Sometimes it’s all we focus on. All we care about.
Until we’ve fucked up our lives again and by the time we realize it’s a problem again, it’s already too late.
And then maybe, MAYBE! You’ll be lucky enough to have at least ONE PERSON in your life who cares enough about you to try and help you out of this mess … even though they know you’ll probably do it again and you hate knowing that they are probably right.
Because it’s just such a sick, twisted game that it plays with your mind.
Making you think that it’s the MOST important thing in your life and if you don’t have it when you need it, you start to PANIC!
(But where were you when they needed you?)
You start thinking about all the possible ways that you can get more of your poison, because you’re willing to do ANYTHING to get it.
ANYTHING.
And at the exact same time, you have a voice in your head that’s trying to convince you to stop.
THIS IS ENOUGH! NO MORE!!
You don’t want to live like this anymore!
You have so many talents, so many dreams that you need to work on but none of those matter as much as the DRUG.
You don’t want to put your family through this again and AGAIN! You HATE yourself for what you’re doing to them.
WHY CAN’T YOU JUST STOP.
JUST STOP.
DON’T DO IT ANYMORE.
So you’re able to stay clean for a while. A few days go by, a week, a month … hell, if you make it to a year then you’re really getting somewhere!
Your life is starting to come back together.
Pieces at a time. But it’s okay. You’ve learned to be patient. Let things go at a slower pace …
You build relationships with your family and friends again. They might even start to trust you a little bit more, but they’ll always have to be cautious around you.
You start thinking that you might actually be able to do this. To live life without the addiction holding you back.
Maybe you should finally try and get a job. A real one this time. Heck! Maybe you could even start taking some college classes that you haven’t done in years.
You feel empowered. Overwhelmed with so many emotions. Happiness! Excitement. A feeling of peace but at the same time … you can’t ignore the feelings of sadness, guilt and shame.
You just feel … broken. Abused and misused. But by your own hands.
Which means … it’s all your fault.
YOU DID THIS!
YOU CHOSE DRUGS OVER FAMILY.
Over the possibility of a great career.
Or even something that you just had so much passion for .….
It literally sucks that feeling away from you.
You stop doing the things that you used to always love to do. They just don’t seem to matter.
KEEP IN MIND, HOWEVER –
There is a lot of mental health issues that come along with it.
I mean fuck. Isn’t that the reason why we do these things in the first place?!
To mess with our minds. To try and find some kind of an ESCAPE from real life.
It’s just .….
it’s a lot more than someone getting high because they JUST WANT TO GET HIGH.
GET HIGH AND FLY AWAY FROM:
All of your worries.
All your pain.
All your suffering .….
It really doesn’t make sense at all, but at the same time … it kind of does?
I DON’T KNOW, MAN.
I’m just another human being.
Who suffers from some of the same problems that others might have.
And … though our experiences are different, I think it’s safe to say that those emotions …
Those FEELINGS we have when we go through our dark times … and even our bright times!
We all share those feelings.
Right? It might not be the same exact story, but your emotions and reactions are often quite similar to someone else.
For example:
My dad likes to watch football all day on the weekends.
Like … ALL DAY.
And for some reason, I thought that it was lame. Or stupid. Or even selfish?
(I guess I’m just really not into sports 😅)
But then I thought:
DUDE. I do the SAME EXACT THING when it comes to watching my favorite shows and movies.
And so, maybe he thinks MY shows are lame, or stupid!
BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY –
We both had the same feelings of EXCITEMENT and JOY while watching our characters (or players) score a goal, (or for DBZ, when Goku and the team finally DESTROY the bad guy for good!)
And so we might have different interests.
But those FEELINGS.
Those feelings are the same.
And we should try to remind ourselves of that.
Heh. Idk.
BUT ANYWAY!
Where was I? Oh yeahhh …
Something about DRUGS!
It’s just … it’s a mind trip, man.
You get to a point where you can’t even trust yourself anymore.
And that’s dangerous.
Which is why we need people in our lives that we can reach out to.
People we know will understand, or at least, do their very best to try and understand.
We need those people when we’re in trouble.
And the very fact that they are willing to try and understand is a beautiful gift.
To “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”
It’s kinda like what I mentioned before.
About people having different interests but at the end of the day, the feelings are the same.
And I think, if we tried doing that more often.
Maybe the world would be a better place.
Or at least – not so DAMN CRAZY!
(EDIT: NO! I haven’t relapsed. But I was talking to someone about addiction and I said this, and I thought it was good, so I decided to share it.)
—kaitlynjane
Flommist KAiTLYNjane has been drawing and writing stories ever since she knew how to scribble on a piece of paper, or her sister’s forehead when she was just two weeks old. Copyright © 2021 KAiTLYNjane.
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