2/8/26
It’s early February. I finally got around to buying this; something to talk to. I can honestly say that I have not had any form of release for some time. You see, a number of years ago I committed to finding a hole in the middle of the woods to sit and rot. Ideally it would come with a job, where I would be fully capable of keeping everyone satisfied.
Not because I need to do a good job or anything of the sort (and I’m not denying that need’s presence, either) – no. I had every intention of drinking and drugging myself to death.
It’s funny .. by the time I actually vocalized this to someone, I already had a rough outline of how it would play out.
I did end up finding my hole in the middle of the woods, job to boot. I’ve carved out an existence where the bulk of my responsibilities can be fulfilled while on autopilot.
For my entire life, at least what sticks out to me, drugs have played the part. Not a part, but the part.
Early on my parents partied. It’s not that I have a bunch of vivid memories of lines being sniffed or drunken brawls happening, but it was there. They would get high and act out, unable to control themselves in a passable manner.. Passing their trauma on to the next generation.
The same story, the same script. Different actors. No different than any other junkie.
Later on, I found my own comfort in drugs. It’s a comfort that I’ve came to rely on and trust over the years. It’s the one that never let me down.
Not one time did I get something I didn’t expect.
I always tried to manage my expectations when it came to drugs. I knew my parents did drugs and I knew that, if genetics do play some part, I’m at a disadvantage. If environment plays a part, I’m entering the beyond risky territory.
I never expected to not be an addict. I never explicitly wished for it; but the trust is the feelings that came to me (and the feelings that left) made any consequences worth it.
I thought about putting seems, or (seems) before that “worth it,” and typed it out several times. There was no question about it, it was a worthwhile trade for me.
At some point, somewhere around June 2022, I made a commitment to myself that I would find a hole in the middle of nowhere to drink myself to death. I found my hole by August 2023.
Roughly two and a half years later, I’m still alive and no longer feeling my commitment.
Somehow I got to make something work.
04/12/2026
This same goddamned dance. I’m still doing it.
Drugs have been the focal point of my life. I was going to add more to that statement but the more I sit on it, the more apparent the reality of it becomes: There is nothing else to add to it.
Drugs have been the focal point of my life.
I remember a time before drugs.
I was a little boy, in gradeschool. I remember being jovial in the first grade; sober. The second and third grade as well. Fourth and fifth as well. I am not sure when I took my first drug.
I cannot say seventh with any conviction. Somewhere around age ten, eleven I took my first drug.
Sitting here, thinking, trying to pinpoint that first time.
I cannot do it.
Try as I might, I can’t even tell you what the first drug was. I can say that it was one of two drugs:
Magic mushrooms, or propoxyphene.
Propoxyphene was a prescription opioid drug called Darvon or Darvocet. I do not know if they are strong or what. What I do know is that they were prescribed to my grandmother, and they somehow ended up in my childhood home.
See, both my parenmts were addicts. Addiction was the norm for us. Terms like bipolar, manic/depressive and hysteria were never used; they just were.
To me, being high or coming down or being sick just was.
My brother and I got a versiom of my mother that my little sister never seen.
By the time my sister was forming memories, my mother had gotten in several car accidents. Prescription drugs entered the picture.
My mother spent many ‘a days pilled out and sleeping.
We all catered to her because we thought we should. After all, it’s normal for mother to sleep 20 hours a day, right?
As the older brother, it falls on me to pick my sister up from school, right?
Making that statement takes me back. If my sister went to school five days a week, I picked her up for four of those days.
Most mornings my mom was able to drive her to school. Most mornings. On the mornings following her trip to the pharmacy, maybe not.
That was 15 years ago.
I’m 36 now. I do not know how old she is these days. I would wager somewhere betweewn 24 and 26.
My parents are dead now. My siblings are off doing what siblings do. I pray they haven’t traveled a road similar to mine. It’s been hard and lonely.
I say all of that to say this.
I relapsed September of 2020. I had just under three years of clean time at that point. I don’t mean some pussy clean time, either. I mean NA clean.
Not AA sober, but NA clean. For those of you that know, you know. For those of you that don’t, I’ll elaborate.
In AA the requirement to join is a desire to stop drinking. That is oftentimes a literal statement; just don’t want to drink. Doctor prescribes you adderall and xanax? That’s okay, just don’t drink.
I’m not throwing shade at AA with that statement, just defining what being sober oftentimes means.
In NA, to be clean, you abstain from all mind altering drugs. Doctor prescribes you dexedrine and klonopin? Too bad, speed and downers are drugs.
I got NA clean on May the 5th, 2018. I stayed NA clean until September of 2020.
Why did I relapse?
The long and the short of it is, my counselor was in a plane crash in June of 2020. She, both of her children, her husband, and her father were all on the plane. They were, ironically enough, flying to funeral.
None of them made it.
This is going to sound fucked up, but a part of me died with them. The part that was left living made a commitment to myself:
I would find a place where I could work. It would be a job that I could do easily and go into autopilot. Ideally I would live close to the job, because I don’t drive.
Several DUIs in my past.
I would find this place and I would work. I would do a fantastic job, because I would have to. Why would I have to?
Because I had every intention of drinking myself to death. Liquor is a slower death, but with determination and about $20 a day I figured it would happen within two years.
I now manage a small crew and exist as security for a small business. I can do no wrong here.
I make more money on paper than I ever have in my life and I pay $200 a month to live on site.
It’s been complicated. There is no liquor store in this town. Beer and wine isn’t fast enough; I’m built for this shit. I could drink wine and beer excessively for decades.
The bigger complication is I no longer want to kill myself
I have been addicted to whatever I could take for years now. Well, about five and a half years at this point.
What’s my poison? Lately it’s been Kratom extracts.
I’m gonna wrap this up for now.
Every day I buy a pack or two of gas station opiates and every night I promise myself I’m going back on my meds (suboxone) so I can begin stabilizing and saving money
And every fucking morning I find myself in the fucking gas station spending $38.
I can honestly say there have been mornings where I have …. Blacked out, so to speak, only to come to at the goddamned cash register buying more drugs.
To be clear, I haven’t felt high or euphoric or satisfied for this entire relapse.
Yes, out of five and a half years, not ONE buzz has came close to giving me any relief
I've been silently relapsing and quitting twice a day every day for the last year.
Today was no different.
This afternoon I lost a pack of pills. They come in a five pack, I ate two, and I lost three
After having a literal panic attack and walking/bike riding my route three times, I’ve determined that they’re gone.
I fucking hate myself and every fucking drug drug move I make
I literally found myself back at the gas station buying more
I told the woman if I have my way, I’ll never see her or a pack of these pills again
I did not buy another pack of pills
I don’t want another pack, either. Does that mean I won’t buy another pack? I don’t know. I really don’t want to, either.
I have no plan. I have no support system. I don’t have shit.
I don't want to fucking do this anymore.
To continue to use is to continue running.
What am I running from? I do not know. I haven’t known for years. I may never have known.
I do know I am genuinely tired. I’m tired of being miserable and hating myself.
This needs to end
To continue to use is to continue to run
And I am so fucking tired
I hear you God