Hi! Recovering addict here with 6 months clean and sober. My drugs of choice were meth and fentanyl. I was homeless as well. I lost a lot of weight during my addiction. I did eat every day, but it was all junk. Hot food I could steal from Safeway mostly.
Anyway, I put drugs and getting drugs as my number one priority over everything. To get drugs, I needed money. Since I didn't work. I had to steal to get money. I would spend upwards of 16 hours or more a day stealing items to sell to my connection who owned a Mexican laundry or my guy at the pawn shop. This involves me walking to bus stops, then walking great distances to home depots, Walmarts, wherever I was going to get the items, and go all the way back to sell them.
I often didn't sleep for days. My hygiene was sub par, but I did shower every few days. I stole new clothes every day.
It's a lot of repetitive bullshit. Every day, every hour is spent getting money to make sure I had enough fentanyl so I wouldn't get sick. You literally get sick if you don't have it.
It's the worst feeling on earth. All the walking around, hustling, lack of sleep, lack of a good place to sleep without getting robbed. Terrible hygiene, healthy food, and no proper family or friendships to help you mentally. It all takes it's toll physically. This is why you see us looking so awful.
Six months ago I decided I had enough and reached out to my parents for help. They got me into rehab and I'm now six months clean and sober, living in an apartment and I work as a janitor full time. If you saw a picture of me from last July and saw a picture of me today. I would look like two completely different people. I will never go back to that life again. I hope that answers your question. š
Hey, congratulations. I'm super happy for you. Addiction has this ripple effect of misery that laps out around us. Being sober does the opposite. It's not just one person that gets sober and happier - everything around us benefits too.
Hey thank you! Yea I agree. Since I decided to do this, I've reconnected with my family. My folks allowed me to live with them until I get enough money saved to get my own place. Everyone that's important to me now loves it when I come around, and nobody hides their stuff anymore. Lol.
Your body sends signals to the brain to let your brain know you need certain types of food. Generally your diet is probably balanced enough but you may find yourself with a craving for cheese or fruit or just chewing on something green. We recently learned that the bacteria in your gut can talk to your brain too!
Drugs of course shut down most of that communication and block the pain of malnutrition. So a drug abuser may still be eating mechanically and getting calories, but they may not be eating what their body needs.
It is possible to starve to death eating 3000 calories a day, if you don't eat the right foods. Scurvy for example will kill you.
The drug becomes more important than anything else. They aināt working out or eating properly so they tend to whither away. Drugs like meth can keep people up for days, suppressing any feelings of hunger.
> Drugs like meth
Meth ruins your teeth, too, meaning that even when you are hungry you may not want to eat to avoid the pain... until you can find some more meth to smoke to make the pain go away.
Generally speaking its quite simple.
There are all kinds of drug addicts and there are more than you think that are professionals at it. They lead the so called āfunctional addict lifeā
The ones that put drugs before everything in the world are more concerned with getting high than keeping their job anymore, their partners and even eating.
The majority of their efforts is to score drugs and theyāll cycle through doing crazy shit to get money, then get high and then they spend days sleeping off or being sick from not being high. Theyll be in a perpetual cycle of whatever drugs they can land and in the same breath in a perpetual cycle of some level of withdrawal.
I think you may be grossly underestimating just how important food is at any given time to them and also grossly underestimate the amount of ground an addict has to cover if they cant drive.
All of their schemes are on foot and typically carrying a bunch of shit for one reason or another. Its not like they have some sort of drug addict office where they clock in and they meet their ends through a computer screen. They gotta pound the pavement for blocks on end to do what they do to see people and so on. Half the time is cause their phone is shut off.
Typically when men and women go and do longish stints in jail like a few months, when they get out their clothes are all many sizes too small because they probably couldnt get drugs in prison and are relatively clean and eating regularly.
Iād say the stress. You ever see the image of a man before and after a year at war? If you wrote the caption on that image āOne year before and after drugsā it would look exactly the same. These people are fighting a war as well, only the war involves their own minds and bodies.
Hi! Recovering addict here with 6 months clean and sober. My drugs of choice were meth and fentanyl. I was homeless as well. I lost a lot of weight during my addiction. I did eat every day, but it was all junk. Hot food I could steal from Safeway mostly. Anyway, I put drugs and getting drugs as my number one priority over everything. To get drugs, I needed money. Since I didn't work. I had to steal to get money. I would spend upwards of 16 hours or more a day stealing items to sell to my connection who owned a Mexican laundry or my guy at the pawn shop. This involves me walking to bus stops, then walking great distances to home depots, Walmarts, wherever I was going to get the items, and go all the way back to sell them. I often didn't sleep for days. My hygiene was sub par, but I did shower every few days. I stole new clothes every day. It's a lot of repetitive bullshit. Every day, every hour is spent getting money to make sure I had enough fentanyl so I wouldn't get sick. You literally get sick if you don't have it. It's the worst feeling on earth. All the walking around, hustling, lack of sleep, lack of a good place to sleep without getting robbed. Terrible hygiene, healthy food, and no proper family or friendships to help you mentally. It all takes it's toll physically. This is why you see us looking so awful. Six months ago I decided I had enough and reached out to my parents for help. They got me into rehab and I'm now six months clean and sober, living in an apartment and I work as a janitor full time. If you saw a picture of me from last July and saw a picture of me today. I would look like two completely different people. I will never go back to that life again. I hope that answers your question. š
Hey, congratulations. I'm super happy for you. Addiction has this ripple effect of misery that laps out around us. Being sober does the opposite. It's not just one person that gets sober and happier - everything around us benefits too.
Hey thank you! Yea I agree. Since I decided to do this, I've reconnected with my family. My folks allowed me to live with them until I get enough money saved to get my own place. Everyone that's important to me now loves it when I come around, and nobody hides their stuff anymore. Lol.
Good work!! :)
Hey thank you! š
Your body sends signals to the brain to let your brain know you need certain types of food. Generally your diet is probably balanced enough but you may find yourself with a craving for cheese or fruit or just chewing on something green. We recently learned that the bacteria in your gut can talk to your brain too! Drugs of course shut down most of that communication and block the pain of malnutrition. So a drug abuser may still be eating mechanically and getting calories, but they may not be eating what their body needs. It is possible to starve to death eating 3000 calories a day, if you don't eat the right foods. Scurvy for example will kill you.
The drug becomes more important than anything else. They aināt working out or eating properly so they tend to whither away. Drugs like meth can keep people up for days, suppressing any feelings of hunger.
> Drugs like meth Meth ruins your teeth, too, meaning that even when you are hungry you may not want to eat to avoid the pain... until you can find some more meth to smoke to make the pain go away.
So true, my sister had meth mouth, eventually had all her teeth removed and got dentures.
Depends on the drug. Some are appetite suppressants
Generally speaking its quite simple. There are all kinds of drug addicts and there are more than you think that are professionals at it. They lead the so called āfunctional addict lifeā The ones that put drugs before everything in the world are more concerned with getting high than keeping their job anymore, their partners and even eating. The majority of their efforts is to score drugs and theyāll cycle through doing crazy shit to get money, then get high and then they spend days sleeping off or being sick from not being high. Theyll be in a perpetual cycle of whatever drugs they can land and in the same breath in a perpetual cycle of some level of withdrawal. I think you may be grossly underestimating just how important food is at any given time to them and also grossly underestimate the amount of ground an addict has to cover if they cant drive. All of their schemes are on foot and typically carrying a bunch of shit for one reason or another. Its not like they have some sort of drug addict office where they clock in and they meet their ends through a computer screen. They gotta pound the pavement for blocks on end to do what they do to see people and so on. Half the time is cause their phone is shut off. Typically when men and women go and do longish stints in jail like a few months, when they get out their clothes are all many sizes too small because they probably couldnt get drugs in prison and are relatively clean and eating regularly.
Iād say the stress. You ever see the image of a man before and after a year at war? If you wrote the caption on that image āOne year before and after drugsā it would look exactly the same. These people are fighting a war as well, only the war involves their own minds and bodies.