Hello Nexus.

I've been thinking alot about my stint with rehab the past few days (I tend to get stuck on certain topics in my head.) And I found myself wondering why the success rate is so low.

I was sent to rehab for smoking marijuana while I was on parole because thats the way my government does things. I spent four months there and I learned several things during the course of my stay, but they always mentioned that their success rate was only around two percent, and that most rehabs didn't do too much better.

My rehab attempted to create a peaceful environment that sort of integrated you into a normal lifestyle, where sharing feelings about your addiction and even everyday life in general was widely accepted and embraced.

I've noticed in normal every day life those feelings aren't so widely accepted and embraced.

Most people have family they can fall back on, but how many people really have family that they feel entirely comfortable sharing their deepest feelings with?

So that's the point where AA and NA come in, to help keep you on track, but they still come nowhere near the environment created within the rehabilitation facility.

I tripped on dmt continuously, low doses, for about 3 hours straight the other day. I just packed a bowl and kept taking single hits until it was all gone, and recorded each trip on my phone, until I got tired of talking and started learning.

The trips ensured me that we are all indeed one consciousness, but our vessel, or shell, is what keeps us apart. So each of these chunks of energy, which happen to be our souls i would suppose, is constricted to the limitations of that vessel in most cases. If you destroy your vessel you can no longer reside in it, so you're cautious about the limitations of your curiosity in order to survive.

So in our vessels we all take our own paths,and we all find our own understanding of life, and most would choose a consumeristic approach.

advertising doesn't support many feelings other than happiness and desire, and sharing feelings isn't a very good money maker, really more of a waste of the time you have to make your stupid money, so why share feelings?

Without the ability to share your feelings on a deeper level, you lose the encouragement to change, and the desire of your instant fix tells you "HEY, no need to share your feelings you could just feel good."

Everybody is so quick to hide who they really are, in a selfish attempt to gain friendship or sex or drugs or money or status or relief from the underlying fear of being rejected by the other spirit chunks because you don't have a vessel as pretty as theirs, or you aren't as social or mentally competent to properly socialize.

I think everyone should find someone to share their real feelings with.

Luckily alot of the feelings I can't discuss with most people have to do with something I experienced on dmt. And I have the nexus for that.

We are all one consciousness. Interconnected by something or another. That might be speculation but I believe it. I also believe that if more people believed it, and actually thought about it every once in a while, the world would get a little better.

A.D.D like tendencies when I'm writing. can't remember what the point was. Sorry.

Many here agree with you. I'm one of them!

Drug detox is such a very personal thing. It's so different for each person.
You are very right that the support network a person has is of immense importants.

I however am not a huge fan of AA or NA because they don't teach you how to overcome addiction.
They teach you to be an addict your whole life and to depend on others for sobriety.
I believe AA and NA have a very important role in early recovery, but if you really want to
be drug free then you need to change the underlying habits and getting all jacked up on coffee and cigs is little better than whatever drug one was addicted to.

I did the AA dance long ago when I was a serious alcohol and drug abuser.
Today I drink on occasion. I am not still an alcoholic.

Once an alcoholic alway's an alcoholic is flat out bullshit...unless of course a person believe it. Then it's true.

Peace

I certainly agree with your sentiments regarding a deep connection between us and everything. No doubt in my mind there whatsoever.

I went through an opiate spill for a couple years. I ended up in a diversion program through the court, and ended up at group meetings several times a week for a longg time. I learned so little in there it was silly...at least for me. As said above, their success rate was considerably low, and most that "completed" the program would end up right back in there or in worse..jail. My feelings were..and still are...if you want to change...your going to have to do it on your own accord away from the confines of a jail or rehab facility. Ultimately it comes down to you. Those places just seem to facilitate the lifestyle of addiction in my opinion.

I say pack'em all on a plane and ship'em all to an iboga clinic and or a ayahuasca retreat.

I believe it too. So do these guys:
100,000 monks for a better world

I certainly believe we share one consciousness, this is the core of all my journeys message.I feel Like AA/NA are inherently a wonderful thing, its basically the main themes of any spiritual practice packaged in a way that people with certain distaste for god can more easily accept, getting clean really is about giving up our own control and putting faith in something bigger. I think the reason treatment centers have such a low success rate is the fact that so few people who wind up there have any desire to stop. The trick for me, after 7 treatment centers was in the 12 steps, I don't mean in the popularity contest the meetings tend to be. I stuck with the old folks in the program long enough to understand it and I still practice it. I stayed totally substance free for about a year and a half and just now am easing back into using entheogens only this time with more respect. I was a miserable drunk/druggie for over half of my life. It's not that if I believe I can get away with drink or two I won't fall under the spell of it, I've tried, alcohol would always bring me back to a level of a pathetic existence every time. Fast forward to now having lost a lot of good friends and a few near death experiences of my own I've finally learned my lesson, I can't drink any amount of alcohol safely.

they not only teach you to rely on others for help, but they convince people they are unable to get better without submitting themselves to Christianity. That they are plagued with this incurable disease, doomed for eternity to a life of unfulfillable temptation. So when you're unable to rely on real people to help yourself, you rely on blind faith, which isn't exclusively wrong. It has it's benefits in the short term, but as far as long term recovery it just doesn't make it. It's a band aid as efficient as the pharmaceutical industry, just how they like it.

How silly is it that the cure for addiction for so many people is psychedelics, yet they remain completely suppressed in our culture...wonder why :0

just in the interests of truth, ^ is false, in both the AA and NA preamble that they read before every gathering it says "[aa/na] is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes."
the naive hope that psychedelics are some sort of panacea is just false. AA and NA have saved people's lives, you can revert to immature quibbles about whether the model of addiction they have 'corresponds 100%' to the way you think it is 'in reality'.. academic literature indicates 12 step programs are not for everyone and most effective with skid-row, end of the line, 'defeated enough to be teachable' cases.
it's not about believing things, it's the psychic change which the steps are designed to produce. See what it means to you to admit you're powerless over stopping the behaviour that's fucked your life (1), realise a power (any power) greater than yourself can help you (2), actively decide to work with that power (3), make a list of aaalll the things that you've done wrong and kept secret and regret (4) Tell that list to someone(5) - do that alone and see if it produces anything resembling a 'psychic change'.
if you disagree conceptually with some tenet of aa or na, fine, but at least have enough respect to research its efficacy and respect that although it won't work for everyone, it does save lives, and no one thinks you're edgy for criticising it.

Seldom is spot on.

I attended a rehabilitation program for five months due to violating my probation, and was also forced by the program to attend NA meetings. The more I attended the more I realized when they mentioned God, they weren't truly referring to the Abrahamic God, or really any God affiliated with religion. I started to realize even NA could be a form of consciousness "expansion" for people, because it helps individuals find something greater than themselves to cling to, and to influence them. I've met people who've had higher powers like music, writing, painting, spending time with their family, etc. To dismiss NA and AA is to dismiss something that has worked for thousands of people who refuse to allow a habit influence them negatively.

Definitely well put seldom.

[quote=Korey]

Thanks for all the input. I totally agree on the coffee and cigs thing joedirt, I've been trying to quit using cigs for a while now, unsuccessfully of course, and I think cigarettes are the most disgusting habit I ever picked up by far.

And I totally agree with you about alcoholism, I went from age 17 to 20 drinking every time I could, which was usually every morning, afternoon and evening. then I stopped because I felt like I was killing myself, but I still allow myself a few beers from time to time. The acquired taste sure did stick.
Anyway, I haven't allowed myself to have more than 3 drinks in about 6 months, and the occasions I do drink like that are spaced out enough that I'm not worried about falling back into that crap.


and korey, You are correct about the higher power thing, They always told us in groups that if we couldn't accept god as our higher power, then to find another one, it could be the wall you're looking at.
My problem was that I couldn't put much faith in a wall helping me with my problems, unless I needed something to lean on. In the literal sense.

I did find a section in the AA book for agnostics, and I was like "GEE GOLLY, REALLY!? A PART JUST FOR ME!" then I went on to read it and it told me I couldn't beat my addiction without accepting god in my life. Of course, this was just the opinion of the person that wrote the book, but it really turned me off to AA when I first started thinking about dropping booze.


In the end, everybody has their own path to solve their problems I suppose, and some never find it. But I really think that if everyone had a person or group they were completely comfortable sharing their feelings with (this meaning even a group that didn't show a response or any other form of help) that alot of people could beat these addictions much more easily.

Thank you, Seldom.

Neither AA nor NA have anything whatsoever to do with Christianity (or any religion for that matter). At their core, they are about surrender and accountability - surrendering to the fact that you are unable to imbibe in a manner which doesn't destroy you, taking accountability for all atrocities committed in the service of your addictions, and then freeing yourself from the burden of those atrocities by making amends to the injured parties.

I've got a great deal of first hand experience with both programs, as well as a half dozen past stints in rehabs, and while it's been a long time since I've resonated with their approach (or felt a sufficiently pressing need to utilize them), I would likely be stinking up a casket somewhere if not for my past involvement.

Thank you as well for pointing out that psychedelics are not a panacea. I can tell you that I used psychedelics both before and throughout my darkest and most depraved days of active addiction. It was only after many years of complete abstinence from everything that I was able to come back and use them in a (generally) positive manner. But navigating that terrain is still a fairly tricky business for me.

Very wise post Art. I resonante strongly with the I'd be in a grave if it wasn't for past AA services. For sure.
I just honestly believe there is potentially a better way for many people to get free. Like I said addiction is such a personal thing. But ANYONE that things they may need to go to AA should probably get up and go. It damn sure isn't gonna hurt to start the process of making amends and helping to clear you conscious.

Peace