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89c7467 The question is frequently asked: Why does a man become a drug addict? The answer is that he usually does not intend to become an addict. You don't wake up one morning and decide to be a drug addict. It takes at least three months' shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. And you don't really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. It took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. I think it no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict. The questions, of course, could be asked: Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in the other direction. Junk wins by default. I tried it as a matter of curiosity. I drifted along taking shots when I could score. I ended up hooked. Most addicts I have talked to report a similar experience. They did not start using drugs for any reason they can remember. They just drifted along until they got hooked. If you have never been addicted, you can have no clear idea what it means to need junk with the addict's special need. You don't decide to be an addict. One morning you wake up sick and you're an addict. (Junky, Prologue, p. xxxviii) motivations symptoms junkie addicts withdrawal drug-addiction sickness junk William S. Burroughs
7f562f4 Every time I draw a clean breath, I'm like a fish out of water. drug crystal-meth addicts drug-addiction Narcotics Anonymous
20a276b "The face of "evil" is always the face of total need. A dope fiend is a man in total need of dope. Beyond a certain frequency need knows absolutely no limit or control. In the words of total need: "Wouldn't you?" Yes you would. You would lie, cheat, inform on your friends, steal, do anything to satisfy total need. Because you would be in a state of total sickness, total possession, and not in a position to act in any other way. Dope fiends are sick people who cannot act other than they do. A rabid dog cannot choose but bite." drug-addiction evil William S. Burroughs
349fa56 "This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it. For example, while I was writing this I learned that the person on whom the character Jerry Fabin is based killed himself. My friend on whom I based the character Ernie Luckman died before I began the novel. For a while I myself was one of these children playing in the street; I was, like the rest of them, trying to play instead of being grown up, and I was punished. I am on the list below, which is a list of those to whom this novel is dedicated, and what became of each. Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgment. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error,a life-style. In this particular life-style the motto is "Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying," but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory. It is, then, only a speeding up, an intensifying, of the ordinary human existence. It is not different from your life-style, it is only faster. It all takes place in days or weeks or months instead of years. "Take the cash and let the credit go," as Villon said in 1460. But that is a mistake if the cash is a penny and the credit a whole lifetime. There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled;it just tells what the consequences were. In Greek drama they were beginning, as a society, to discover science, which means causal law. Here in this novel there is Nemesis: not fate, because any one of us could have chosen to stop playing in the street, but, as I narrate from the deepest part of my life and heart, a dreadful Nemesis for those who kept on playing. I myself,I am not a character in this novel; I am the novel. So, though, was our entire nation at this time. This novel is about more people than I knew personally. Some we all read about in the newspapers. It was, this sitting around with our buddies and bullshitting while making tape recordings, the bad decision of the decade, the sixties, both in and out of the establishment. And nature cracked down on us. We were forced to stop by things dreadful. If there was any "sin," it was that these people wanted to keep on having a good time forever, and were punished for that, but, as I say, I feel that, if so, the punishment was far too great, and I prefer to think of it only in a Greek or morally neutral way, as mere science, as deterministic impartial cause-and-effect. I loved them all. Here is the list, to whom I dedicate my love: To Gaylene deceased To Ray deceased To Francy permanent psychosis To Kathy permanent brain damage To Jim deceased To Val massive permanent brain damage To Nancy permanent psychosis To Joanne permanent brain damage To Maren deceased To Nick deceased To Terry deceased To Dennis deceased To Phil permanent pancreatic damage To Sue permanent vascular damage To Jerri permanent psychosis and vascular damage . . . and so forth. In Memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The "enemy" was their mistake in playing. Let them all play again, in some other way, and let them be happy." drug-addiction addiction health drugs Philip K. Dick
7d87694 A junkie spends half his life waiting. junkie drug-addiction waiting drugs heroin William S. Burroughs
d7e31fd You are not an alcoholic or an addict. You are not incurably diseased. You have merely become dependent on substances or addictive behavior to cope with underlying conditions that you are now going to heal, at which time your dependency will cease completely and forever. depression inspiration inspire addiction-disease alcohol-disease rehab-centers drug-addiction rehab healing-addiction alcohol-addiction-treatment alcoholics-anonymous addiction alcohol-rehab dependency alcohol-addiction passages-ventura pax-prentiss passages-malibu addiction-cure addiction-treatment-center chris-prentiss alcoholism alcoholism-addiction-recovery disease alcoholic self-help Chris Prentiss
24944e0 At the bottom of every person's dependency, there is always pain, Discovering the pain and healing it is an essential step in ending dependency. substance-addiction drug-addiction rehab dependency alcohol-addiction passages-ventura substance-abuse passages-malibu chris-prentiss quotes Chris Prentiss
1063099 When people who believe themselves to be addicts or alcoholics come under great stress or trauma, they mentally give themselves permission to drink or use drugs as a remedy. addict addicts alcoholics drug-addiction addiction alcohol-addiction alcohol-abuse chris-prentiss drug-abuse alcoholism Chris Prentiss
4e194e8 I've been all over the place in all kinds of living situations. Due to the fact that my mind is my own worst enemy. In a way I am perpetually and permanently in a state of rehabilitation m in an attempt to rehabilitate from the shock of being born.Some people are too sensitive to withstand that. life hobo jean-michel pg-81 montréal drug-addiction homeless street drugs Heather O'Neill
311c114 If you can stop using substance or stop your addictive behavior for extended periods of time without craving, you are not dependent. You are dependent only if you can't stop without physical or psychological distress (you have unpleasant physical and/or psychological withdrawal symptoms) or if you stop and then relapse. withdrawal drug-addiction relapse non-12-step alcohol-addiction addiction-and-recovery passages-ventura pax-prentiss passages-malibu chris-prentiss alcoholism Chris Prentiss
6bea34d Every person in the AA program who's successful is living proof that he or she does have power over addictive drugs and alcohol- the power to stop. empowerment drug-addiction alcoholics-anonymous addiction alcohol-addiction chris-prentiss drug-abuse alcoholism Chris Prentiss
62081ec "AA purports to be open to anyone, as it is stated in Tradition Tree, "The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking," but it isn't open to everyone. It's open only to those who are willing to publicly declare themselves to be alcoholics or addicts and who are willing to give up their inherent right of independence by declaring themselves powerless over addictive drugs and alcohol, as stated in Step One, "We admitted we are powerless over alcohol- that our lives had become unmanageable." empowerment 12-step-programs aa non-12-step-programs drug-addiction alcoholics-anonymous passages-rehab non-12-step passages-ventura passages-malibu addiction-cure alcohol-abuse drug-abuse alcohol alcoholism alcoholism-addiction-recovery alcoholic Chris Prentiss
bf3f574 Treatment for dependency at substance abuse treatment centers must change if alcoholism and addiction are to be overcome in our society. change philosophy substance-addiction drug-addiction non-12-step-program 12-steps alcohol-addiction passages-ventura pax-prentiss passages-malibu alcohol-abuse chris-prentiss drug-abuse treatment alcoholism society recovery Chris Prentiss
d73db23 Alcohol and drugs are not the problems; they are what people are using to help themselves cope with the problems. Those problems always have both physical and psychological components- anything from anemia, hypoglycemia, or a sluggish thyroid to attention deficient disorder, brain-wave pattern imbalances, or deep emotional pain. drug-addiction alcohol-addiction pax-prentiss addiction-cure addiction-treatment alcohol-abuse chris-prentiss drug-abuse Chris Prentiss
f13c208 It was a myth you couldn't function on opiates: shooting up was one thing but for someone like me-jumping at pigeons beating from the sidewalk, afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder practically to the point of spasticity and cerebral palsy-pills were the key to being not only competent, but high-functioning. myth anxiety-attack opiates functioning drug-addiction competence dread ptsd Donna Tartt
35f8d51 I wrote this book to show you that a cure is entirely possible because I've seen it happen over and over again. sobriety freedom life philosophy wisdom alcoholism-cure amazon bookstore end-the-cycle great-authors great-books kindle new-book nook cure-addiction author drug-addiction alcohol-addiction-treatment drug-addiction-treatment addiction-free alcohol-addiction addiction-and-recovery passages-ventura passages-malibu addiction-cure alcohol-abuse chris-prentiss drug-abuse sober book self-help Chris Prentiss
0db7694 One of the first actions we take at Passages is to ruthlessly scrutinize, always under a doctor's supervision and care, the specific necessity of any mind- altering or mood-altering medications that our clients are taking. As soon as any non essential drugs are out of their systems, the feelings they were trying to suppress usually emerge. When that happens, we can see what symptoms the client was masking with drugs or alcohol. depression drug-addiction alcohol-addiction-treatment drug-addiction-treatment holistic-treatment holistic-health non-12-step alcohol-addiction passages-ventura pax-prentiss passages-malibu addiction-treatment addiction-treatment-center alcohol-abuse chris-prentiss drug-abuse quotes Chris Prentiss
e9f1720 "What the hell is that?" he asked. "Magic mushrooms." "I've always wanted to try those," he exclaimed. "They sound so cute." foster-care pg-85 felix addicts drug-addiction orphan drugs Heather O'Neill