By: Lakeview Health
A Florida Drug Addiction Relapse For The Ages
Coming out of drug addiction treatment, I was pretty confident that I would be able to stay sober. I truly did not think that I would suffer a drug addiction relapse. All I had to do was go to meetings, get a sponsor… all the things they tell you to do in treatment. That’s what I did for a while. Eventually, I got too confident. I started slacking on the number of twelve step meetings that I was going to and I lost touch with my sponsor. Even though I know that I was the one responsible for picking up the first drink, being on the beach in the hot South Florida sun watching people drink beer did not help. I started to romanticize the idea of having a nice cold beer. Just one, though. At least I thought. I had that one beer. A few hours later I had another, and then another… Before I knew it, I was back at my apartment with a mound of cocaine by myself. This was all too familiar to me. This was exactly what I was doing right before I went to drug treatment. They talk about the progression of the disease of addiction. Prior to treatment, I had never used drugs intravenously. During my relapse, that is exactly what I started to do. I pumped so many drugs into my system that I was financially and spiritually broke within a month. I was lucky that I didn’t end up dead. Instead, I ended up in a medical detox and back in treatment. Leaving treatment the second time was different. I now know that if I do what I was taught in my addiction treatment center that I can stay sober. However, I know that relapse is definitely possible if I am not careful. I also know that if I do relapse again, the depths of my addiction will be lower then ever.
