Anyone ever struggle with addiction?

[starsfan71 9]

I have recently had a very troubling time in my life losing many people close to me. I stupidly took to alcohol to solve my problems. I am under age and I fear legal repercussions for getting help. Anyone here ever struggle with this? How did you get help? Who did you turn to?

[skyscrape 5]

I have recently had a very troubling time in my life losing many people close to me. I stupidly took to alcohol to solve my problems. I am under age and I fear legal repercussions for getting help. Anyone here ever struggle with this? How did you get help? Who did you turn to?

There will be no legal repercussions if you ask for help. How much are you drinking a day, a week?

[starsfan71 9]

There will be no legal repercussions if you ask for help. How much are you drinking a day, a week?

I drank liquor probably 3 days this and beer 1 or 2 other days But i don't just drink I get hammered. To the point to where I pass out now. I have started to drink alone at times and that's what really started to scare me. I no longer have hockey as an "anti-drug" and really no longer have contact with my coaches who kept me in line. My mom struggles with alcoholism currently after the death of her brother 7 months ago.

[team50 20]

Get help. Start with a youth counsellor that specializes in addiction to get an assessment of your needs. You can set goals and the counsellor will help develop a plan with you.

[starsfan71 9]

Get help. Start with a youth counsellor that specializes in addiction to get an assessment of your needs. You can set goals and the counsellor will help develop a plan with you.

How much does this cost? I don't make much money working anymore and I don't know if I can afford it.

[skyscrape 5]

Go to an alcoholics anonymous meeting first. You can ask the person who leads the meeting what kind of options are out there besides meetings. AA is free. This would be a good start. It can be tough at first, but getting a handle on it now will save your life!

[team50 20]

I'm in Canada. A private therapist cost money that an insurance plan may or may not cover. Most communities though have crisis lines for the short term and community based treatment that is free.

In my community I refer to this agency all the time.

http://www.haltonadapt.org/home.php

[starsfan71 9]

I have work all this week and i was wondering if before I get to AA is there anyway to cope with the urges to drink? I feel like I lose all of my problems in the time that I am drinking.

[frankie56 0]

Go to your doctor. You can get a referral to a program from there. There are so many programs, and some are money not well spent.

[wrangler 157]

Second the motion on AA. Find a local group if you can. Those are the folks that will know about all the help available. No need to do the homework yourself when someone's already done it.

You've taken the first, and sometimes the biggest, step. You've acknowledged the problem. Good luck.

As to legal problems, I wouldn't expect any due to your age. Nobody should arrest a kid asking for help.

[shooter27 116]

I understand what you're going through. During a bad time in my life I turned to painkillers to escape and ended up addicted for almost three years. Getting away from my addiction is one of the hardest things i've ever had to do. For me the physical part of detoxing was worse than the mental part, but that's only because of how miserable the withdraw symptoms are when you are detoxing from opiates. However, the mental part is definitely a struggle. No matter what program you choose (be it therapy, AA, or anything) the only way you're going to quit is if you're 100% committed to it. At the beginning you'll be motivated and it'll almost seem easy because of your newfound dedication, but eventually you'll come to a point where your really want to go back to escape from a tough time, and that's when you'll really be challenged. I commend you for realizing early that you have a problem. It took me 2.5 years to admit I had a problem and another six months to deal with it because I was afraid of detoxing.

As for the AA suggestion, i see pros and cons to it. AA is a great program and provides you with plenty of support if you really want to get clean. However, there are two things i don't like. First, the 12-step process forces you to tell people about your addiction. I told no one, not even family, because to me the shame of admitting my mistakes to those people was worse than the pain of getting clean. The second is that AA works on the disease concept, that addiction is a disease and you'll always be recovering and never "cured." Personally, i never bought into that concept, which is why i couldn't be in AA. My feeling was that if your could never be cured and healthy, there wasn't enough motivation to go through the pain of getting clean.

Today I've been clean almost 3 years. The way i got clean probably won't work for everyone, but the thing to realize is that you can get clean if you have the motivation, not matter what method you choose to do it.

[skyscrape 5]

I understand what you're going through. During a bad time in my life I turned to painkillers to escape and ended up addicted for almost three years. Getting away from my addiction is one of the hardest things i've ever had to do. For me the physical part of detoxing was worse than the mental part, but that's only because of how miserable the withdraw symptoms are when you are detoxing from opiates. However, the mental part is definitely a struggle. No matter what program you choose (be it therapy, AA, or anything) the only way you're going to quit is if you're 100% committed to it. At the beginning you'll be motivated and it'll almost seem easy because of your newfound dedication, but eventually you'll come to a point where your really want to go back to escape from a tough time, and that's when you'll really be challenged. I commend you for realizing early that you have a problem. It took me 2.5 years to admit I had a problem and another six months to deal with it because I was afraid of detoxing.

As for the AA suggestion, i see pros and cons to it. AA is a great program and provides you with plenty of support if you really want to get clean. However, there are two things i don't like. First, the 12-step process forces you to tell people about your addiction. I told no one, not even family, because to me the shame of admitting my mistakes to those people was worse than the pain of getting clean. The second is that AA works on the disease concept, that addiction is a disease and you'll always be recovering and never "cured." Personally, i never bought into that concept, which is why i couldn't be in AA. My feeling was that if your could never be cured and healthy, there wasn't enough motivation to go through the pain of getting clean.

Today I've been clean almost 3 years. The way i got clean probably won't work for everyone, but the thing to realize is that you can get clean if you have the motivation, not matter what method you choose to do it.

Some really good points here. I am just stating that if you want good free help and possibly someone to point you in the right direction to a counselor or someone who can help they will. Especially when money is an issue. It is free I believe.

[Vinny_R 1]

I struggle with beer drinking in my past and dealt with it by myself. I was lucky to only have drinking problem (started drinking one beer a day, at the end of the summer was drinking 12 pack a day... not for fun). I think that you made a big step by knowing that you have a drinking problem and wanting to quit. You made a bigger step by asking some help here on the board. I agree with the other guys for the AA and I don't think you'll have legal problems when asking help. Make sure in your recovery that you receive help for your other problems, the ones that pushes you into drinking. If you don't learn how to solve them, the easy solution (drinking) will come back.

[skyscrape 5]

One more tidbit of advice. Life is lived one day at a time. Start out by not drinking today. If you drink, do not get down on yourself and feel hopeless. This will only make you want to drink more. Instead remember, one day at a time! Life is like a season, nobody finishes 82-0. It will be alright.

[Chadd 916]

As someone with a very addictive personality, I've been there. It's really up to you. If you have the strength to stop, you will. It all comes down to how badly you want to stop.

One more tidbit of advice. Life is lived one day at a time. Start out by not drinking today. If you drink, do not get down on yourself and feel hopeless. This will only make you want to drink more. Instead remember, one day at a time! Life is like a season, nobody finishes 82-0. It will be alright.

Great advice.

[AIREAYE 248]

Second the motion on AA. Find a local group if you can. Those are the folks that will know about all the help available. No need to do the homework yourself when someone's already done it.

You've taken the first, and sometimes the biggest, step. You've acknowledged the problem. Good luck.

As to legal problems, I wouldn't expect any due to your age. Nobody should arrest a kid asking for help.

Totally agreed, I'm confident that you'll come out of this fine starsfan.

Good Luck

[sickwilly 37]

I have work all this week and i was wondering if before I get to AA is there anyway to cope with the urges to drink? I feel like I lose all of my problems in the time that I am drinking.

I think that AA might be worth giving a shot to. It also may be very helpful to stay busy. If there's anything you could do, or start doing again that would provide you with some enjoyment and something to look forward to, it could be incredibly helpful. While it's not for everyone, yoga can be really helpful for stress (and good exercise, too). You can get DVDs on places like Amazon and ebay for less than you'd spend on a 12 pack or bottle.

Most importantly, good luck to you! Like others have said, you've taken a big step by acknowledging the problem.

[starsfan71 9]

Thank you all for the replies and personal messages. It wasn't very hard to notice I had a problem luckily and I am scouting out local AA meetings as we speak. I now understand the lack of legal repercussions and I am ready to slowly begin my path to recovery.

[Vinny_R 1]

Good luck!

[Apes44 7]

AA +1

if not try to talk with some friends or teammates, i know when i had some real tough times hockey helped alot as wel as two of my teammates just being there to listen to me or hang out doing something non drinking related. My last suggestion is find a gym and when u want to drink go there and use the frustration to improve yourself rather destructive

[tonguesOUT4life 17]

I understand what you're going through. During a bad time in my life I turned to painkillers to escape and ended up addicted for almost three years. Getting away from my addiction is one of the hardest things i've ever had to do. For me the physical part of detoxing was worse than the mental part, but that's only because of how miserable the withdraw symptoms are when you are detoxing from opiates. However, the mental part is definitely a struggle. No matter what program you choose (be it therapy, AA, or anything) the only way you're going to quit is if you're 100% committed to it. At the beginning you'll be motivated and it'll almost seem easy because of your newfound dedication, but eventually you'll come to a point where your really want to go back to escape from a tough time, and that's when you'll really be challenged. I commend you for realizing early that you have a problem. It took me 2.5 years to admit I had a problem and another six months to deal with it because I was afraid of detoxing.

As for the AA suggestion, i see pros and cons to it. AA is a great program and provides you with plenty of support if you really want to get clean. However, there are two things i don't like. First, the 12-step process forces you to tell people about your addiction. I told no one, not even family, because to me the shame of admitting my mistakes to those people was worse than the pain of getting clean. The second is that AA works on the disease concept, that addiction is a disease and you'll always be recovering and never "cured." Personally, i never bought into that concept, which is why i couldn't be in AA. My feeling was that if your could never be cured and healthy, there wasn't enough motivation to go through the pain of getting clean.

Today I've been clean almost 3 years. The way i got clean probably won't work for everyone, but the thing to realize is that you can get clean if you have the motivation, not matter what method you choose to do it.

hey bro what pills were u taking? how hard was it comming off? my best friend is popping perks like crazy and cant do without em.

[shooter27 116]

hey bro what pills were u taking? how hard was it comming off? my best friend is popping perks like crazy and cant do without em.

I'd prefer not to discuss any other specifics of my problem in an open forum. If you want to PM me, I'll be happy to discuss more details.

[starsfan71 9]

I'd just like to give everyone some words of advice here. While I am young, and have experienced a lot less than some of you, I just kind of want to let you know that it is possible to beat addiction no matter how impossible it might seem. Sometimes you can't do it alone, I sure as hell couldn't. It takes a lot more strength to ask for help and identify your problem, than it does to bathe in your weakness of addiction. I would also like to put myself out there for anyone who is drinking or abusing prescription meds or to anyone who just wants to talk. I'm doing this because I had a friend who struggled like I did who recently committed suicide and I just found out. Life is too precious to waste even if it doesn't seem like it a lot of the times.

[hrbekroenick 0]

I'd just like to give everyone some words of advice here. While I am young, and have experienced a lot less than some of you, I just kind of want to let you know that it is possible to beat addiction no matter how impossible it might seem. Sometimes you can't do it alone, I sure as hell couldn't. It takes a lot more strength to ask for help and identify your problem, than it does to bathe in your weakness of addiction. I would also like to put myself out there for anyone who is drinking or abusing prescription meds or to anyone who just wants to talk. I'm doing this because I had a friend who struggled like I did who recently committed suicide and I just found out. Life is too precious to waste even if it doesn't seem like it a lot of the times.

Glad you seem to be doing better. Don't be afraid to ask for help. +1 for AA. It might take some time to find the right group for you. I have been sober 12+ years now. Don't regret it for a second. I did it cold turkey with my wife's support and my parents' support.

[fatwabbit 93]

Dont know the law very well, but I doubt they will ever do anything to you if you are asking for help. +1 for AA, its the first step, and usually the hardest to make.

You'll need a good support group to help out... its never easy, and breaking the habit is difficult.

Best of luck pal... will keep you in our prayers.