Dealing with addiction alone

@Wanderer30 Hello there, and welcome to the community! I understand how difficult it must be to handle your addiction by yourself. I can't really answer your question for you as support systems work differently for each of us. However, we are here for you, and you are not alone! There is no need to feel ashamed; you are so brave for reaching out here. If you ever need to talk with someone, feel free to reach out to the listeners here. Feel free to also post here in the forum whenever you'd like to give updates or just need support. I appreciate out you reaching out here, and given that you have admitted your addiction, you are one step closer to getting through it. Best wishes!

@Wanderer30 Hi there. For starters, thank you for sharing and for reaching out for help. Coming to terms with having an addiction can be an incredibly difficult thing to do and takes incredible strength and bravery. It is also one of the first and most cruicial steps on the road to recovery. Congrats on making that first step.

Feeling ashamed is a perfectly normal feeling when it comes to something like addiction and it's totally understandable why you wouldn't want to share that with your loved ones. However, it is possible to get help while still maintaining your privacy. There are several options available including professional support and peer support groups. A good way to start can be by telling your doctor. They can help point you in the right direction in terms of counseling, treatment programs and other medical support you may need depending on your situation.

Another option can be peer-support groups such as SMART Recovery and Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous. That's how I personally got my foot in the door when I was struggling with an addiction. I've put together a list of various peer-support groups here. If you have any questions or would like help locating something in your area, feel free to pm me. We also host regular addiction and recovery support discussions on here. You can find out when they're happening by looking at the community calendar. I personally host one every Wednesday from 1-2 pm est. You are more than welcome to come :)

Hope this helps. Take care and feel free to come back here anytime. We are here for you <3

@Wanderer30

@Wanderer30 I am just a person with no relevant qualifications, but I have some thoughts I wanted to share with you. First, you've reached out to this forum and people have responded. It's a baby step that I hope demonstrates that you are not alone in exactly the same way you were before reaching out. Maybe this is somewhat helpful, maybe not. At any rate, I admire your courage and hope you find something here.

And you've reminded me of something I think might be important. In a sense, isn't everyone's recovery a solo effort? I mean, if you were surrounded by supporters but never made the individual decision and effort to begin recovery, would you make any progress? Nope.

The lesson for me is that recovery, at its core, an individual thing. Support is always nice to have and can be helpful, but I'd rather be determined to recover and all alone than have a ton of support from others, but no will to recover. Your decision to fight your way toward recovery is the most important thing there is.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to you in some way.

@Wanderer30 Its amazing that you are able to admit it your yourself, shows your emotional honesty. I can understand how you may be feeling embarassed to share this, and at the same time feeling helpless alone. Let me assure you, you are not alone in this. You are on the right platform and you would find the support you are looking for here, to help you fight through this struggle.

@Wanderer30 I too deal with addiction alone. I've was totally sober for 6 months in 2015 and it was wonderful. I am determined to be sober for the rest of my life. But currently, I am not sober. I am using. I am sneaky. I am high functioning. People suspect, but no one really knows. I am no genius, but when it comes to hiding my alcohol abuse, I'm effing Albet Einstein. i drink about 750ml every other day. Its liek medicine. My wife is a bit of an enabler -- pretends i dont really have a problem, and because i hide it quite well, doesn't need to confront it. So, in the end, i would say that getting away from booze on your own is REALLY tough. I have gone to AA meetings, and they helped, but the whole God thing wasn't for me. What did it for me in 2015 was exercise and a commitment to lose weight. I also ran Ragnar ( a relay race thingy) and that kept my mind away from alcohol. In the end, replace. Replace the booze with exercise, with religion, with going vegan. I dont' know...but replace it with something. It's not going away. Your always going to crave booze. But you can put that shit in a box and replace it with a positive thing. Godspeed.

I definitely understand and can relate. For 2 years I battled it on my own without anyone having any idea. Until one day I realized I couldnt do it without support so I took the leap and senta group text to most of my immediate family. The results were pretty positive (I only recieved negative from one member). Take that leap. It could be just what you need to break your addiction.You can do this. I believe in you.