What's stopping your change???

[PnorkelPW]

So I'm curious.............

I talk to a lot of people both in active addiction and recovery...........early recovery and long term.

What I'm wondering is what you're finding hardest about either making the change you want or maintaining the change????


I'm maintaining change these days..............what I'm finding hardest at this particular moment in time is the thought that keeps popping into my head........"Could I maybe control things this time after so many years?"

It's a dangerous thought and I've proved to myself over and over again that every time I used a substance it turned into active addiction very quickly and was harder to come back from each time.............but it still plays on my mind

[Broken B]

I've done it before, I even moved from Perth to Melbourne to get away from it all. By the second week I found chat pages of people selling drugs in Melbourne. This is where things turned bad again. This time I had no one to trust. I have met nice people from the groups of selling and that is another problem. I don't know anyone who is straight. I know I'm ready for help and I know I will manage to maintain it. Cos I hate this life

[Azura]

@Broken B yeah it's hard hey. Good on you for moving across the country. Seriously that shows commitment. I moved away from a regional town and after long term rehab etc to a new big anonymous city and I am now in maybe my fourth lapse/relapse in six years. At the moment I am just trying to keep reminding myself that I've quit before and although stopping and maintaining that can be a full time thing I think I'm in a good place at present to put that time, energy etc in to do it.
I guess at least we do know we can show that commitment to improving our lives.

[PnorkelPW]

Hi @Broken B and thanks for sharing. I can miss posts if I'm not tagged so my apologies for not replying sooner. I'm wondering how things are for you at the moment???

I made a number of geographicals in my time. Melbourne to Perth, Perth to Melbourne, Melbourne to Sydney and back to Melbourne again. It never worked because the first person I met when I got off the plane was me. I couldn't maintain the change alone..........I needed help.

I spent 3 months in rehab and when I left I made the decision to distance myself from my mates because everyone I knew either drank or used and I knew that if I was around them I would probably fall back into the trap. Instead of seeing them, I started going to AA meetings instead and managed to carve out quite a social week for myself attending 4 meetings and talking to people who were all trying to do the same thing I was...........not give in to addiction. This is how I learned to maintain the change I made and that's something I'd never been able to do before.

Have you tried NA??? It's a great place to meet people trying to create a life free from addiction. SMART Recovery meetings are another great way to meet people trying to make change.

And how are you @Azura ??

Thoughts????

[ScorpionPW]

I was just exploring the forums and stumbled across this, I know it's been a little while but just thought I would touch base and man oh man can I relate to what you're saying @Broken B, thanks so much for sharing.

When I first got into recovery I kept hanging out with my mates that I used to use with, sitting around with them while they'd be waiting to get on, being around all that energy. I tried not to be around when they were actually using and tried to spend time doing other stuff with them but it got harder and harder. I remember realising that if I kept spending time with them then there's no way I wouldn't end up using. It was hard though, because recovery seemed like a lonely road and these were people who I considered to be my best mates.

If it wasn't for attending NA meetings and starting to slowly form new connections with people that were based in recovery then I think I would have been much more lost than I already was.

How are you travelling @Azura, and what's worked for you when you've stopped before?