- Drugs
- Mental Health
Hello! I’m Steph, a 46-year-old recovering meth addict. During the 18 months I was using and dealing meth, I had $15,000 stolen from me, I had a vehicle stolen from me ten times, I was raped, I was beaten up many times and I was almost murdered. By the grace of God and my work in recovery, I have been clean for 15 months. Here are my thoughts on overcoming meth addiction: Live life clean and sober. It can be done!
Recovery is worth the hassle. The first month is the hardest, but it really does get easier. If you’re like me, what you really miss is hanging out with your buddies, watching YouTube all night, playing cards, getting your to-do list done and feeling a connection to folks just like you.
You know what? You can still have all that. True friends still like to stay at a warm place that smells like home cooking. You can still crank up your music on the stereo. Your to-do list projects may get scratched off slower, but they’ll be done more thoroughly, more professionally and more reliably. Heck, they’ll just be done. Remember all those projects that you and your buddies would start and never finish? You’d have car parts, lawnmower parts, hardware and computer parts all over the place and no clue who started what let alone how far they got or how to finish.
I have to admit I miss running the dusty back roads and the shiny blacktop highways. I miss providing the highest level of customer service that anyone in corporate America could provide, but you can still take road trips. You can still go camping, clubbing or mudding. You can still enjoy country, rock, rap or soul, and you can enjoy it loudly.
When you’re in jail or prison eating mystery meat, boiled eggs and cornbread soaked in water, you realize how much hassle arrests, court, cellmates and group showers are. You deal with no one coming to visit, shivering in your cell because somebody stole your thermals and reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the eighth time. The simple “hassle” of staying clean surely can’t be worse than all this hassle. There’s probation, fines, drug tests and having to look your kids in the eye while swearing to God almighty that you really are going to stop this time.
The hardest part is when you get naked in front of a full-length mirror and look at all the scars, bruises and discolorations visible on the outside before looking at those sad eyes staring back at you. You say, “I’m sorry for hurting you like this. I’m sorry for taking you to those horrible places with those horrible people and letting you see those horrible things. I’m sorry. I love you. Please forgive me. Can we team up and beat this thing? I’m willing to try if you are.” That’s it. When you’ve done that true self-examination and pep-talk the third time or the 300th time, never forget how it felt to do it for the first time.