The Addiction Manifesto
Know Thy Limits. In recovery we often face many unexpected challenges, life isn’t scripted, and neither is our recovery. We know what’s working to help us maintain our sobriety, and hopefully in process we have learned a few things about ourselves and what doesn’t work. How can we deal with these unexpected bumps in the road? S-L-O-W-L-Y. Don’t treat the unexpected like it was expected. What do I mean? Mindfulness teaches us to ‘live in the moment’ and absorb what’s in front of us. We learn to analyze the best-case scenarios and then react, we don’t hit ‘autopilot’ – we don’t just ‘react.’ Learn to slow down your mind and reactions to filter thru what’s happening in front of you. Always remember that ‘one drink, one hit we won’t quit.’ That’s a fact, learning when to walk away from a bad situation is just as important to knowing when to stand your ground.
-JR WEAVER
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Underdog? I like those odds 😎 https://medium.com/@jrweaver/underdog-i-like-those-odds-d916c9778c34
I’m JR Weaver, Army vet, I’ve been in sustained recovery for about 27 months for co-occurring disorders that include substance use, ptsd, anxiety and depression. I also have a few felony drug charges on my record. I am a proud graduate of Charleston county drug court, and a mentor for the new Veterans Treatment Court, I am a certified Peer Support Specialist and author of The Addiction Manifesto.
And if I didn’t sober up when I did then chances are we probably would not have met because I would probably be dead or serving a very long prison sentence. My journey is only beginning, I know where I’ve been thanks to my addiction and it sucked. The drugs or alcohol may have started out as a coping mechanism in life but sooner or later it will consume the life out of you. We never want to believe that we have a problem, until we try to stop and can’t. Little by little it destroys us from the inside out, we start sacrificing our morals and character for that ‘one last hit or drink.’ I’ve done some shady shit to finance my addiction, I really didn’t want to hurt anybody but everyone and everything was collateral damage on my way to the doorman. Lying, cheating, stealing? You betcha, robbing, pimping, fencing stolen goods? Yep, I lost myself little by little until I couldn’t recognize myself anymore, then I started to hate the monster that I had become. And then my addictive thinking used that on me too!! The day I ‘woke up’ to the bs that addiction was feeding me was prob one of the best days of my life. I know my demons inside out, I know what they want, I know they are waiting on the edge of my subconscious for that moment when I let my guard down. Grab a snickers mofos cause this guy ain’t coming back!! That’s the mindset we all need to bring towards our recovery. If you’re still out there waiting for that sign to stop using…HELLO THIS IS IT!! Go home, call your parents, go to treatment if you need it, just do something that your future will thank you for!! If a guy like me can find Recovery then anybody can.