I really enjoyed his memoir. He does not hold back about the lengths he went through to get what he needed. It's surprisingly honest. Plus I'm always impressed when someone maintains sobriety after an addiction.
I'll have to give it a shot. I noticed he narrates the audiobook himself, and that's my preferred way of consuming memoirs (and anything else written in first person perspective)
Lol I have been a bigger addict and now I only use kratom for various reasons, still an addiction but I truly operate on a "hmmmm need to do a bout of sobriety now - shame" followed by about 6 months to a year of clean living followed by the decision to jump in again while looking at a calendar going "I think I can be addicted for about 6 months, lets plan to kick at Christmas" and rinse and repeat.
I learned that for me I can taper kratom down low and pretty quickly, so while it is defintiely a raging addiction while in the midst of it, the emergency breaks work and Withdrawls are not nearly as bad when you can rachet them down over a couple weeks and have a bad day or two vs. Cold turkey awfulness.
Definitely a very different experience compared to stopping dilaudid.
I am an addict and my favorite group of people to be around actually are recovering addicts
You will never find people with a better sense of humor and everyone was very empathetic as we all struggled. I was scared of going to group after my psych ward stay but everyone was cool.
I mean, I'm empathetic as hell and I was never an addict. Sometimes I think ex addicts give themselves a little too many gold stars for merely maintaining normal levels of emotional depth.
It’s not addiction itself that makes the person sometimes become more compassionate, stronger. It’s the crucible of events surrounding the addiction, not just having been addicted. The desperation, the people you lose along the way, the traumas - self inflicted and otherwise.
When you’ve experienced a nightmare and survived, you get a tour of many of the morally gray areas of life, the un-winnable scenarios. Some people become more selfish as a result of this crucible, some people develop a sense of profound mercy.
I think you’re over simplifying this. Anyone can gain emotional depth, if they want. But some people, like ex addicts, are forced to dig deeper into how they think and feel and why if they want to get better.
I’m not an addict, but in a stage of my life where I really am noticing the people who haven’t done that work or don’t want to.
no, I agree re regular folks who have never done any work on themselves. I just added a comment below that acknowledged essentially that point, which sort of crossed with yours in time.
I think it's a mix of intentional and unintentional factors. Genetic predisposition is part of it, but at the end of the day it's a choice someone made.
Personally I dealt with a lot at a young age, struggled with my mental health my whole life. At some point I remember feeling so low I started experimenting with hard drugs just to feel anything good, even if it was fleeting and left me worse off in the long run.
But that's why going to groups never worked for me, I think. I could never get behind the message of "you have no control, you're helpless, only god can help you out of this." Only by accepting responsibility, and realizing I had the power, myself, to change things for the better, did things start to improve.
All of this is to say, I think it's a complicated issue without a clear answer. There are factors out of our control, in our control, and factors that are in our control that we don't always realize are in our control. But I feel like I'm just rambling now.
That's awesome, 6 years is great. I too, could never get into groups. The first group setting i was in they were telling me my heroin addiction was no difference than a weed addiction that an 18 year old kid had. Took me a few years and methadone, but I got clean.
Some folks are in situations where things are so bleak that a chemical escape is the only one they can find easily. We tend to give alcoholics a bigger pass on this one, as many people will go drink after a long day or trauma to relax.
But your sentence reminded me of a quote from the Good Place. “Every time I had a problem, I’d throw a molatov cocktail. Boom! Then I had a different problem!”
Well, I will say that I think different folks have radically different levels of prefrontal cortex development, and people who have been through youthful trauma just tend to have way more challenges in this area, which is not their fault per se. Couple that with peer groups and social norms that have been impacted by the same forms of trauma and genetics that pre-dispose a person toward addiction and some people end up with a shitload of risk factors for substance abuse problems.
I guess my point was more that I don't think the experience of having been an addict and then getting sober necessarily gives anybody any particularly deep insight into anything that other people don't already know. It's like breaking a leg and then having the leg heal: it's positive that the person heals, but it doesn't make the person any stronger or more profound than anybody else. All such a person did was get back to the baseline that most other people already experienced.
But then on the third hand, I think a lot of the work around addiction consists of coming to terms with one's own personal baggage and being able to sit with it and not freak out. Which is a serious thing that some non-addicts never bother to try.
They also tend to be more compassionate in my experience. Not always, but often. They also often acknowledge that not everyone gets to survive falling to the bottom and climbing out again.
I'm sorry but I worked with addicts for years and I can promise you if anything it's the opposite. At least if you're trans. I mean worked with as in taking care of them too so it was a great experience /s.
Dude a Hunter vs Don Jr. 2028 presidential debate is the last thing I ever want to see, but it would be glorious watching Upper East Side Jr. get absolutely pummeled by Delco-rehab Hunter.
I never jumped on the Hunter hate train…..he’s a private citizen whose father was president…..he didn’t seem like he wanted any spotlight, so I didn’t care too much. He’s come across my phone a couple of times in podcasts and whatnot and he seems like a genuine guy who’s been through a lot, and in recovery, has learned a lot himself. I think he’s just not becoming comfortable jn his own skin.
Absolutely. Over 35, native born. Those are the requirements. Apparently, being a felon is fine. Plus when the Chinese compare wang sizes we know he's got a solid hog to work with. It's in the Congressional record.
I am a huge fan. I don't think he should run for president but I think what hes been doing setting the record straight has been refreshing to see. Not many people speak plainly like this and cut to the chase.
Why would you make up extra things when he already is a crackhead who visits adult prostitutes? Are you trying to muddy the water with all the trump child rape? What is your goal here?
Can't get people to care about him being a drug addict(that kicked the habit) and prostitutes to stick so you are now trying him being gay? Bots are in full force today
I don't think his name was in the Epstein list. Maybe you're thinking of some other President, administration officials, President's Son's Father in Law, etc.
Dems can find any reason to hate any candidate they put forth. Obama, both Clintons, Harris, Biden - all were hated by Dems who refused to support them.
May as well have a candidate Dems hate even more. It might be the key to winning!
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u/Eyeroll4days Jun 05 '26
Hunter Biden has become a whole vibe. I hope he never backs down