A few posts ago I wrote about an experience with opiates prescribed by a physician. And today I received a response from a former resident who had experiences similar to mine. I think it's important for us addicts to understand that many of us share similar experiences.
I'm 68 years old and I currently have 16 years clean.
I too spent seven years in Department of Corrections. I got out in 1989, and stayed clean for a while when I was in prison. When I got out I wasn't working a program.
I didn't really have any interest in getting high at the time. I went through some family issues. My dad died. Went through divorce. Still didn't get high. But when a friend of mine said he had some heroin, I just went and got high cause I wanted to. Took me awhile to get clean again and take the program seriously.
I did a lot of therapy. I got married to the most fantastic woman who had never been an addict. In the beginning of our marriage I wasn't clean. Eventually I got tired of lying and feeling like a loser. So here I am today with some clean time.
And in the last 15 years I've had three major surgeries. One of my back varicose veins removed and I just had shoulder surgery all of which required some use of pain pills and I'm not going to lie. I still like the feeling they gave me but I would never do anything to jeopardize my clean time. I thank God I had my wife to hold the pills for me. I was honest with my doctors and I definitely realized if there was any doubt I'm still an addict was when I had my varicose veins done.
It took six visits and each time I was given pills to sort of put me in a frame of mind where they could operate on my legs. And the very last time they did the procedure on my legs there was a pill left in the bottle. And I told the girl I'll just take that and she said no you won't. That kind of sealed the deal in my mind then that I won't ever be cured of the disease of drug addiction. But I can certainly control my behavior towards it. After those procedures I never felt like going and getting heroin or relapsing so I have a hard time when I hear people say I relapsed because I was operated on and had pain pills.
I can't speak for them. I just know that there isn't anything I would do to jeopardize my clean time and go back to that lifestyle. I like my life today . I read your blog regularly and forward it sometimes to my 80 year old friend who's a lawyer in Phoenix who got clean about six years ago from alcohol. Which I helped him do by making him go to a meeting. When you help somebody get clean like you have with just the mere existence of your program that has to be the most rewarding thing ever.
Thank you, your friend JL.
(Thanks for sharing your experiences - you helped somebody.)
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