Powerlessness sucks. No one stays clean till they are truly ready. Ffucking sucks, but it's the truth. All the substitutes in the world won't work. Anyone wanting to actually get clean, suboxobone is your best bet. Easy sailing. 8mg strips 1st week halved 2nd and a few quarters... done. No more dope sick and nothing more than a single groggy day. I did heroin for 20 years. Till I was done... I always went back. Not only done but I had to change. Old friends had to go, period no exceptions ever. I had to learn how to live, how to feel. I had to have a support group. That support group being other recovering adddicts... key word... RECOVERING. Not just someone or people that didn't use, but actually in recovery. I would never be able to stay clean w/o. Or to just not use and do it by myself, what a joke. I never made it. Not even my family alone was enough. I go to meetings, I chair meetings, I work steps, I stay clean. Simple but not easy. If I stop doing any of these things my old self starts creeping back. If I'm not moving forward I'm moving backwards. Anyone can do it when they're ready and willing. It can get comfortable in misery and sometimes it seems so much easier to just numb and mask your feelings... especially when that's all you know. It was tough. I never thought I'd feel again. There is help and hope for addicts.... when they are ready.
Just an FYI, anyone that is an adddict, the ole, "it's just a drink occasionally" or the one I hear a lot "it's just weed"... we are masters of deception, especially to ourselves. I've fooled myself with both of those lies before. Only to eventually go back out.
Sorry for the rant. Recovery is serious, it works when one surrenders and quits listening to their own ideas... I promise you. If your anything like this addict... I had NO good ideas. Took me a loooonnngggg time to get with that.