Time slowed back down

I’ve been sober from opiates since July of ’23, and sober from alcohol since October of ’24. At my old job, it was very easy to acquire painkillers. It kind of helped at first, just making it through the day, maybe once or twice a week. And then it started getting to be every day. Then it got to be so much that I was taking three or four Vicodin a day, and I’d come home and drink just to crash, to come down, or else I’d sleep maybe one or two hours and have to get up and go to work again.

It wasn’t from a surgery. It was pretty readily available at the place I worked. There were a couple people who were prescribed it, Vicodin and Flexeril and another muscle relaxer. It seemed like they were able to hide it a little better than I was. For me, it just became a tailspin.

Reaching out

The drinking started getting out of control. A childhood friend of mine and I talked about it, and he said he really thought it’d be good to try something. He’d had a different friend who’d been on Suboxone for a couple of years and it straightened them out completely. Stopped the opiates, stopped drinking. I was skeptical at first, so I started looking into it, doing Google searches. It almost seemed too good to be true.

I also talked to my mother about it. She didn’t know as much about the opiates as she did the drinking, but I was honest with her. I’d had to cancel a couple of family events because I was too hungover or still drunk to drive, and not just once. She recommended AA. I took the advice, and it was really good. It’s not just the Suboxone. It’s definitely the support system.

Starting Suboxone treatment

I got on QuickMD’s website, had one appointment the first month, and came back the next month. I have my doctor now, who I’ve had the entire time. He’s aces. He’s down to earth, and every month he asks how things have been, how’s work, how’s the family. I’ve been his patient long enough now that he remembers stuff.

It’s helped immensely. There’s actually no craving. My dose has only gone up once, about a year in, from one a day to two. Since then I’ve never had a relapse, never even had the notion to seek anything out.

About a year in, I felt like I was getting more cravings. I talked to my doctor about it, and he said that’s not out of the ordinary. Sometimes it comes in waves, just like life. If the cravings go down in three months, we’ll lower the dose. He’s been very good about that.

What changed

I’m a CNC machinist. I’ve been doing it 15 years. I make more money now, and I feel like I’m able to retain more knowledge day to day. It’s been over three years for opiates and about two years for alcohol now, and it doesn’t feel like one day at a time anymore. I’m kind of in the flow.

I went from renting a house to owning a home. I own my vehicle. My daughter lives with me full time now. There’s no way I could have done any of that back then. No way.

A message to others

If anybody’s on the fence about it, I recommend treatment. Even if it helps one person, that’s worth it.

The first thing I’d say is find a support group, AA or NA, that day, not later. Then weigh the options for getting on something to help you get off whatever’s ailing you, whether that’s methadone or Suboxone or something else. Suboxone worked for me immediately. It may not work for everybody, but with the stories I’ve read, it works for the vast majority.

Day one, get a support group. Day two, start looking at what you need to do to change your life. It’s not something you can keep up alone.