find them enjoyable or tempting. Thank goodness for that.
I’ve been clean more than 19 years and I still have a couple of using dreams a year – usually that I’ve been having the occasional beer, which for some reason doesn’t really count as drinking.
Do you think that’s due to feeling guilty for having a beer? The subconsious is a bitch, isn’t she?
My dreams are fear-based, especially now that I’m pregnant. Even though I wasn’t using, the possibility was always there. But now that I’m pregnant, I CAN’T USE AT ALL and I think that terrified my subconscious, even without conscious cravings.
It’s not that I’ve had a beer in real life – it’s that I dream that I’ve been drinking off and on for years [the dream is never about actually drinking beer] but that it doesn’t count because it was “just” beer.
I think it’s my subconscious’s commentary on my honesty – and I’d rather not look at that too closely, if it’s okay with you.