8 Months Sober, Couldn't be happier

[blesbro]

8 Months Quit

 

What’s up everyone,

 

I just wanted to give an update to my story and hopefully it can provide some inspiration for someone who needs a little extra hope in staying the course of staying quit. I’m four days away from being eight months sober and I could not be happier with how far I have come.  I was once a straight A student and took as many advanced classes as my high school offered before I ever took Adderall. I didn’t graduate high school this past year because I quit Adderall my senior year and could not get anything done either on or off Adderall anymore. About two months ago, I was having a hell of a time trying to get focused and motivated. 6 months sober, I thought I would be back to my old self again. I was feeling extremely down and I could not get anything done. I was so frustrated with my life. I realized that all of my friends were going to college and were having the best summers of their lives while I was struggling to finish my easy summer classes to get the credits to graduate. I felt extremely hopeless. But now, two months later, I am much more confident, motivated and happy. Yesterday I finished my two classes without any Adderall. I now have the ability to focus for several hours at a time without pulling my hair out in frustration. Now, I have a list of goals, both short-term and long-term. I read them daily and strive to move in the direction of my well-thought-out goals every single day. I am so much more organized now, I read self-help books every day and lift weights and run 5-6 times a week. The first several months of quitting, I went to the gym 5 times a week and did the laziest workouts imaginable. I had no goals other than to stay sober. My head was always cloudy and I was always anxious and socially awkward. Anytime I talked to someone I didn't know, I always felt like they could sense that I was "off" mentally. That has completely changed now. My mind is clear when I wake up without adderall. It truly is a miracle. I get solid workouts most days now. I am able to carry conversations with anyone without any anxiety! I love life off of adderall. I can finally be me again without over thinking everything. I can form relationships with people without thinking about it. I can connect with people and empathize again. I have all these natural abilities that adderall took from me and it has taken 8 months to start to rediscover myself. Only two months ago, I was very down and depressed. It's amazing what time and effort can do. I was very happy with my body when I was on Adderall, except that I could never put on any muscle because I couldn't eat enough. Now, I am happier with my body than I have ever been. I have put on about 25 pounds of muscle and am in great shape. Although I am not where I want to be in life yet, it is so empowering to know that my hard work is moving me in the direction of where I want to be and that someday, after continuing to power through the tough times, I will be at a place in life that is unimaginably better than any kind of life that Adderall could ever produce. When something is hard for me now, I work even harder at it so that it will become easier. Anything is possible and there is no reason that anyone should take Adderall, in my opinion. Overall, recovery has been an amazingly humbling and great experience, even though there were few rainbows and sunshine along the way. I am more confident in myself now than I ever have been in my life. I feel as though going through this experience is going to make me much stronger as a person than I ever was prior to taking adderall. I am seeing my efforts transform my life and I could not be happier. What was the difference between now and two months ago? Time. As many of you know, the road to recovery is not linear and at times you may feel hopeless, but if you keep moving forward every single day, and keep striving to improve yourself, you WILL get to a place in life that you will love. I believe anyone can achieve anything if they really put their mind to it and one thing I've learned about adderallics is that we all have the ability to "put our minds to it". Stick with it everyone, quitting is the best thing any of us could ever do.

 

Blesbro

[Zerokewl]

sounds like a great place. Congrats.

[LILTEX41]

That is so AWESOME!!! Wow, what a great inspiration you are. LOVE hearing stories like this.

There is a beautiful life drug free. Congratulations!

[JustinW]

Congratulations!  Hearing your story is an answer to prayer this morning as I am at that 6 month point and still having a bit of a rough time.  I needed this post.  Hopefully your story will be my story soon!

[Jon]

Thank you for the inspiration Blesbro. What is clear in your message is that both TIME and EFFORT are necessary for recovery. Got it. Now let’s see if I can apply it.

[blesbro]

Congratulations! Hearing your story is an answer to prayer this morning as I am at that 6 month point and still having a bit of a rough time. I needed this post. Hopefully your story will be my story soon!

My story will be yours eventually! It's hard to say when but if you stick with it, you WILL get to a great place in life. I suggest writing down where you're at in your life right now. What's good about your life? What do you really want to change about your life? It doesn't matter where you've been at one point in life because you need to focus on moving forward from where you are now. After 6 months, you should be physically recovered and it's just a mental game. Below that, write where you want to be in life. If life was ideal, and adderall didn't screw things up for you, where would you be? You can get there. Then I suggest writing down a few goals that really excite you. If you make these goals realistic and read them every day, you'll start to feel a huge drive and excitement to do the things necessary to get to where you want to be. This is a great motivational and directional tool that has made a HUGE difference for me and I'd recommend it to anyone.