the idea of quitting anything cold turkey sucks so bad dude, like it has literally never worked for me and the idea that in order to stop any habit/harmful behaviour/whatever you have to stop doing it completely & immediately is so stupid and counterproductive and in my experience just leads to breaks downs and binge-indulging where you feel like a shit idiot failure moron who can’t do anything right. like this year I wanted to smoke & drink less so instead of quitting both of those things completely I just started noting on my wall calendar every day of the week that I smoked & drank and that helped me visualise how much I was consuming and also made me feel better when I could record days I didn’t drink or smoke. and when I had a bad week where I drank and smoked a lot I didn’t feel as bad because I could see throughout the month that I’d had lighter weeks and days where I didn’t smoke or drink as much. it has helped me a lot and made me feel a lot more in control of my own body, especially during really stressful points in my life. I think if I’d tried quitting those things completely the way doctors or my family told me to do I would have just developed far more erratic and disordered relationships to drugs that would have had a much bigger negative impact on my health and state of mind

"Treatment" for addiction that requires you to lock up, confine, coerce, or otherwise strip addicts of their autonomy, it isn't treatment. It is a revenge fantasy that prioritizes your desire for subjugation over the actual betterment of addicts.

something to recognize that choosing recovery again and again is difficult work, and you are not weak for faltering

And a lot of people will be all in favor of legalizing weed because "actually weed has a lot of useful qualities for a lot of people" and I am not disagreeing with that argument at all, but actually the reason why we should decriminalize drugs is because criminalizing them ruins lives and kills people. Like the issue is not that they accidentally criminalized one useful substance, it's that turning a debilitating illness into a law enforcement issue is a problem regardless of how dangerous the drug of choice is

The worst thing about having a self-harm addiction is that it isn't taken seriously as an addiction. I get cravings, I relapse, I was dependent on self-harming for over a year, but that isn't taken seriously as an addiction. There isn't a substance involved so it isn't an addiction. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to be able to call myself an addict even though I know that I am one. Whenever I try to tell anyone about it they get this mental image of the stereotyped emo kid self harming to MCR 'to feel something' and laugh when I try to call it an addiction (not that that isn't totally valid. It's where a lot of us started, myself included). I can't confess that this is something I struggle with because my own mother told me that I wasn't actually addicted, there just wasn't a better word for someone who self harms. Of course, it not being treated as an addiction helps in a social sense due to all the stigma around addicts, but it has its own stigma.

PHEW anyways I think at some point it became normalized to do drugs recreationally so you say you used to do molly or whatever and people are like oh yeah I've done that nbd but what they mean is that they did it maybe three or four times while out with the girls or whatever and that's fun! That's chill! But some of us did drugs every night to the point where it became impossible to divorce our personalities from that. Like who am I off of drugs? Idk but she's boring! That kind of thing. And then we get sober for whatever reason (which is GOOD it's GOOD to be sober sorry for being an afternoon special about it but it's actually such a good thing to not be so high and drunk all the time that you genuinely don't remember entire years of your life!) and suddenly we're confronted with the fact that we don't actually know this person! This sober us who is suddenly staring us down in the mirror like ok! When did I become that person? I wasn't there for that! And that's scary and unsettling and it's hard! It's hard to get to know yourself when you keep comparing yourself to everyone else's wacky fun cool girl stories about you and you have to just laugh along like yeah haha I was a riot! Except I was quite literally rotting on the inside that entire time and I don't remember most of what you're talking about! And now it feels like I can't measure up to that person you knew who was larger than life and great to be around because everything feels like a lisa frank notebook when you're high out of your mind but unfortunately you cannot continue to exist that way because you will literally die! So here I am trying not to die and feeling boring about it!

Hello, how do you think the batfam will react to a reader with bad habits? And the reader is underage. Like at one time the reader got into not the best company or just wanted to seem cool, and now she smokes, maybe reader abuses alcohol. I'm just wondering how the batfamcan handle this.

And I apologize for the English, I am writing with a translator

❤

Alfred

disapproving english eyebrow™️

no but seriously he’s have you detoxing the minute he finds out about it. Having a nice drink at dinner with the family is fine but only if he’s able to supervise what you are drinking and how much. He’s be damned if he has to deal with another bruce

Bruce Wayne

doesn’t panic, even if his brain is screaming at him to trap you away forever and keep you from everything that could hurt you.

Calls in Dinah to talk to you about what is and isn’t safe for you because he will fuck it up and if he fucks you up after all of this progress that you guys have been making, duke will be the cause of his murder

Dick Grayson

oldest daughter exhaustion because he does NOT want to deal with another jason-smoking-to-fuck-with-bruce-and-becoming-addicted situation.

Tells you that if you don’t knock it off he will make you and is smiling while promising that you will not enjoy his methods

Jason Todd

panics his ass off

He yells at you for being stupid because he’s trying to quit and how did you get into that and why did you ever think it’s a smart idea and just panics in general

Cassandra Cain

thinks that it’s easily solvable, most reasonable

She starts you excerising with her every single time you get the urge so that you literally can’t move your arms anymore. Duke often joins in and eventually it becomes a form of bonding for the three of you

Duke Thomas

he gets you patches or helps wean you off of it because they’re a good sibling like that.

honestly to themself, takes the time to think about whether they want to keep you addicted and act like the good sibling by keeping you supplied increasing your dependence on them but then realizes that his brain is getting a little too demony for their taste and stops

Tim Drake

makes you listen as he lists every side effect of every substance that you are taking

threatens the crowd that you were with if you don’t start quitting immediately. Feels a cold quit is good punishment for being on substances in the first place

Damian Wayne

thinks it’s stupid and yells at you, considers violence but is restrained by duke and dick

The New Brunswick government is pursuing a controversial approach to addressing drug addiction that could result in people being forced into treatment against their will.

That approach would be carried out through legislation giving police officers the power to order someone to undergo drug rehabilitation in the "most extreme cases," where they pose a danger to themselves or others, said Public Safety Minister Kris Austin, in an interview.

"The objective always is to get people the help that they want but some people are so deep into their addictions that they simply can't make that decision," Austin said.

Full article

This is a blatant attempt to remove autonomy from people who use substances- especially mentally ill people. It implies that people who deal with addiction don't "deserve" the right to make our own choices, and gives cops the framework to take that away from people. Involuntary treatment does more harm than good, and many people subject to it are placed under inhospitable conditions that only make their situations worse.

(commentary from Samira, @politicsofcanada )

I see many posts about Harry's Expression, both from people arguing "It looks creepy, disturbed, disgusting" and people saying "it's just a very normal expression" but both miss what the Expression represents to Harry - it is genuinely an expression of his pain, because it represents a time in Harry's life which he cannot move away from, a time he has felt left in, the people who he was mimicking who no longer exist. The Expression began as an attempt to mimic Guillaume de Million, representative of the disco era following the failure of revolution, who died during a bender. It is a man Harry wanted to be when it was chic, and is now representative of Harry's worst fears of himself.

The scene with the mirror is a showcase of Harry's self loathing, and it is disturbing and strange to Harry, because it is about the disconnect between the culture he began using drugs and alcohol in and the man this has left him as. It does not matter if you simply see a normal man, or a drunken creep (which Harry is not, I do think you are just being mean to long-term alcoholics if you hold this belief), because Harry only sees the expression of himself as a young man who began drinking and partying as a way to enjoy himself in a breaking society, on the face of a man this drinking has destroyed.

It is showing that Harry's body is trying to live in an era where he was still very much an addict, but before it was visibly destroying him, and a reminder that this cannot be the way he continues to live.

Whump Prompt #1332

TW: Substance Abuse | Overdose

Anon asked:

Do you have some prompts for a whumpee struggling with substance abuse after some bad things happening in their life, and their friend / caretaker supporting them through it?

A few:

Maybe the caretaker notices erratic behaviour and decides to address it gently. This could lead to a discussion, or even an argument if the whumpee tries to deny it despite the evidence being clear. (Why do they try to deny it? Are they ashamed? Embarrassed? Worried about what people are going to think?)

The caretaker could find out about the abuse when the whumpee hits rock bottom. They could get a call from the hospital/a concerned friend etc. Maybe they haven't heard from the whumpee in a few days, so decide to do a welfare check of sorts. They could get there just in time to witness the whumpee overdosing.

Does the whumpee relapse? Do the caretakers threaten to give up on them?

^ I like the idea of the caretaker saying that in private, but the whumpee accidentally overhears.

During recovery they celebrate small victories - a day sober, three days sober, a week sober etc etc. It becomes tradition to get a cake for every milestone. Maybe at a longer milestone - when the whumpee as gotten much better - it's not until late at night that they realise it's a milestone day. Their only option is to go to a gas station to find a cake, but their only choices are the questionable hotdogs, flowers, a chocolate bar, or even more questionable sushi.

At first the whumpee rejects professional help, but seeing the strain it puts on the caretakers, they decide to seek out a therapist.

Don't forget the withdrawal symptoms.

What kind of coping mechanisms do they put in place? Chewing gum? Knitting? Folding laundry?

On the emotional side - the whumpee has to work very hard to repair the relationships they damaged.

I know this probably won't get much traction, but Iike. Y'all seriously have to start giving more attention and kindness to addicts. ESPECIALLY addicts still in recovery. Addicts that are actively using. Addicts that have a hard time staying clean. Yes, even the ones you don't like or the ones you think are "weird" or "gross". You bitches will take EVERY opportunity to jump on crackhead jokes and similar things but offer virtually no support to actual people suffering. fuck that.

like I used to drink and smoke so much on a daily basis to cope living with my transphobic parents + also dealing with transphobia at school and it was having a huge impact on my physical and mental health. it’s taken over a year to ramp down that level of usage to where I am now, and while I still smoke and drink regularly it is at far lower levels & frequency and this feels like waaaay more progress than trying to just hard stop and never touch it again. I’m stealing this line from a friend but I have just accepted that drugs will be in my life and so managing my consumption levels from that vantage has helped me a lot more than moralising about perma-quitting. I know different strategies work for different people and my experience obviously is not universal but cold-turkey attempts have universally made me miserable and I would never have been able to gradually reduce my drug consumption to what it is now using that method

You can have whatever opinions about drugs and public drug consumption - I don't particularly care, and this is not the conversation for that discussion, but I saw a sharps container in a public restroom and it was exciting. It was just there, and it's the first time I've seen something like it (they also had changing tables in the men's restroom, which is also great, but I've seen that a couple times).

You have to realize that proper sharps disposal is a matter of public health and safety. Not everyone is educated about how sharps disposal works and why it's important, but seeing as how you can be infected by Hepatitis B and C and HIV, you can see why it's so important. Nobody deserves to be exposed to that, regardless of if they're an addict or not. Everyone deserves to be safe, whether addict or sober.

thinking about the interview where frank said a lot of the songs he writes are about his parents divorce and his mother's issues with addiction and depression. and how he would rather die than continue those cycles with his own children. how am I supposed to live with this information. I need to lie down I think

The way people will judge disabled people for not committing a hundred percent to any supposedly healthy lifestyle choice... Are we seriously gonna act like the people WITHOUT chronic fatigue aren't skipping the gym all the time? Like the people WITHOUT clinical anxiety don't still struggle to quit the smokes? Like the people WITHOUT chronic pain don't still fail to get out and exercise on a daily basis? Like the person who DOESN'T have an addiction doesn't still drink a bit too much on the weekend? Like the people who DON'T have ADHD don't also struggle to cook a healthy meal every night? So how and why are we expecting the people who ARE in pain, who ARE mentally ill, who ARE fatigued to somehow do a better job than fully abled people? Make it make sense!

Worms: a Risograph Zine on paper

Today is the 4 year anniversary for my recovery, so I made a zine about parasites and egosyntonic behavior (and AJJ).

(dm me if you'd like a physical copy, they're 5 dollars)