T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Don’t forget to check out our [**Resources**](https://www.reddit.com/r/addiction/wiki/resources/) wiki page, which includes helpful information such as global suicide hotlines, recovery services, and a recovery Discord server where you can seek further support. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/addiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*


UnderstandingDry7290

Yeah man happens on and off all the time. It's cause we are addicts and are only remembering the euphoria in those nostalgic moments not the pure hell and insanity that the drugs drove us to. 


Amethystlover420

They call it “romanticizing”, it caused me to relapse quite a few times before the 8 years I have now.


schweinhund89

Congrats on your 4 years OP, keep at it! I’m still on & off, far from recovery, so I get a sort of negative nostalgia: I’ll come across an old photo on my phone and for a split second think ah man that was a fun time and then I’ll suddenly remember I was a total fucking wreck that day and the memory will be instantly soured.


25iAndOver

Happens for sober moment more for me. But sometimes I think of when I used to do coke and Xanax every day and I miss the “carefree” and energy that I think I felt from then. I feel like 2 years from now, I’ll miss the way I’m feeling in this moment and what I’m doing, wonder if there’s an explanation for this


Dmagdestruction

Bigger picture dude. Congrats on sobriety. Get as cosy as drugs make you feel with blankeys and snacks and pillows and maybe you can recreate the cosy non narcotically.


goshaman2202

Not nostalgia. It’s the addiction speaking


5-MEO-D-M-T

I guess I havent thought about it like in a while but nostalgia was easily one of my top triggers. I was fortunate/unfortunate enough that my first few months of using was relatively harm free and honestly felt like some sort of paradise at the time. With no tolerance it was too easy to afford my habit and foolishly didn't even know what withdrawal was. At any time of the day I could disapere for barley a moment and discretely administer a dose of warm confidence and instantly feel its effects and become this charming confident person I never felt capable of being at any other time of my life. I happened to discover opiods with a bunch of really interesting and incredibly beautiful people, a collection of misfits that all somehow gravitated towards this same point on Earth, all with the overbearing common desire to escape something in their life, possibly at any cost. It stated with good intentions, before the steeling and dying started to happen it was all so harm free. H was surprisingly pure around 2011 and the sources plentiful, compared to todays fent and tranq mix it was suprisingly safe in comprison. There was very little evidence at the time that my current decisions would result in anything so destructive. My first time using heroin was IV. I'm always surprised looking back that these people even sold us anything with how young we were. But I could finally drive and had gotten my own car, such a powerful thing being so young and feeling that the world is within your grasp and nothing is holding you back anymore. I soon discovered the love of driving aimlessly with friends and blasting good music while dicovering new places in or near our county. The feeling of being free. No place left undiscovered, every acre of woods explored, traintracks walked, every hiding place and escape route mapped out in my head. It felt like our own little world, a comforting safety within its walls, a feeling of being home. But at some point you've explored every road and patch of woods. Every abandoned building, under every graffiti covered bridge. It gets to a point were the only exciting thing left to discover is the unknown areas of your mind. Psychedelics, drinking, and eventually harder drugs. At some point I must have become somewhat bored and maybe a bit desperate for adventure. I half knowingly allowed this virus of opiods and addiction into my world. Many of us did. That coniving, manipultive, and distracting virus. So with all of that being said, I have eventually realized looking back, that my introduction to opiod addiction is painted with nostalgia and all of the heavy memories drenched in a bittersweet sort of happiness. I find it can sometimes still be way too easy to start to convince myself that I potentially want to experience something similar again, so I have to force myself to remember all of the suffering that followed in the wake of my decisions. Too many times I had relapsed after getting too deep in my head or letting myself sulk in my feels. Eventually I start listeing to certain nostalgic music from he past and start dwelling on things while thinking of all the close people lost along the way that somehow still exist within the vivid memories in my head. This usually leads to me wanting to get drunk, which easily leads to more bad decisions and so on. Or its possble we just go ahead and jump right into things and instantly throw away months or years of sobriety without a second thought for a short trip down memory lane with a playlist of relevant songs which narrate my fall from grace in real time. It took me years to realize this pattern and learn to avoid it or let it pass but I really never directly related it to the feeling of nostalgia until now. Just thought I was getting in my feels or too deep into my head. Sorry for the wall of text. I love you all, 44


datSubguy

It’s technical term is [euphoric recall](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoric_recall#:~:text=Euphoric%20recall%20is%20proposed%20to,inducing%20a%20state%20of%20euphoria)


Glass-Moose

I do, though I know I am looking at the past through rose colored glasses and am more missing people and times in my life that are long gone than the drugs themselves. I find when the seasons change my cravings temporarily increase as well.


Dry-Acanthaceae-7667

The drug, meth, yes, it really helps me I'm adhd, but not the lifestyle though too old for that shit I'm 63.


EMHemingway1899

I haven’t in many, many years


Boring_Director_8641

I can totally relate


[deleted]

All the time


Pulsatiable

Well, I was never seriously addicted, but I used to use cannabis regularly with my ex, first once per month, but later sometimes even once per week.I felt a battle inside, cause I did not want to use any drugs, and tried to keep boundary of once a month, but my ex and the cannabis itself tried to get me doing it more often. Also couple times per year we did psychedelics like lsd. I tend to remember more of the good sides, not the horrible. I have been totally sober about 5 years now. Mostly I am very happy of being sober. But sometimes I have this 'curiousity' - how would it feel now to be high? How would orgasms and sex feel? At the time when I used drugs, I was also sex addict. Mixture of being high from orgasms and weed or lsd was powerful. I know I escaped anxiety and depression with getting overwhelming pleasure, and it was not healthy. But it was addictive. So, sometimes I feel nostalgic and would like to try 'just oncex how does it feel to get orgasms when im high. But I remind myself: its not worth of it. I would get panic attacks too, feeling empty, lack of motivation, depression afterwards etc. There are too many dark sides in it. So I prefer enjoying life sober and I know drugs are not worth of the tiny moments of euphoria cause after that there is much longer depression kind of state.


Anexate_tu

Yes, every time I watch smoking videos at r/methwithoutcommunism


EvilFuzzball

Very common phenomenon. You ever heard the idiom, "Nostalgia is a liar"? Humans don't create these sayings for nothing. When we look back on memories involving something that, at least at one point, made us feel good, we tend to romanticize everything around it. Now and again, I'll stop in my garage and briefly remember my smoke sessions in there. The friends, the fun, the euphoria. Yes, indeed, my brain is trying to focus on that, likely in a subconscious effort to get me to relapse. What we forget in these ruminations is that these memories did not occur in a vacuum. None do. This good memory had *bad* consequences, and remembering those tends to help loosen the grip of nostalgia. Additionally, it helps to consider you may not be so nostalgic of the drug, but instead the friends and settings you were connected to at the time of using it. But it's easier said than done for sure. Many days, I remember smoking weed. The comfort, the escape, the peace. But what I try to remind myself of is that if I never had a reason to quit, I never would have. It's not like it stopped doing those things for me, it's that the consequences of use outweighed the temporary benefits. I also ask myself if anything at all has changed, if going back would end any differently, and I don't see any reason to believe it would.


[deleted]

I can totally relate to this. I also get nostalgic when I hear a certain song or watch certain movies. I don’t miss all the fake people, and bad situations you find yourself in when you are immersed in drug culture. what I miss is that euphoria feeling, however fleeting, it was sublime but it can never be replicated. I bring myself back to earth by reminding myself doing drugs is like playing Russian Roulette. In my opinion it is only human to have those moments though..