Author: Lillyval
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 10:20 pm
Mike in re: your reply to Painter, many of us have been diagnosed with mental illnesses completely unrelated to our addictions. I was diagnosed with clinical depression many years before I got hooked on opiates (and in a way I think I used opiates to self medicate). So I don’t think Painter’s statement is BS at all. I know that the last time I went off Sub my underlying depression got kicked into overdrive, and I have read others state that they were suicidal during Sub/opiate withdrawal. This isn’t an exaggeration of the down and out feeling that anyone would get when going through WD. This is having the WD trigger an episode of an existing mental illness.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the tapering vs jumping off discussion, and I’ve come to believe that both approaches are flip sides of the same coin. Either you taper for a year and have as lot of bad days after each reduction, or you go off rather rapidly and suffer many bad days in the following year due to PAWS. I guess I’m not convinced that either approach is better than the other.
I’m really moved by the stories that have been shared on this thread. It has turned into more than I expected. I really feel for johnboy in that he felt like he wrecked his brain huffing gasoline, and it makes me think of the times I’ve done serious damage to myself. I totally respect Smoothy’s conviction not to put himself through unnecessary suffering because he wants to make
the best of the rest of his life, and I applaud Mike for sticking out college after losing years to addiction. I know I haven’t mentioned everyone, but trust me, I have read and related to every post here. This is a great forum and to me it feels like therapy sometimes.
