The way to sobriety is neither straight, nor is it short and while climbing this mountain, you should expect a few things. (Don`t get pissed. In neither meaning of the word) If you are anything like I was or any other dope head.
You are/were a Liar. Your excuses may include:
a) -you are an asshole
b) -you feel that you must adapt to the world, because otherwise it won`t except your wasted ass. “Hi, I`m high!” is simply unacceptable.
c) In other words: both legal and social reasons are at stake, so you are forced to lie and while I would never steal a paper clip from a job- lying about drugs was a whole other story.
d) You have to spare your mother`s or girlfriend`s or child`s feelings. Anyhow- from your perspective it`s not as bad and you are probably missunderstood: “they just don`t get it”.
e) You believe your own lies. Self delusion is a huge part of drug abuse and it even has a whole life philosophy attached to it. Basically: who is to say what The Truth is?
f) Whatever makes you feel alright and doesn`t hurt others… Works if you drop an occasional E or smoke a holiday doobie. However that`s the difference between using and abusing and this blog is mostly about abusing.
Lying may have many more other reasons, but it`s basically about avoiding the truth. Deep, huh?
Something one often becomes truly skillful at. You may also be excellent at keeping up the appearances- anything from the personal hygiene to punctuality, from having a smile on your face, while dying inside, to doing an excellent job at work, while being at the edge of collapse. Such as was the case when I was a truck driver.
I was so good at deception, that my own mother had no idea, that my biggest worries were not the sinking grades at the physics and math, but that I was running out of the places to stick the meth-loaded syringe into.
As such (a professional liar) you may expect not to be trusted. Of course! ”Never trust a junkie” is one of the life`s “grand” lessons. I don`t agree with it- or rather not more or less than with ”never trust a cop, a whore, a gipsy, a communist or a.. (you fill in) .
Don`t get mad- get even though: every time ”they” suspect” you and you prove them wrong- you get the winner`s mild sense of satisfaction. It would all be peachy-galore (with all the self gratification through proving others suspicions to be ungrounded), except for what I call the ”microscope effect”.
I had a ”junior microscope set” as a kid with the glass slides, which one was to put the samples on. When adjusting the focus with the side wheel, one sometimes lowered the microscope`s lens too close to the fragile slide.
Making it crack.
Going through the motions of the rehabilitations ` system I found the rules to be quite simple. Don`t get high and don`t get drunk or- one and the same: “don`t get wasted”. Eventually you will win more and more of the trust and the respect and will get a chance of becoming ”one of them”. By that time this great division, this split of us and them may gradually fade away, thus making you simply a man or a woman. Neither ”normal”, nor an ”x-junkie”- just a human.
The simple bit ends there.
Have you ever been looked in the eyes and asked compassionately: ”How are you?” Not the courtesy `s ”how `r ya?”, but an in depth, analytical ”How are you? (Really? No- really? Behind all ”that” Drop the b.s. Come on! Really: who are you trying to fool?”), under the breath.
A type of grave digging enquiry that has no happy resolve, whether one reaches the bottom or hits the hard concrete. ”Fine, thank you” is just not bad enough when one is a recovering addict under a close observation.
Being an optimist and a generally positive guy, after quitting drugs, I got an overwhelming energy kick on top of my stand-by joyful post suicidal persona. My superiors, assistants, therapists and the army of the personnel at the places I lived could only interpret it as:
a). I`m high
b). I`m faking either way, pretending or hiding something
c). My energetic exterior is an expression of the inner stress. Inability to do simply nothing (take a 1 hour lunch break or a 40 minutes coffee pause) is a way of escapism, where I am running from myself and the inner demons, by constantly cleaning, washing, organizing, taking a smoke etc.
”No; I AM fine! ” is an answer that echoed through the corridors of the mental institutions throughout the modern history. When one is proclaimed insane or an addict, one may find one’s self in the situation, where there is no correct answer.
”Fine”- implies that you are delusional and/or in denial
”OK”- melancholic, depressed, indifferent, unresponsive. Poker faced.
Of course there is the crying: the ”admition” of one’s ”true” feelings, which is generally considered to be somewhat of a breakthrough. However a breakthrough of the kind is only a first tiny step in the right direction out of the hellish maze one is expected to have gotten lost in, through the years of the drug abuse.
Who knows- maybe I am deluding myself, thinking and feeling fine? Maybe I have managed to avoid the self examination, the fruits of which are bitter and sour and should wipe that smile right off my face. Until then- I am fine being fine. After all- we are all living in some degree of denial, avoidance and illusion. Must we all scratch and break the surface until it bleeds? Who is to say that “the only gain is in pain? “ Well… actually the same people, who may say “never trust a junkie”.
”Time heals all wounds” could be applied here. However frustrating it may be: don`t crack, like that slide under the too close inspection is my simpleton`s advice. Even those, who are trained to zoom in on the drop of blood, may someday get tired of it and trust your smile.
Until then the expectations of others may be a powerful killjoy. Even when you are feeling grand and everything is peachy galore- if someone expects it to be a mask, behind which the true pain resides: when confronted, you will most probably step down a notch towards the depression.
If someone expects you to be high- everything becomes a sign of you being just that. Size of your pupils (small: opiates, large: CNS, amphetamines. Reddish eyes, “dead fish” eyes, glancing, starring, watering, blinking, jerking may in turn mean: cannabis, benzo, GHB, and so on) That is only regarding your peepers! While all of the abovementioned symptoms may be a result of sleep deprivation, too much coffee or even strong emotions…
There is also the rest of your body as well as your voice or the behavior in general. Once you slip into seeing yourself through the ” microscope” you are likely to start behaving accordingly. Being overly self aware will make you act unnaturally, thus confirming the observer`s suspicions. Catch 22 at its best! The only way to break this vicious circle is by proving them wrong with the hard chemical evidence. A clean urine test. One would imagine…
I don`t want to seem like I am bitching, because I am not. I know when I feel sorry for myself and this is not the case. I am however pondering over the rules of conduct and the ways of the rehabilitation process.
YES- stay clean and it will all be all right! Still, I have gotten so many bruises on the way (some truly deserved and a few that felt like an “addictizm”- read racism for the addicts). A few examples:
1. Alexei has been positive for the synthetic heroine in over a month.- Later showed to be a mistake in the bookkeeping . Considering that my name is close to impossible to mistake for some ones else`s, I believe this slump to be the “bluff tactics”. If one is suspected of taking some sort of narcotics, yet it does not show as a positive in the tests- the idea is to accuse a person, expecting a confession. It worked wonders! Despite knowing, that I have not taken any heroine in ages, I have admitted to doing so.
I reasoned: there is no idea of denying any test results, because the plastic card/stick with chemicals, that is deepened into the urine is hundred times more trust worthy that I am. No sarcasm intended. So whichever the result may be- “they” will consider it as a fact, which one may later choose to deny (thus lie) or to admit (thus honestly seek help), when it comes to “their” evaluation.
“Experience is the name we give to our mistakes”, said Oscar Wild. Very true, when it comes to the life under the microscope with a litmus paper up ones ass.
According to the WWW (if you choose to believe it or not- look it up)- one out of four (25%) of the standard urine tests give false readings in one way or another. It does not always mean that you will get busted for heroine, while you only took coke; still there is a multitude of variables. Certain foods or medications can give false positives. Cross contamination is possible. “Rebounds’” positives (when a drug that has been taken several months ago, such as cannabis, can pop out of your fat tissue) and so on. Here I would have to agree that as they say “one time is no time”, yet you can`t be so unlucky as to get the false positives every second week.
2. Alexei is positive on Methamphetamine. –Showed out that it was the gastric prescription-free medication that I took. It does not mean that the pills contained any traces of the meth, yet as the result of some peculiar body chemistry, combined with the chemicals in the testing “stick”- it has turned water into wine. By the way; for all you darling skeptics out there: take a couple of the “Inside” pills and take a piss test an hour later. Works with everyone, yet still is not a common knowledge, even amongst the hardcore testers and the testis .
3. Alexei is cheating on his tests- the urine shows to be containing way too much water and too little of the piss itself (carotene, I believe is the correct term) implying, that I was drinking extreme amounts of water or alcohol to blend it out, making the traces of the eventual narcotics too diluted to be detectable. Turned out that I was drinking too much coffee.
4. Alexei was suspended from his last communal apartment for smoking. - True; guilty as charged. I was warned several times, yet I smoked anyway. Point in it all being that later, when the matter was discussed amongst my caretakers, assistants, chiefs and bosses- a small detail has slipped in: Alexei lost the room for smoking and drinking alcohol. Because I am an alcoholic and I am expected to drink . I am an alcoholic, but the point I`m driving in these expectations matters is that one has to expect such as an addict. Just deal with it.
5. I got kicked out from the rehab for picking the psychedelic `shrooms out in the field. Technically I never had them with me in the rehab (got picked myself out in the field by my therapist), neither have I taken any. Another point: as an x-junkie, don`t go after technicalities: you may drive yourself insane.
I did not break any rules of the rehab: no drugs on the premises, never being under the influence. Still in the official report it stated: suspended for using illicit drugs in the rehabilitation center.
There are many more cases of my being unjustly punished or suspected, while being innocent. Some heavy and depressing, others ridiculous and funny. (The house nurse was standing in front of me, sniffing my urine) However there are many cases of me being guilty as hell and getting off free, so all in all- it has all evened out, more or less, one may say. Maybe “less”, as I was accused 6 times in a row, being guilty once and admitting to it.
One can take a relapse and get away with it. Maybe even two or three times in a row, however it never works in the long run. Either you are on with the program or not- one or the other will show itself.
So I thought…
Here was I: sober, doing my trainee job with all my might…
Transitionally I live in a communal home for the sober alcoholics and x- junkies. It happened to be a very Christian place. So much so, that in the toiled, there are golden plastic angels, glued to the walls, above the paper wall border line of the ”Jesus fishes”. The text under the chariots states something like ”Angels rejoice for every soul that is saved”. Right in front of the actual toilet sit- something to think about, while you go number two. I took a permanent marker and wrote in calligraphy:
“He watches you shit, Shame not my son! For thee crap shall not be saved as you shall be! ”.Markus 8.09 Nothing I am proud of, but here is why I am mentioning it, besides describing the overly Christian nature of the place. You are all familiar with the deadly sins, I am sure: don`t kill, don`t fuck, don`t desire your neighbors’ goat etc. The list had to be adjusted and updated: it is no longer alright to castrate a 12 year old boy and sodomise/rape him as you pleased, while watching porr over the net may have become a new millenniums` issue. Anyhow: the new version of the tickets to hell, according to Vatican contains amongst others: “selling drugs without taking them- dealing without being an addict; for the cash only”. The gods morals law that would put every other private doctor into one of the hot spots down there, but overlooking the technicalities- I agree: it`s not nice to consciously sell something that one considers to be too poisonous/destructive for one’s self. Like a Mc Bacon with cheese or a 45 caliber revolver.
I will probably dedicate a whole new chapter to this new level of moral hypocrisy, courtesy of the pope and the gang. For now though, I just thought to tell you about today, when I was accused of committing just that: the neo-deadly sin.(N:5) The day went like this:
…I came back to the place around three o’clock. Having mind numbing tooth ache for over a week, I tried to soften the agony by using a popular mouthwash. As a recovering addict, I am not allowed any “real” painkillers. The Listerin promised to solve every tooth related problem with a rinse and a spit. What the advertisement did not mention was that it contains 20% pure alcohol. In other words- about half of the bottle is vodka. Something that can be a problem, when one struggles to prove ones complete sobriety. As I entered the house, I`ve landed in the middle of the man hunt:
I`ve been put through the 9 circles:
1. Blow job (alcohol test): the gadget used by them is about 1/10 of the size of the one used by the police at the traffic stops. It has about as much accuracy, which is openly stated in the manual: ”it cannot be used as a juridical (reliable) test and only gives an approximation of the alcohol amount …” In other words it`s a plus/minus something. Last time I showed 3,5 p.m. – a number that would knock me unconscious, while 4,0 is considered to be generally deadly. They had to admit however, that not only did I not smell of the alcohol, but I by and large gave the impression of being completely sober. Today it went the same way. Almost: I did not smell of alcohol. I did not conduct myself in any way that may point to my being under the (an) influence. The time was 15 hours, which meant that I came almost directly from work . Yet the hunt was on…
2. Agreeing, that the Listerine may be responsible, I was asked to show the bottle. Point being- I lied about taking it, so I didn`t have it on me. I did show it.
3. I was asked then to show the contents of my bag, expecting it to hide the booze. I had to do it myself, since according to the residual privacy laws, a private people still cannot search each other’s property as they desire. Apparently they can ask each other to search themselves though.
4. I went up to my room and a few seconds later got a visit from one of the stuffs` members. He glanced at my locker and asked nicely if I had a key to it. I`ve performed a self-search yet again, opening the small plastic and cardboard boxes and bags inside with a smile, still being unaware of the grounds to these inspections.
5. The talk: There were two of them waiting- the nurse and the housekeeper for the day.
–Alexei… We have now heard 3 times from different sources that you are selling the synthetic heroine (Subutex) on the premises.
-Pardon?! You are aware that I have to leave 2 urine tests per week, so I hardly can be doing any drugs. Specially with my daily trainee job…
- Yes, Alexei, but we don`t mean that you take the drugs yourself- just that you are dealing. You can imagine how we look upon it.
-You are against it, I presume…- said with a slight smile. I knew that it was not only the wrong time to try to joke, but truly the wrong folks. I just couldn`t find anything better to respond with.
Or should have I explained that the 6Mg of the poor quality synthetic heroine (Subuxon) or its` French 8Mg superior relative are both prescription drugs, closely monitored by the medical stuff and can only be bought for a private use from someone, who is selling his/her own daily dose. One, maximum three pills. This was truly not a drug to be dealing or profiting on, unless one gets it prescribed and since I was not one on the Subutex program- I could not be selling it by any wheeling and dealings` logistics.
There was I- accused of something , that in their peeping Christian eyes stood on the same line with murder, human trafficking/slavery and torture.
Still- not least bit offended, considering the above mentioned perks of being a recovering dope head, I somewhat wondered if this was yet another form of the “bluff` n cuff” method.
3 people, according to them have reported me as being the Subutex dealer. Having stayed in the house for only a month, I only have spoken to 3 people altogether. One of them I knew by name. All of them were using and holding stuff daily, but none have even asked me if I knew someone who could sell something. So… obviously this was another bluff. This time however it was so beyond absurd that I just couldn`t be bothered to be bothered.
-May I go?
6. -Sure, but first you have to leave a urine test.
-I did it yesterday latest, but sure.
A few minutes later, under a watchful eye of the elderly nurse, I produced my member and went number one in a plastic cup.
7. Alexei? - It`s not that warm…
- Now I was dumbstruck for real. I knew what she implied: basically that I have bought one of the 170$ rubber hollow dildos, filled it up with a clean sample and fooled the system by milking it in front of her. Presumably I had it strapped on 24/7, just for such a pop quiz as this one. The idea way too ridiculous even for my twisted mind, so I asked:
-Too cold?! Does it mean that I am sick?
-Njeeeaa… well… you see- some people try to fool us by using other people`s urine. You see, Alexei: I have been around for quite a while, so I am aware of these kinds of things, she said while actually sniffing my piss up close. For a moment it looked as if she was going to take a clunk.
-Ok, madam . Shall I produce one more sample? This time you are welcome to observe even closer: I do have one more left in me, if so needed.
She didn`t answer, but asked me to follow her and wait for the results of the test.
8. Cool as a cucumber I followed to her office and watched her stopping a plastic analysis card into the yellow smellow.
-Well… Do you take any benzodiazepines?
-No. I don`t and I haven`t.
-Aw… this must be from your last hospital visit. (I did have my broken nose fixed). So this is all right. No problem there!
-Ok, sure. I went on with it, despite knowing, that we were both aware that the operation was for almost a week ago and the mentioned drug goes out of the body within 3 days. Moreover I did not receive a