My Addictions - Man Recovered and Comes Clean After 43 Years in Bondage

After being influenced and addicted to drugs of all kinds, I am finally FREE from the bondage and the chains that kept me wrapped up for nearly 43 years.What an amazing roller coaster ride I've been on to say the least!

In trying to come to terms with "this disease" I can't help but look back at everything that happened in my life, and how I used circumstances sway my mind in such a negative way.

The battlefield was definitely in my mind and it is the only place where I went to feed the dark impulsive behavior that I cherished to reside in. It was "my" pitty-party and I didn't want anyone included who really cared about me. I liked being alone. I was a thinker, a problem solver, a person who could save the world, so I thought.

Let me take you back to some of the excuses I used to try and justify the hellish lifestyle I led.

(1) Father was too busy and didn't pay any attention to me
(2) Step mother had her own kids and didn't really like me
(3) Was always picked on and nobody gave me any attention
(4) Was overweight as a kid and had weighty issues. (pardon the pun)
(5) Dad was police chief. Called "narc" and had to fight for self-image.
(6) Sent to military school for boys at 14 years old
(7) Accused by dad and step mother of doing drugs when I wasn't
(8) Wasn't punished or disciplined because no one was there.
(9) No structure.

You see, although these things are true, if you'll notice one common denominator, it's the word "I" or "Me". I didn't even think of forgiveness and how that might affect my future. I wasn't concerned about helping others. In a word, I was selfish, in two words, I was exceedingly selfish.

 More about that in another article.

The main purpose of this article is to try and help you understand my psyche, the internal workings of my mind at the time. I was a bright kid, full of life and hope, loaded with energy and potential. I was athletically inclined. I played the guitar and still do, was gifted and had my physical health. I had all the reasons to be thankful and to be an over-achiever.

So what happened?

I didn't "Just Say No" to that first toke, or that first hit, or that first poke. I wanted to experience more. I felt physically and spiritually invulnerable. I had no fear, and although I always felt like a stranger to the planet earth, I wanted to experience life on earth to the fullest.

Let me try to explain this "stranger to earth" statement. I had always felt this void deep within my being. It was a lost feeling, a feeling, and remember, being the by-product of the Baby Boomer Generation, feeling was all we went by. Little did I realize that feeling was gonna get me in a whole bunch of trouble later down the path of "if it feels good do it".

Going back to the time when I was about 14 years old, I became withdrawn and my mind began to lie to me. I believed the lies for so long. You see, until we realize we have a problem, there is no problem, so I was too busy noticing others problems instead of my own.

I was easily influenced, gullible I guess you'd say, so when that first opportunity came to escape this reality and enter another, I ran toward.

My first encounter with any mind altering substance was sniffing glue. I was really enjoying just sitting back, listening to music and huffing a paper bag laced with Weldwood contact cement. The active ingredient in Weldwood was Toluol, a strong, fast acting solvent for specific oil based paints, lacquers and adhesives. It was extremely potent and highly hallucinogenic.

That persisted for about 6 months or so and then I took my first hit of marijuana. I thought weed was the perfect drug for me because it seemed to inspire and expand my mind. This went on for quite some time until I found that I couldn't afford it so I learned how to grow it.

Next issue: My Addictions - Continuing the Lie

Larry Christenson is a publisher and website owner.
Marketing Business Manager

Affiliate Internet Marketer intermittently for the past 18 years.
You can more of Larry's articles at his website:
http://a2zinternetsolutions.com/

Original article

Opiate Addiction: A Human Problem for 6,000 Years

Opiate addiction is thought by many to be a modern problem caused by disintegration of traditional cultural values. However, this type of thinking is not grounded in reality. Addiction to opium has probably plagued mankind for around 6,000 years, but some evidence has been found that strongly indicates Neolithic man was cultivating and using the poppy plant as many as 30,000 years ago. If this is true it would imply that opiate addiction is a problem that has quite literally evolved with man.

More than 6,000 years ago ancient Sumerians wrote of the poppy plant and its cultivation. And while we don't know to what extent this culture used the plant for its euphoric effects, (although their name for the poppy translates to "joy plant") we do know for certain that by the time of the ancient Greeks, addiction to opium was widespread. However, use of opium for its medicinal properties was also rampant. In ancient times as much as today, opium was used to treat pain, headaches, diarrhea, coughing and other ailments. In fact, the use of this drug was so widespread that ancient physicians were divided about whether or not the drug had any "magical" or "supernatural" powers and regularly argued about this in public settings.

Recreational use of opium in ancient times was just a common part of everyday life. Ancient societies in India, Africa, China and eventually Europe were being overrun by the opium trade, which spread to all corners of the known world. Use of the drug grew with the human population, and by the time the nineteenth century arrived, opium addiction had saturated every corner of the globe-including the newly formed United States of America.

During this time, Britain had a stranglehold on most of the trade routes- especially into and out of China - one of the biggest consumers of opium. When the Chinese opium addiction problem became overwhelming, the government fought back, seizing tens of thousands of pounds of opium and refusing to admit further shipments. This led to the infamous First Opium War, where China was resolutely defeated by Britain and forced to allow the trade to continue and expand. But in 1856 China rebelled once more and was yet again put down by the British Empire. As a result, more than one quarter of the adult male population of China was addicted to opium by the turn of the century.

While the Opium wars were being waged in the East, the United States was growing massive quantities of poppy plants in the West, utilizing the opium for medicine, products and recreation. Thomas Jefferson was a prolific grower of the poppy, and some of the most highly esteemed intellectuals of the time were regular opium users. But when the Civil War broke out, morphine had only recently been isolated from opium and was made readily available to soldiers on both sides, leading to the development of thousands of severe morphine addictions - especially with the advent of the hypodermic needle.

In an effort to control the opium and morphine addiction leftover after the Civil War, scientists and pharmacists set out to create a new substance to treat the effects of addiction to these drugs. The resulting drug was developed by Bayer and became the world's best-selling brand of all time: Heroin. And while it wasn't easy to see during the time, we now know from unfortunate experience that Heroin is one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs out there.

So if you're suffering from addiction to morphine, heroin, oxycodone or any other substance, you should know that you're not alone: this problem has been afflicting humans for millennia. But it doesn't have to affect you any more- all you need to do is use the links below to get help to regain control over your life. Why wait any longer?

Click here for a free consultation from our drug addiction treatment center.

Click here to check your insurance right now: http://www.recoveryfirst.org/

Original article