If youโre suffering from pain pill addiction (Vicodin or OxyContin), your life probably isnโt going the way you imagined. Maybe you dreamed of a specific career, or you hoped you would marry the perfect husband or wife. So itโs got to be a shock when you look around and realize what road youโve walked down. Who knew that your life would turn out like this? How did you get here?
The Road to Pain Pill Addiction
The person suffering from pain pill addiction has a rough row to hoe. Many people wandered unwittingly down the road to addiction because theyโve always had a rough life. How did your parents treat you? Did you even have parents in your home? There are horrible stories about teens fending for themselves because their parents didnโt want them around, stories of hunger and abuse and poverty.
Or perhaps you reached this road by accident. Youโll find the story of a woman who became addicted as a teenage girl. Her OxyContin addiction developed after a painful dental procedure, when her dentist kept telling her to just take more pills.
Nobody knew this could happen. But now that youโve arrived at this crossroads in your life, what can you do next?
The Stages of Grief
When you suffer from pain pill addiction, you will react emotionally like a person whose doctor just told him he will soon die. You are undoubtedly going through the traditional stages of grief: Denying, Isolating, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.ย First youโll simply deny that youโre an addict, and then youโll get angry about it and keep to yourself. Then youโll make promises to God, bargaining with him that if He helps you resolve this predicament youโll certainly stop using. Next itโs natural to experience waves of depression that feel like a tsunami, and finally you will, at last, reach a stage of acceptance.
You should know that itโs natural to be in denial and also to isolate yourself, because you think thatโs the only way you can stop your OxyContin addiction and you donโt want to see anyoneโthose that will judge you as well as those who will tempt you to use. Anger comes because you will fail to stay sober on your own. You will also want to lash out at the people around youโyour spouse, your family and friends, your drug counselor, your doctor, and your legal counsel if you have oneโbecause you hate the feeling that they are judging you.
In the bargaining stage, youโll tell yourself that you will definitely stop the OxyContin, so it will be okay to smoke some weed or take some benzosโbut itโs not. And then the cloud of depression will descend over you, because you donโt know how your life came to this. And thatโs when you will finally be able to get to work on your recovery.
Better Times Ahead
You never expected to end up with an OxyContin addiction. But now that youโre here, you are gaining knowledge about ways to control the addiction and get into recovery. Have an open conversation with your methadone counselor about your feelings at this time so that you can stay focused on recovery. Better times are coming.
