Clean Enough

In regard to my last post… There are many directions that we could take as we review that message.  My overall impression, as I read the letter, was of a person struggling to accept the reality of his condition.  Over and over, the person repeated the same behavior, starting Suboxone, Read more…

Clean Enough, Chapt. 3: A Primer on Suboxone

What is Suboxone? Suboxone is the trade name for a medication that contains buprenorphine and naloxone. A similar medication, Subutex, contains buprenorphine without naloxone.  Both are manufactured and sold by Reckitt-Benckiser, a company based in the UK with operations world-wide. Suboxone is FDA indicated for the treatment of opioid dependence.  Read more…

Clean Enough: Some Distorted Thinking

Some distorted thinking You see where this is going. My behavior was an example of cross addiction, where an addict stops one substance but continues to use another, only to find that the previously safe substance becomes the drug of choice. My use of alcohol increased, and soon I was Read more…

Clean Enough, Chapter 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7

My Story (continued) Treating myself In the spring of 1993 I took codeine cough medicine for a cold.  A few weeks later I was still taking the codeine each evening.  It worked so well; finally I could relax and get some quality sleep!  I started feeling more irritable in the Read more…

Clean Enough, chapter 2.3 and 2.4, My story continued

My Story (cont.) Local hero Interestingly, the heavy drug use came only months after a time in my life when I was riding as high as I ever had before or have since.  During the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college I was working for the city Read more…

Clean Enough, chapter 2.1 and 2.2: My Story

Chapter 2:  My Story Nature vs. nurture I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, the son of a defense attorney and a teacher. I was the second of four children. I will not get into a drawn out psychodynamic exploration of my upbringing at this time except to Read more…

Sharing My Story

Introduction:  2. Sharing my story The book begins with a description of my own descent to active opioid addiction, my climb back to sobriety, and my efforts to remain sober.  It is important that I share my own story of addiction and recovery for several reasons. First, all addicts have Read more…