click
mom |
How do you know if someone really stops
using meth?
How do you REALLY know? What are the indicators,
the actions, etc. |
| Replies... |
| Loraura |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
You don't.
You can never REALLY know, with 100% accuracy, much of ANYTHING
about another person. |
click
mom |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Why can't a question be asked without someone
saying something that doesn't really answer the question? I know
you can't know 100% EVERYTHING about another person. I just
wanted to know some of the indicators, what to look out for. |
| Sfj |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
The only sure way is a drug test.
But if someone stops, most likely, the signs of use will vanish
and the signs of withdrawal will appear.
Stopping meth often results in:
1. Being Excessively Tired
2. Big Time Depressed
3. Overwhelmingly Lonely
4. Becoming Fat
5. Total Lack of Ambition and Motivation
6. No Sex Drive
7. Severe Feelings of Despair
8. Possible Suicidal Thoughts
9. Panic and Anxiety Attacks
10. Nightmares About Drugs and Drug Situations
11. Bizarre Sleep Patterns
12. Many more problems too numerous to mention.
Signs of use include:
1. Lack of sleep,
2. Lack of appetite,
3. Nervous twitching,
4.
Blaming others,
5. Grinding teeth,
6. Clenching jaw,
7. Seldom
smile,
8. Avoid family and normal friends,
9. Unable to be
responsible,
10. Dental and skin health gets worse.
11.
Abnormally high amounts of energy,
12. Paranoia
13. Obsessive
perverse sexual behavior,
14. Enlarged pupils,
15. Tweaking |
| Loraura |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Quote:
The only sure way is a drug test.
A negative result does not gurantee they are not still using.
It just means they haven't used in the last 3 days, or they
cheated on the test.
Also doesn't gurantee they won't use 5 minutes after passing the
test.
It's just not possible to know for sure.
You seem to think I didn't answer the question, but honestly, I
really truely did.
The answer is you can't.
Your addict may show none of the signs of using, and still be
using. |
click
mom |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
thank you sfj. Now about long after stopping do
those signs last for? Weeks? Months?
let me say, I asking this in a general context. I'm
not looking for an exact answer because I know there isn't as
exact answer and there are many variations. I know that I could
be fooled. I just want a general idea of how someone may act
when they have stopped using. |
| Sfj |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Oh yeah,
Depending upon factors like how much he was using, how often he
was using, and how long he has been using.
Age is also a factor. Teenagers and young adults can recover
much more rapidly. People who are more advanced in years will
take longer.
A year to eighteen months of recovery is a ball-park average.
(give or take depending upon the variables) |
Venus
Jones
69 |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
I think one of the main signs that an addict has
stopped using, besides the evident physical signs that SFJ
listed, is how the non-user FEELS.
When I finally stopped using and had some clean time under my
belt, my friends and family stopped asking if I was still using.
Not only was I no longer exhibiting some of the tell-tale using
signs (showing up late for everything, unexplained absences,
long trips to the bathroom, sweating profusely, eyes darting
around all the time etc.) they could just FEEL that I was back
to my old self.
I think that a lot of times if you think the addict is using,
he/she probably is. Put another way, where there's smoke,
there's usually fire. People who aren't using project a
different vibe - they're usually not as secretive or defensive
about whether they're using or not. They KNOW they're clean and
it's just a matter of time until everyone around them knows it
too.
So I guess I'm saying that, in addition to the very important
physical signs that will give an addict away, there is a degree
of intuition that goes with being able to tell if someone has
really quit or not. That's been my experience. |
chris
gonz |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
In response to the subject because I didn't read
any of the other posts.
I don't honestly think you can KNOW if someone isn't doing a
bump here or there.
You can suspect all you want. I know someone who even had his
phone tapped to keep an ear/eye on his wife. BAD MOVE.
If you dig deep enough, you'll find something to be suspicious
of.
Find the peacefulness within yourself. You'll see and feel when
things are off because you'll be in tune with yourself. |
One
Head
light |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Hi clickmom
My son used for 12 years - he has 142 days clean & sober today
Chris posted something that really caught my eye.....
Quote:
Find the peacefulness within yourself. You'll see and
feel when things are off because you'll be in tune with
yourself.
In the past, I always had a feeling of "when will the other shoe
drop" - or an uneasy feeling - or a feeling of doom.
I find myself constantly saying this time.... something just
FEELS different. Family and longtime friends are also saying he
has this "determined calm" about him now. Everyone is using the
word "calm or peaceful" in some form when they describe him.
For my son, I noticed the symptoms (posted by Sfj) disappearing
after about 30 days - but everyone is different. I now see a
happy, patient, caring person.
Hope this helped...........
p.s. son had a hair follicle test for court and it came back
negative across the board
.... I completely agree with the post from Venus |
nine
years
clean |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I only read the
question, and nothing else. My gut answer was this:
They brag about their clean time...days...months...specific
dates...like mine....July 1, 1996....ten years clean in a little
more than a month...IMHO....that's how you know...you know
because they tell you because they are proud because it is a
HUGE thing. |
chris
gonz |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Some people do keep track of their clean time.
I never did... for me, keeping track was a stress factor in
itself... even in prison, I never kept track of time left/done.
to me....
time is the only neutral thing, it goes on regardless of what we do. |
click
mom |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
I think I know for myself too whether or not my bf
is not using. I am a very intuitive person (sometimes a quality
I don't like) and I have known him for a year. Granted, I didn't
know everything there was to know about meth, but gradually I
have learned. I know he hasn't stopped using. Because if he did,
he would be talking about it, he would be more calm, he would be
more sleepy, he would just be...different. I also know that when
he doesn't eat sweets for three days and then all of a sudden
the next day he craves them like no tomorrow, he has used. I
guess he's testing me. Waiting to see if I will really end this
relationship because he's using. |
Macy
stiller01 |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
This is a hard one. My boyfriend will have one year
clean at the end of July. Sometimes I wonder. But I guess what
keeps me thinking he is still clean is the fact that he has a
light in his eyes. When he uses and when he first quit his eyes
looked sunken in and distant. |
| Cabird |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
When mine first told me he had stopped using I
didn't believe him. I had heard it many times before. He agreed
to take a hair follicle test which I paid for. It proved he
hadn't used meth for 3 months. By then it was obvious he wasn't
using. He was always on time. He would meet us for lunch and
could sit still and visit. He stayed home at night and slept all
night. He got a job and always got to work on time. He dropped
all of the friends he had been associating with. If any of them
called he wouldn't talk to them or if he did he told them he
stopped using drugs. He earned enough money on his job to get a
car. He paid all of his bills on time. He functioned like a
normal person except he was tired and his job was all he could
handle at first. His motivation was not what it was before he
started using. He became a Christian. I know there were many
other signs he had stopped using but these are some I remember.
When they truly get off meth and are serious about staying off you
know. They sleep a whole lot at first and they eat a whole lot
and they gain weight. If your addict is off you will be able to
tell before too long. |
| Sfj |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Cabird,
That was an excellent post.
Thank you.
The ideal still exists and you just described it. |
imlost
inky |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
Yes Cabird, excellent post.
Quote:
He functioned like a normal person except he was tired
and his job was all he could handle at first.
By 3 months yes, exactly.
Those first few months of clean time- No Clickmom, I couldn't go
by what you stated. The craving of sweets came and went- it did
not indicate use for me.
The sleep patterns- no. For the first couple months or so No my
husband could not sleep a restful sleep.
Talking about it- now that he would do at times.
But no, there were plenty of times he didn't want to talk about
it at all- very adamantly did not want to discuss meth or hear
about meth anymore.
Quote:
he would just be...different.
Yes. That one I did notice, that one I did see.
Within the first few weeks or so.
Nothing I can even begin to describe- just different. |
25 years
but no
more
|
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
You don't. |
click
mom |
Re: How do you know if someone really stops using meth?
thanks again for your replies. |
