I would like to find out how and where I can speak about my experience, strength and hope with others regarding my alcoholism and drug addiction, for which I am currently in recovery.

Hi, I would be thrilled to post your story with the rest of testimonials on ww.dearaddict.ca. This issue is strictly recovery related and is not showing but has video and speakers instead. However, I could post you gladly at any time given it would be a new submission. You can write as little or as much as you like, I am the editor and will check spelling but would never alter a letter otherwise. Look forward to your response, but more-so as dear addict insists, your no longer alone is our message to the addict still suffering. I am grateful I caught your question, we need your voice, and it will stay posted as long as you like

ODAAT

Cheers;

kimberly gray

personal email-fade2gray@rogers.com

see how you feel about site first-especially video The woman I found. www.dearaddict.ca

Hi Tami, I admire you wanting to share with others. That is so important to people who are still struggling. To know that someone can make it. I encourage you to check out my hub on Celebrate Recovery. At the large group meetings you can share your testimony live on stage and it makes a great impact to the people who hear you. Good luck with all your endeavors! God Bless!

I invite you to speak with me. Also check out my Hub as I have just began today 07/12/09 and am new to the hub.I firmly believe that an undue stigma is unwittingly placed up those of us who have used drugs and alcohol. Most treatment professionals believe addictions to be "diseases" and that they cannot be cured. I believe that addictions are "symptoms" not diseases, and there is a cure for the real issues that cause individuals such ourselves to attempt to cope by self- medicating ( getting high) . I would welcome any thoughts on this. I wish continued success with your recovery journey.

Blessings,

Larry

Where I found most information regarding getting off of drugs wasn't from people who weren't addicts, but people who were. I truly believe that the age-old saying, "You don't know what it's like in someone else's shoes until you've walked a mile in them" is totally true. A by-the-book, clean-cut doctor who may have gone as far as getting drunk a couple of times or toking on a joint in college will not understand, truly, what you are going through. Addicts, on the other hand, will. So do what I did. Search the Web. Go to Google, type in questions you have about drug problems....exactly the way you would ask that question to a real-life person....and you'll find tons of stuff posted online by recovering addicts. It helped me a great deal to know what I was going through, that I wasn't the only one out there dealing with opiate addiction, and that it was possible to get help and make a strong recovery. Having my freedom back, and being myself again, is the best thing that has happned to me since I started using opiates several years ago. With the help and advice I found from people online, I was able to find the means to get clean, and I haven't taken a pill in more than a month and a half. I hope this helps. And stay strong! I know how hard it is.

God Bless,

Brad

Bradley & djbaxter,

Thank you both for your responses. I just celebrated 9 months clean & sober, and I feel great. I want to write a book, which is my ultimate goal, and why I posted on this site in the first place.

Bradley, congratulations on your clean time! It is the hardest thing anyone has to do, getting clean, but SO worth it!

Thanks again,

Tami

There are several forums where you can find support for this and related issues. A Google search for search phrases like self-help forums, mental health support forums, addictions support forums, or 12-step support forums, etc., should turn up quite a few. As a starting place, you could try http://forum.psychlinks.ca :)

When I was a lot younger I was into smoking, drugs and alcohol. I felt it killing me but I had tried other things without success.

It wasn't until I found something that replaced what I was missing in my life that caused me to use those things as a crutch that I was able to just stop using them. Siddha Yoga meditation filled the void. It answered the question I was asking from the depths of my soul. Who am I and what the hell am I on this earth for? Now, over 30 years later, I have also found that Young Living Essential Oils are what had been missing in keeping my body healthy and balanced. Drugs, of any sort, legal or illegal have toxic side effects and will cause unbalance in the mind, body, emotions and spirit. The oils are balancing to the mind, body, emotions and spirit. I have never, in 51 years, found anything else that can actually heal, on a cellular level, our bodies like Young Living oils can.

These have been my experiences and I am grateful for them.

May you also fill the void that was causing you to escape life with drugs and alcohol and also find a way to heal any damage and inbalances that has caused.