Are drugs addiction or a choice for pleasure seekers?

[noxious.sunshine]

As a "former" drug user, I can honestly say that #1, I've never been -physically- addicted to anything in my life. Ever. I've done some stuff - no molly, heroin, x, or shrooms (you can probably deduce from what I've left -out- of that list what exactly I've done in the past). Spent a year doing coke everyday/night. I was like 18/19 and making too much money. I partied every night as soon as I got off work, stayed up all night, roll into work with more stuffed in my bra, carhopped on skates for 12/13 hrs (was working at a Sonic), got off, did all over again. Bunch of stuff happened - deaths in the family, illnesses, whatever, they cut my hours, I quit. Moved back in with my parents, was fine. Wasn't freaking out cuz I couldn't get it anymore. It was whatever.

I've seen a lot of people get hooked on RX painkillers so bad that if they were out / couldn't find any, they were in a lot of pain and sick. I've seen junkies go to extreme lengths to get what they want and all the ways they can think of to screw people over just to get an extra 1 or 2 pills. I guess there's folks like that no matter what their drug of choice is.

My brother got addicted to painkillers after a bad accident he got into when I was maybe 11 or 12. His wife got him into smoking meth & crack. They're a hot mess and just can't seem to get their shit straight. It's sad. They lost custody of their 3 kids and been in and outta jail over dumb stuff they've tried to pull to get money.

Anywho. With some people - it -is- a choice. They're not addicts, they do something every once in awhile just to have fun and let loose. They're not spending entire paychecks chasing a high or staying wasted. They go to work, take care of their business, whatever. Now, if a wife/husband and children are involved - that's kinda bad depending on how you look at it.

With others, they try it just to "experiment" and continue on un-checked and before they know it, they're completely addicted. Both physically -&- mentally. Do I feel sorry for them? Not necessarily. IMO it's still mind over matter. You got yourself on that shiz, you can get yourself back off of it. You can remove yourself from those situations, avoid the people you were using with, whatever you have to do to stay away. Get your mind on something else and focus on more productive activities like working out or working harder at your job.

[LocoColt04]

I've seen a lot of people get hooked on RX painkillers so bad that if they were out / couldn't find any, they were in a lot of pain and sick. I've seen junkies go to extreme lengths to get what they want and all the ways they can think of to screw people over just to get an extra 1 or 2 pills. I guess there's folks like that no matter what their drug of choice is.

There are six entire months of my 19th year that I can't remember. Seriously, I had to reference the journal I kept here just to figure out what the **** was going on in my life during that time. That entire six months, the only things I ACTUALLY remember are going to California with my sister, flipping shit and denting the train because I found out some guy tried to take advantage of her while I was in the dining cart, and punching some asshole in the face for stealing 1/3 of my bottle of hydro (180 pills per bottle... that's a lot of money if you're selling). Basically anything that stoked a strong enough emotional reaction stuck with me... and everything else was a haze. I was up to the point of taking 3-4 500/5 every four to six hours. Given that this was after a major reconstructive kidney surgery, the prescriptions kept flowing in like candy.

I kicked the addiction cold turkey. That was the most difficult and third-most painful thing I've ever done in my entire life. One morning I woke up, realized that I was wasting my life sitting on the floor of my parents' house doing nothing. I had dropped out of college because the pain (the initial, real pain - not the mental anguish caused by the addiction) had kept me from going to classes, and I was completely unmotivated to go find work, much less roll off the couch that had become my home.

So I quit. Closed the bottle after one single pill that morning. There were still 27 left. The following week and a half was an absolute nightmare.

That bottle has moved to three new homes with me since then as a constant reminder of what I had become, and how I overcame myself.