An Addict Reflects on 4 months of sobriety

This is a reprint, with permission, of a post by an addict on the Reddit opiatesrecovery forum (Click Here). The poster is reflecting on life four months into recovery from addiction, and shares advice, raw and right from the heart. The poster asked to be acknowledged by user name only: HoboCodes. The language is coarse, but this is definitely worth the read. Enjoy:

God damn guys, 4 months clean is such a better life. I promise.

Clean date April 1st, 2017. Closing in on 4 months now. I remember how bad the first few days and weeks were. That shit was miserable. I would have given almost anything to stop being that sick, but I didn't. I let myself be that sick even though I didn't think I would ever feel better, I stuck it out. I genuinely didn't think I was going to be able to at the time, I promise. If you're there right now you're not alone. We all were positive that it was impossible, but I've made it here and others have made it longer. You're not unique, that's not an excuse, everyone that's been through there has been there and they made it and so can you. Within a month my life was getting better. I relied on a couple good friends that were GOOD influences, people that I neglected for years when my priorities were fucked, and I was lucky that they were there for me. I suddenly had too much time on my hands and unneeded distractions from how shitty I felt and how bad I wanted some shit to make me feel better. So I dove into my passion projects that I had pushed to the side for shitty years. I hustled hard because I needed a new life to immerse myself in. Find something you genuinely love and bury yourself in it. Make it your new purpose in life, and you'll do fine. I learned in getting clean that my drug use for years was self medicating. I think a lot of us addicts or just drug users in general are the kind of people that need more out life. We need excitement and adventure and we need challenges. When we're confused or stuck in life the drugs are an easy way to find excitement and adventure every day. Each day is another challenge; make some money, buy some shit, and feel the reward. But it's so fuckin fake and hollow. We're the kind of people that can do really awesome things. We're the go-getters and hustlers and dreamers and people with aspirations. We got off track for a little while, wasted some time and fucked our lives up bad. But we're the kind of people that can rebuild and conquer and take all the lessons we've learned from the wild shit lives we've lived and bring those experiences into some really productive outlets of our abilities. You just gotta find something you love more than heroin or pills. You've been addicted to dope and you know how hard you'll go to get something you love that much, and how far you'll go to get it even though you also hate it. Find something that you'll work hard at on the days you hate it, that day in and day out you'll chase down and score. Cuz now that you're getting rid of this huge succubus that's taken over your life for so long, there's a lot of room for new life. Fill all that empty space with meaning, whatever that meaning may be, and you'll quickly stop feeling like something it missing. You'll be good. You'll be fucking great. Just keep going.

With thanks to HoboCodes!