For years I tried (unsuccessfully) to my end my substance abuse. Even though I had numerous stints of sobriety during my lifetime, I always found myself back on alcohol or drugs within a few weeks or months. I would scratch my head with a puzzled look, thinking “how could this happen again?”
I thought there was something inherently wrong with me. I was what members of the 12-Step community refer to as a “chronic relapser”. I accepted this label and used it as a justification for my inability to heal myself. After 17 years of addiction, I finally recovered, though I didn’t go to rehab or 12-Step meetings to do so. Instead, I used nutrition, supplementation, exercise, self-help books and personal development audio programs to propel me to become the man I am today.
During my self-discovery, I came to an important realization:
One of the main reasons people have such a hard time staying clean in recovery is because they don’t have a compelling future.
The Importance of A Compelling Future
In the past, I often went back to using drugs because I honestly didn’t know what else to do with my life. Life just seemed too hard. I hated most of my jobs, I never made enough money, and most importantly, I always felt like I was pushing towards some unknown destination. I knew I had to make money, pay bills, be healthy, get a girlfriend and have fun, but that picture of life never got me excited. On the contrary, it caused me to become dissatisfied and disinterested, which ultimately led me back to abusing substances.
I believe one of the main reasons I’ve had such an easy time staying clean for the past few years is because I finally have a compelling future.
com♦pell♦ing – “interesting or exciting enough to keep your attention completely.”
It didn’t happen overnight, but over the course of time, I developed a crystal clear vision of what I wanted my ideal life to look like. It took lots of soul-searching, journaling and visualizing to finally come up with this compelling future, but now I have a fire burning inside of me that never goes out. I’m finally passionate and stimulated by my goals. I have a life’s purpose and mission that allows me to do what I love, be creative and help people in ways that are deeply fulfilling and inspirational. But most importantly, I no longer have to push my way through life, because now I’m magnetically pulled to my ultimate destiny.
Design Your New Life
If you want to recover from addiction and stay clean and happy long-term, I strongly encourage you to come up with your own compelling future if you don’t already have one. Having a vision that gets your emotional juices mega-charged can launch you into a new dimension of reality. In this new dimension, there is no more suffering, and there is no more pushing with willpower alone.
You will finally feel excited about life, and your compelling future will guide your beliefs, values, decisions, and behaviors in a way that you never knew was possible. The following writing exercise can help you start designing a life that will pull you away from addiction and towards health, passion and life fulfillment.
Compelling future exercise: Be specific. What are you passionate about? What are you grateful for? Who do you love? What are you excited about? What are your biggest strengths? If you had unlimited money, but still had to choose a career, what would you do? What are some things you love to do? Who do you love to spend time with? Where are some places you would like to live and visit? What are some goals you want to accomplish? What kind of house do you want to live in? What type of relationship do you want to be in? How physically fit do you want to be? If you’re spiritual or religious, how strong is your faith? What are you future friends like? What is your future relationship with your family like?
Once you’ve answered all of the questions, feel free to write any additional thoughts as well. After you’ve written it all down, design a future life that gets you passionate. Your goal is to come up with a future that is so compelling you can hardly fall asleep at night because you’re so excited! Over the next few weeks spend at least ten minutes every morning or evening writing about and visualizing your compelling future. This momentum will put you on the fast track to a lasting recovery that has a strong and unbreakable foundation.
Man u hit the nail on the head spot on. As i travel the country speaking with teens (50K last year alone) this is exactly what I preach. Preach not really being an appropriate word here I imagine. This is exactly what I try to convey. There that’s better!:) Great post!
Thanks Super Star. That’s simply amazing that you travel the country and spoke to 50k teens last year alone! There needs to be many more people just like you. Thanks for doing such an awesome service for the youth of the country…and I’m so happy to hear some of what you teach them is how to find their “purpose”. Great message indeed. Take care and keep up the great work Super Star…and thanks for your comment.
I’m sitting here staring at my last Oxycontin.
The last one. I know I’ll be swallowing this Oxy very soon and a a very few hours later withdrawal will crash down upon me. I am (was) on Oxycontin (20g) 3x per day, and also on Oxycodon (5mg) for break-through pain. I should add that I was prescribed this very same dosage for over 10 years. Well, this time I didn’t make it to my next prescription date and my doctor refused to give me any extra.
My doctor did give me a prescription for Ondansetron for nausea and vomiting and send me on my way.
I just called my doctor’s office and requested an anti anxiety prescription and also expressed my concern about my (chronic) high blood pressure which tends hit the stratosphere during anything approximating withdrawal. Trying to taper off can have this effect.
Well, now I am completely out. And waiting for the fun to start.
And now you’re telling me I need a “Compelling Future”.
I’m 67, and have a host of medical conditions. I guess I’ll start thinking of this “Compelling Future” if I make it through withdrawals intact.
Hi Hannelore, thanks for commenting. I have been through acute opiate withdrawal many times. What you are about to go through is no easy challenge, and I would like to help in any way I can. You are very correct, until you actually make it through opiate withdrawal, the “compelling future” is not going to be enough to help you stay clean. What I referred to is a reason why I believe many people that have been clean for a few weeks or months relapse. There is nothing that is inspiring them to stay clean. Anyways, at least that was my experience, and it was also many of my patients experience as well.
As for your challenge, I believe I can greatly assist you, and you can ease the majority of your withdrawal symptoms quickly by taking only two things:
Vitamin C
Loperamide HCL
Loperamide has been shown to help with opiate withdrawal diarrhea, and mega-doses of Vitamin C has been shown in studies to almost completely stop opiate withdrawal altogether.
To read the studies, simply click on the links below:
Vitamin C Effects On Withdrawal Symptoms of Heroin Abusers
Attenuation of Heroin Withdrawal Syndrome by the Administration of High-Dose Vitamin C
Hannelore, I’m really here to help. If you have any questions on using loperamide and high-doses of Vitamin C for opiate withdrawal, please feel free to post them, as I would love to help in any way I can.
Attention: I am a Strategic Intervention Coach, not a doctor, so I can’t give professional advice regarding aspects of the body, only the mind. What I write is for informational use only. It’s not intended to treat, diagnose or prevent any disease. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, trying any new supplements, medications, exercise or opiate tapering programs.
I have been struggling with an opiate addiction on and off since I was 14 years old. I have been on methadone ( never again!!) before and now am choosing to get on suboxone after many attempts at staying sober. I will only be on suboxone for 6 months and am currently in outpatient and will be continuing throughout the entire 6 months. I know everyone has their opinions on suboxone but my reasons for deciding to take this route are very valid. I have a 9 month old son and was clean up until I had to have an emergency C-Section. I was given countless perscriptions of pure 5mg oxycodone. Once they decided to not give me anymore due to trying to stop a possible addiction I couldn’t stop and went out looking for more. Once I couldn’t find pain killers on the streets i tried heroin for the first time and fell in love with it. I never used to the point where I couldn’t function normally and be nodding off, but just so to where I was stable enough to not be sick and get that little bit of happiness for awhile until it wore off. I have struggled with social anxiety and depression my entire life. So I knew there was a good chance I would end up with post-pardum depression, and I did. It was very difficult to take care of a newborn when I felt like I couldn’t take care of myself and was miserable all the time. So here I am in my third relapse since the baby was born and am about to get on suboxone on Friday. I know that I can’t take suboxone until I am completely off of the heroin or any other opiates for at least 24hrs or more, or I will go into the worst preticipated withdrawls in my life! So I guess my question is how do I get through with the withdrawls and feel comfortable enough to be able to take care of my son until I start the suboxone?? I have gone through horrible withdrawls before and know all about how miserable it is, but my question is; what can I do to make myself as comfortable as possible during the next few days without any prescription pills. Is there anything that REALLY works over the counter for withdrawls? Sorry for the long post! Just a mother in desperate need to get clean and start a better life for myself my son and my fiancé! Thanks 🙂
Hi Kristen. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I have deep empathy for what you are going through. Getting prescribed 5 mg Oxys for a C-section and having to take them for the pain jump-started your addiction again. However, I’m so glad to hear you are quitting heroin. As for the waiting time before you get on Suboxone, please refer to the following list of over 30 ways to ease opiate withdrawal symptoms:
Opiate Withdrawal Remedies
This list has all of the most powerful medications, over-the-counter medications, natural drugs and home remedies for opiate withdrawal you could ever dream of. As for over-the-counter remedies, loperamide HCL (Imodium AD) is the best one out there. Here is an article on it:
How to Use Loperamide For Opiate Withdrawal
Good luck and congratulations for taking the steps necessary to end your addiction for good! If you have any other questions, please feel free to post them and I will get back to you soon.
Attention: I am a Strategic Intervention Coach, not a doctor, so I can’t give professional advice regarding aspects of the body, only the mind. What I write is for informational use only. It’s not intended to treat, diagnose or prevent any disease. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, trying any new supplements, medications, exercise or opiate tapering programs.
Dearest Kristen, would love an update on how ur doing!