Overcoming Addiction: A Personal Struggle and Triumph

I choose to do my Reflection Paper on my decision to quit using drugs. I feel that this has been one of my most stressful event in my life. This was a positive step in my life but also was mentally and physically hard on my body. I started using after I had my first child at the age of 15 years old. The hospital had sent me home with narcotic pain medication after I had my first child. Narcotic pain medication was love from the first use. I used pain medication from 1997 until 2003 until I found my new love, Heroin. By this time my body was so use to pain pills my tolerance became higher and pain medication wasn’t keeping me as high as I wanted to be. I had already lost my children due to my use and didn’t have anybody or anything holding me

Withdrawal is the hardest part to stop because it gives you the overpowering craving to reuse. The most common symptoms are diarrhea, tremor, rhinorrhea, lacrimation, mydriasis, chills, sweating, tachycardia, nausea, anorexia, and hyperthermia (Lyvers,1998). Majority of people start these symptoms and do whatever they can in their power to get rid of them. I wasn’t for sure that I was not going to have them, so I took the first step in seeking professional help. I had to find a treatment program that would keep me balance and help me get back on my feet so I could have my life back. I had no emotion for so long that I would see a sad commercial come on the TV and I would start crying for no apparent reason. I would be sad crying and then be the happiest person the next. My hormones was out of control. Once I seeked professional help they gave me the tools to deal with these emotions. They taught me coping skills to deal with these situation. I eventually relearned how to balance myself out to where I was halfway normal again. I stuck to my treatment plan, not even missing one appointment and this is why I have been clean almost 17 months today. Addiction is an ongoing battle from within. It’s something I will have to live with the rest of my life but it also has molded me into the person I am today. I hope someday to help others in my situation. Let them see that with a little bit of work, nothing is