What's The Problem?

The Problem

So what exactly is the Problem? Or does that even need to be addressed? I believe that the problem should be addressed, however there is so many forms of the problem that it would be so hard to pinpoint it all into one area of any particular area of our lives that sometimes we will spend way too much time looking for what the problem is that we miss the solution to the problem. However we need to set up a blueprint if you will allow me to use this phrase for without a solid blueprint of a building you wouldn't have a solid building now would you? So we need to address the issue of what is the problem. That is a individual opinion and I am sure that there are many that will disagree with me here.

In my Own Experience I have came to believe that until we are sure of what the problem is there is no process to regain control over our addiction or over our addictive thinking which is my own opinion. I believe that we need to get down to the root and the cause of each of the addictions that are ailing us and than once we have opened up that door we will than be able to proceed to the next level of the recovery process.

Since the word addiction as we saw has what is now coincide with our minds and the way in which we react to the issues at hand it means that we have now discovered that we are not only physically, and mentally ill from the use of the substance, but it also processes some sort of bad vibes in the process also and this process never ceases until we do actually face the fact concerning the Problems that entail our everyday lives not just the days that we cleaned up from our main DOC (Drug Of Choice).

We start by recognizing our Problems with each other through our active drug use and being able to relate to the situation that got us there. This is the first part of the recovery phase that I like to call the truth has hit ya in the face but is that enough. Yeah the truth will set you free but only if you are willing to actually accept the truth for the truth. It is not just knowing the truth for knowing the truth and living the truth are two very different things. One may know that they have a sex issue, drug issue, gambling issue, but knowing it isn't anything unless we are willing to accept this to be the truth and once that is done than we are than able to move into another direction from what some would say is the denial stage of recovery into the active process of the recovery road.

I believe that I finally accepted the truth to the fact that crack, meth had me licked on May 25, 2006 and yet I had know the truth for many years before that. But until I could accept the fact that these substances was making a huge mess up in my life nothing seemed to happen very effectively in my recovery road. Although I had sometime being clean the the process wasn't the same than as it is now. I actually believe that it was easier to stay off of the stuff while I was actually only acknowledging my problem rather than accepting that it was my problem. You see there that is what I am saying that while it was actually only acknowledge the fact rather than accepting that it was the fact of my problems and the word was is also a key thing here because it isn't in fact a part of myself that is hurting my sound mind although it still does from the damage that I have caused to the brain cells all of these years.

The fact remains that those two substances I had to get out of my life, also with any other drug/alcohol to start the journey into the recovery field. Today I am still haunted by the addiction to Nicotine that sounds harmless but my story is still being told and this part of my addiction is still causing me insane and unsound mind decisions, although it would be a lot worse which we all would have to agree if I were still using those other substances PERIOD. So Now I have set up the problem as I had to search for within myself. Maybe you have the same problems or not, maybe it is Nicotine, Sex, Pot, Speed, Crack, Meth, Porno, whatever is causing this obsessive/compulsive behavior that is making the wrong choices than we identify that and move on to the next step in our recovery path toward freedom from our addiction to whatever addiction it is for you. As many of forms of addiction there are at least that many forms for recovery, I use multiple ways to recover and it works for me. Today I am also able to share what has worked for me and why and many of the underlining issues that result from it. Please feel free to contact us for any support that you may need Contact Us

Nicotine

Nicotine: A poisonous alkaloid - C10H14 NO2 - that is the chief active principle of tobacco and is used as an insecticide.
_{Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary - Tenth Edition}

Yes, the drug nicotine was once used as an insecticide. You sure you want to drag that into your lungs? One single drop of that stuff in your blood stream would kill you. And now there are rumors that cigarette companies are increasing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to make them even more addictive -- and poisonous.

A report published by the Royal College of Physicians stated that cigarettes are as addictive as heroine or cocaine. A 1988 Surgeon General's Report said the same thing. And yet, day after day, week after week, year after year, people do smoke, chew or sniff tobacco, and with the tobacco, nicotine. Hard to believe, isn't it, that folks could be that foolish. Yet they are. I know. I was. I smoked for fifty years, dragging that poison into my body.

Why? It makes you feel good. Strange stuff, tobacco. Depending on what you need, it can either perk you up or make you relax. What it does is act as a trigger, causing the brain to release a flood of dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that produces feelings of pleasure. Over time, however, this trigger gets weaker, and it takes a greater and greater amount of nicotine to get that pleasant glow.

What does all this have to do with sleeping? Smoking is related to sleeping in two ways. First, the smoke and the thousands of chemicals in the tobacco are irritants. You end up with irritated throat, lungs and bronchial tubes. You probably wake up with a smoker's cough, and the longer you smoke, the worse that cough's going to get.

All this is hard enough on a relatively healthy body. But imagine just how hard smoking is on air passages and lungs already besieged by bronchitis, sleep apnea or even severe snoring. Add to the irritated throat, lungs and nasal passages, the hassle of trying to cope with your CPAP mask or nasal pillows. while dealing with a bad smoker's cough.

Nicotine is also bad for anyone with insomnia or other disorders where there is difficulty dropping off to sleep. That cigarette before bedtime - you know, the one that's supposed to help you relax? Think again. That late evening smoke is going to do just the opposite. It's going to stimulate your nervous system and, instead of helping you sleep, it's going to ensure that you stay awake. It has much the same effect as a cup of strong coffee.

I'm not saying it's easy to stop smoking. Because of the addictive properties of nicotine, you will suffer some withdrawal symptoms. No, it isn't easy, but it is possible. After fifty years of smoking, as much as two packs a day in the final years, I quit. And I have never regretted it.

Save your lungs and your air passages. Save your life. Stop smoking today.

Suggested Reading

If You Breathe, Don't Smoke Smoking and Sleep Sleep Hygiene

Suggested Reading

Smoking and Thyroid DiseaseSmoking: The Women's Health PerspectiveSmoking Compounds Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage

Elsewhere on the Web

How Nicotine WorksSmoking and SleepCigarettes and Other Nicotine Products

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Addiction Recovery

Recovering From Your Addiction

It really doesn’t matter what you suffer from in addiction, whether it is from sex, gambling, drugs, alcohol, co-dependent, etc. The fact remains that there are certain basic steps (or actions) that must accompany your recovery if you are going to recovery. I am not so sure if in fact we will ever completely recover, but I have had enough experience to know what the basics to recovering from the addiction that I have. I also know that once I think that I have pretty much recovered from one particular area, I can also see other types of what I would call addictions that arise, if I don’t pay close attention to them than I might let them get away from me and than it could end up being a very serious deal. I will use the phrase or word (Step) here for what I feel is the necessary process for recovery, you can substitute that word with anything that you want, action, phase, it doesn’t matter the word just the results.

Step 1 Toward Recovery

The first step is by far the most important part of recovery. It is the foundation of our recovery and unless we take this step and actually mean it, than there will never be any sort of recovery or the amount of recovery time.

For me I had to admit that I was a hopeless, helpless, homeless, dope fen and that I knew that I was addicted to the substance that kept me trapped in a world of life that I loved. And yet this world in which I love so much was killing me and taking everything away from me. It had taken my wife of 15 years, children, dogs, business, friends, family, etc. The only thing that it would give me back was such things as jail, paranoia, homeless, etc. So I had to come to grip with the fact that if I didn’t want to die, or that I didn’t want the life that I loved (basically for the sex) than I had to give up the substance that was causing so much pain in my life.

So I had to take the first step and that was to give up the substance that was causing all of this pain. Now I know that sounds easy but it isn’t easy at all! There are still times today, that I would love to go get me a bag of dope and get a good fix, but I also know that if I start I can not stop, or knowing my luck I would probably be locked up somewhere for the rest of my life.

Step 2 Toward Recovery

The next step is that what everyone talks about is a Power greater than yourself. But I will not emphasize the word God here.

It has come to my attention this time in my recovery that I had to find something, or someone in order to help me and to listen to what I was going through and to also have someone help me to sort things out. I guess a confidant and I had to completely trust this person or thing with all of my self in order for this to work. I had to let go of all of the thoughts that they will talk about me, they really don’t care, they think that I am nuts well that might be true. But the point is that I had to realize that I needed human contact in whatever form that I could get in order to help me to reestablish some sort of communication and interactions.

This Power I don’t have to define, it probably isn’t anything or anyone would assume it to be either. But what I have come to realize that this Power or the way in which I use this Power seems to work out and helps me from all sorts of issues that would have flipped me back into active addiction before. This power can be anything, anyone, or place that you choose, and it is all you have to do….You don’t have to be a holly roller for this deal to work, and you don’t have to call it God, or HP, or Power, you just need to have established something outside of yourself that you can connect with and that is it. Really this is pretty simple if you disregard the religious part that everyone assumes if this makes you cringe. You don’t have to assume that when someone mentions God that they even are using it in the terms of the religious God which helped me to bring my own Spirituality’s into more action that works.

I found this on the Internet today which just reassured me that what I am doing today seems to be spiritual enough to keep me clean I hope that you enjoy it also as much as I did.

Butt Prints in the Sand

One night I had a wondrous dream,

One set of footprints there were seen,

The footprints of my precious Lord,

But mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared,

And I asked the Lord, “What have we here?”

Those prints are large and round and neat,

“But Lord, they are too big for feet.”

“My child,” He said in somber tones,

“For miles I carried you alone.

I challenged you to walk in faith,

But you refused and made me wait.”

“You disobeyed, you would not grow,

The walk of faith, you would not know,

So I got tired, I got fed up,

And there I dropped you on your butt.”

“Because in life, there comes a time,

When one must fight, and one must climb,

When one must rise and take a stand,

Or leave their butt prints in the sand.”

~~Author Unknown~

Step 3 Toward Recovery

Following through no matter what! OK here is the hard part but the most rewarding if that is really what you want to call it. You have to follow through with the decision to stay off of the addiction that got you to admit that you needed to change, that you didn’t want to keep living the life that you were, or that you were so tired with the legal system that you didn’t want to continue in that life as well. Here is when WE have to take the action and no God on earth or in heaven is going to do this by itself…..

The spiritual literature that I read also makes mention of many things and we all are given free will to do as we will. So with that being said we know that it is ultimately up to ourselves to make sure that we continue to not use dope, alcohol, sex, gambling, whatever it is that you need help with you can not go back to the demon that is bitting you at the behind. If you do or if I do, and I have a lot of experience at this as well, …. we will be lucky if we survive it. Not only that but it will be so much harder to get back any sort of amount of clean time from our addiction once we have broken our recovery process from addiction. It will take a lot more work and each time that we decide to use instead of continuing in the process recovery it gets that much harder to even get recovery from whatever ails us.

We take responsibility for our actions and we made a decision to do something about our addiction and now we have to take the responsibility for our recovery. No one or nothing else is going to do the recovery work for us not even God. It is up to us because we all have our own self wills that we make our own decisions for us. So ultimately we have to take the responsibility to do whatever we have to in order not to return to our addiction in which we are recovering from.

Part One Copyright © Victor W.

written: 2/17/08

A State Of Denial

A state of denial is one of the hardest things to have to come over in the world of addiction. It is also one of the things that stick with us (in our minds) through out most of our clean time.

I know that for me, I lived in a world of denial for most of my life, and still today even after a few 24's hours behind me I can still live in the world of denial. I think that because of the abuse that we put into our bodies for so many years that this will continue for the rest of our lives. Although it may continue we learn in recovery how not to act upon our thoughts.

Denial is knowing that you have a problem and than refusing to accept that it is in fact a problem. For many of us, we know that we have a certain problem in a certain area of our lives, but we continue to self talk ourselves right out of the issue at hand. This goes on and on until we can in fact come to terms with the acceptance of what the problem is but more importantly what the solution to the problem is. We know all to well about the problems but the solutions are something that we need to learn.

We can be analyzed, treated, locked up, beaten, and anything else that would and could happen but we will not surrender until we have no other options available. Why does it have to be like that? Usually it is because none of us will really want or even try to get help until we have no other options left. It takes what it takes and most of us have to learn from our own mistakes rather than paying attention to what doesn't work for others. If we could keep our eyes and ears open and learn from others than it wouldn't have to be such a hard chore for us to come to grips with denial.

Some call it "Doing the same thing expecting different results." but I was taught that it is "Doing the something and expecting the results to be the same...and the results will never be the same again." No matter how you want to put it into words, it is a problem that we have to deal with the rest of our lives. *Normal* people don't understand us and why we do what we do...But the important part isn't that they understand us the important part is for us to be able to understand ourselves, and the actions that we do or don't do.

It all goes back to denial. But once we are able to lay aside all of the denial that keeps us trapped we are than able to come into recovery, and have a chance at a new way of life.

What Is Addiction

What is addiction?

The World Service Board of Trustees developed the "What is Addiction" essay during the 1988-1989 conference year. It was revised during the 1995-96 conference year.

The task of defining addiction has challenged physicians, judges, clergy, addicts, their families, and the general public throughout history. There are as many potential definitions as there are groups with an interest in defining addiction. These definitions emphasize such things as physiological dependence, psychological dependence, family dynamics, behavioral problems, and morality. This list could be expanded at length, and NA could come up with its own definition and add it to the list. Fortunately, Tradition Ten steers us away from such public debates. Clearly, debating such issues is not NA's task. Our task is to carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers.

Still, defining addiction for ourselves is certainly important to the process of recovery. After all, in our First Step we admit powerlessness over it. That admission is the foundation upon which our recovery is built. So the question, "What is addiction?" is relevant indeed; the fellowship has a responsibility to consider it carefully.

This discussion will not include a restatement of our fellowship's broadest understanding of what addiction is. That may be found in the Basic Text, especially in the chapter "Who is an Addict?" Instead, we will focus on a few difficult issues that the World Service Board of Trustees has been asked to consider.

Is Addiction a Disease?

This is one of those questions about addiction that is difficult to answer. There is much public debate over the question of whether addiction is a disease, and we do not choose to become involved in this debate. However, it is our fellowship's collective experience and understanding that addiction is, in fact, a disease. We have no reason to challenge that perception now. It has served us well.

Our experience with addiction is that when we accept that it is a disease over which we are powerless, such surrender provides a basis for recovery through the Twelve Steps. The number of NA members living in freedom from active addiction show that this philosophy has worked for us. So even though we as a fellowship are not in a position to argue what is or is not a disease in the strictest medical sense, we are fully confident that our use of the word "disease" in describing our condition is appropriate.

This is the key point: professional people in fields like medicine, religion, psychiatry, law, and law enforcement define addiction in terms that are appropriate to their areas of concern. So do we. Narcotics Anonymous defines addiction for the purpose of providing recovery from it. We treat addiction as a disease because that makes sense to us and it works. We have no need to press the issue any farther than that.

Does "Addiction" Mean Only Drug Addiction?

What about other kinds of addiction? By the word "addiction" we do, in fact, mean "drug addiction." Our Third Tradition says, "The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using." Clearly, we mean "... a desire to stop using drugs."

As a fellowship, we place much importance on the fact that we have shifted the focus of our steps off any specific drug and onto the addiction itself. We have done that by wording Step One "powerless over our addiction" rather than "powerless over drugs" or "powerless over narcotics." Any wording of Step One which named specific drugs, or drugs at all, would have stated the principle with much less power than our current wording does.

If we were to broaden our focus beyond drug addiction to include other types of addiction, we believe we would seriously damage the atmosphere of identification in our meetings. The balance we strive for is a delicate one. On the one hand, we must understand our First Step well enough to keep our sharing at meetings focused on the disease of addiction, not on specific drugs. That way our focus is broad enough to include all drug addicts. On the other hand, we must keep our focus specific enough to provide clear identification for our new members.

Why is Our Fellowship Named After a Specific Category of Drugs, Then?

Since it is true that we attempt not to focus on any particular drugs in our meetings, many members have questioned why we are called Narcotics Anonymous. Wouldn't Addicts Anonymous or Drug Addicts Anonymous have been a more appropriate title?

The name of our program does seem incongruous with our philosophy and with the varied nature of our membership. In fact, when our fellowship first formed, we called ourselves "Addicts Anonymous." Two separate fellowships, both calling themselves "AA" was not such a clean break, though. So our founders chose the name Narcotics Anonymous. At the time, "narcotics" referred to all drug categories, and so "Narcotics Anonymous" was a reasonable choice as the name of our fellowship. The original title, then, did reflect our philosophy of not being focused on a specific drug or drugs. Unfortunately, the word narcotics later became associated with a particular drug category.

As our message is translated into other languages, a dilemma occurs. Sometimes "Narcotics Anonymous" is being translated into "Addicts Anonymous" or "Drug Addicts Anonymous" because the local translating committees understand the philosophy of our program. Other times, a new word is created in a language to preserve a stricter translation of our name. And sometimes "Narcotics Anonymous" is translated literally. What has seemed important to us is that the spirit of the NA message be maintained in these translations and that the program, by message and by name, be recognizable regardless of the language used.

Afterward

The essay is intended to stimulate members' thinking discussion about the nature of addiction. As members awaken spiritually and share with one another, the answers get woven into the fabric of the fellowship's conventional wisdom. Then, just when our thinking begins to harden into dogma, another generation comes along to challenge us and keep our perspective fresh.

We urge NA members to remain open-minded and flexible. It is important to look to our literature and our experienced members for guidance, but ultimately each member has the right to understand and apply this program in the way that works best for her or him.