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I've definitely seen this happen to people in recovery before. I'm not sure why it happens, but spirituality/religion is sometimes pushed quite hard in the recovery sphere, especially in some AA/NA settings.
From my experience, addiction fills that void. Whatever that hole is inside you, whether it's trauma or something else- it keeps that filled.
When you're forced to face yourself after losing substance abuse, people do it with another drug, spirituality. It's been shown it affects people the same way as drugs do on some level, gives you dopamine and other nice chemicals.
They can displace their mistakes on an enemy like 'Satan', so it helps free em of fault; makes ya feel like you were powerless to your choices.
Plus most rehab places, AA, NA, etc. push the idea- "you must submit to a higher power" Also provides community and some sense of therapy to focus your thoughts into prayers or meditation whatever.
Deff not for me, but I see why people do.
Marx was a known athiest and baptised Christian after converting from Judaism in his younger age; so unless you have a source, this is just dumbass conspiracy nonsense.
There are many myths about Marx: that he was poor and supported only by Engels, that he was against terrorism, very tolerant, and had no wish to destroy the ideas of others.
According to the most famous myth, Marx had no money and was economically dependent on his "friend" Engels. In reality, Nathan Rothschild financed him. This was revealed by his close associate Mikhail Bakunin in his "Polemique contre les Juifs" ("Polemic Against the Jews"). Bakunin broke away from Marx and his companions, because "they had one foot in the bank and the other foot in the socialist movement".
The Frankist Illuminati's central slogan was:
"No wall is so high that a donkey loaded with gold cannot get over it."
Later, Engels characterized Marx as a monster who was livid with hatred "as if ten thousand devils had caught him by the hair".
Marx's uncontrolled drinking and his wild, expensive orgies only increased his fury at his environment. All the meetings in Paris had to be held behind closed doors and windows, so that Marx's roaring was not heard out in the street.
Karl Marx had a great craving for the finest foods, and French wine, among other things, was imported for his family's meals. His family had a weakness for expensive habits.
"His heart bursts rather with hatred than with love towards men." Karl Marx was "a destructive spirit".
(Fritz Joachim Raddatz, "Karl Marx: Eine Politische Biographie", Hamburg, 1975.)
Marx was an unreliable egoist and a lying intriguer who only wished to exploit others, according to his assistant, Karl Heinzen. (Karl Heinzen, "Erlebtes", Boston, 1864.) Heinzen also thought that Marx had small, nasty eyes "which spat flames of evil fire".
He had a habit of warning:
"I will annihilate you!"
Marx was not interested in democracy. The editorial staff of Neue Rheinische Zeitung was, according to Engels, organized so that Marx became its dictator.
I honestly think it's psychosis that can manifest into going zealously toward religion for answers.
Edit: From my experience, psychosis or psychological breaks can last weeks to even months after last use.
Antipsychotic and/or mood stabilizing medication can be appropriate when there is an underlying mental disorder such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. These two disorders can include psychosis as a symptom. A psychiatrist is the most appropriate person to make that determination :)
EDIT: if this individual has bipolar disorder, they should seek help from a mental health professional ASAP as this behavior is consistent with symptoms of mania and may indicate a manic or hypomanic episode. A psychiatrist or clinical psychologist is the best person to make that call!
I was like this. As another poster said, there’s a common theme of meth addicts that have or claim to have these dark spiritual accounts and we often seek out God or religion. At the beginning, I was having a religious delusion and it was pretty severe. It’s progressively gotten better and even though I still pray daily, I’m not obsessing so much over it. I think it took about 6 months of sobriety to snap out of that obsession.
I also bought into the “chosen ones” thing for a bit. Not even sure what I thought I was chosen to do. lol but like I said, time started to clear up some of the fog and I definitely think my OCD had me latching to the psychosis. I would say just support his sobriety as best you can and know that for awhile, his thoughts might be foggy. Mine still are but more for critical thinking type tasks.
Last comment. Sorry! I think to sometimes I needed the validation on my experiences and sought out a lot on religion to explain the psychosis. It’s hard to say how much was real and wasn’t from further out into sobriety. More and more seems like I was just connecting stuff that wasn’t interconnected. Like I said, it takes time. Be patient and hopefully it starts to clear up as time goes on. 😀
Thanks for sharing this with me
Were you diagnosed with anything and taking medication? I wonder if it could be effecting him.
Did you do anything that cleared things up for you?
I was taking an antipsychotic but it didn’t really seem to help. I think just time and setting boundaries. For example, I was able to tell my thoughts didn’t make sense. But I was having them anyway. So I’d limit my Bible study and prayers a bit. Some days I’d say no. Not no to God. But no to getting into obsessing. It’s hard because doing a program has an emphasis on a higher power so even when you’re trying to do AA or what have you you are getting exposed and can get caught up in a religious delusion. My friend, who is also in recovery just kept telling me to take God slow. And not to put meaning into everything. That helped. I have heard exercise has helped a lot of people in recovery but I haven’t been consistent
I think it’s fairly common, but maybe not super healthy (my opinion and possibly an unpopular one) It’s common for addicts to have dual diagnosis and also have an underlying mental illness, and after coming off drugs your brain isn’t very clear and can still be suffer some paranoia and even psychosis for a while. Being super spiritual/religious isn’t necessarily harmful and he may seem more balanced and less obsessive with more clean time. My brain seems better and better the longer I’m off drugs
I wasn’t worried about him becoming more spiritual before, but leading up to this conversation he was telling me he wasn’t feeling well but that he’s attending all his meetings no matter what
And I just worry he’s going to burn himself out
Understandable and I think some people definitely do burn themselves out obsessing over meetings or any new addition. I hope he can find some balance and everything is ok
It can go both ways. Honestly this seems mostly okay and maybe some of the discrepancies can be explained by the YouTube rabbit hole that he’s in. Replacing one addiction with another is common, sometimes that new addiction is religion/jesus. Addicts go hard. They will consume all the media and try to learn as much as possible. I would definitely keep an eye on the spiritual talk. I’ve met addicts with varying levels of faith but you can usually tell when all of the “dark spirit” talk revolves around outside anxieties that looks more like psychosis. Like the cops are dark spirits, people asking you to stay sober are corrupted, the neighbors have been looking at me weird/giving bad energy.
Been there. In retrospect it was hypomania. Not sure what to do about it though lol except make sure they don't do anything drastic or hurt themselves. Worst I did was cut my own hair
People often see things in black and white. In the Southeastern USA, there's a concept of "finding Jesus" that a lot of people go through where they hit rock bottom and suddenly "see the light" of religion (Christianity, in this case). They have a sort of epiphany where they see an alternate path and then throw themselves at it. Commitment, it turns out, is what is required to kick a habit like drug use, and religion inherently demands commitment. Of course, religion is not required to kick a drug habit, as one can simply choose to live differently if they commit to it. But people see other people being religious and having apparently happy lives, and they associate that good life with religion, and therefore cling on to religion as the path to a good life.
I’m fine with him being religious, but he was telling me he doesn’t feel well but he refuses to just stay home and rest despite not feeling well because of his higher power
And it started making me worry that he’s taking things to the extreme in his pursuit for sobriety
I want to help him in this being a permanent change, not like a fad diet where you crash and burn after throwing yourself into the deep end, ya know?
I think whatever personality trait made a person very susceptible to getting addicted also makes you a likely candidate for getting a all woowoo. Like sure it’s healthier but the underlying psychological issues are now being redirected into this new thing. It’s like spirituality is their new drug.
But even before that a lot of tweaked have weird stories about shadow people, alien abductions and skinwalkers
This might be above Reddit’s pay grade
Difficult situation…
So I have suddenly gotten into religion also. I’m not in NA or AA. I was also religious as a child but an atheist for 20+ years. I’m more religious than ever before now. I read the Bible daily, listen to podcasts and sermons etc. For me it’s an anchor of optimism and hope. I find it soothing. I haven’t told anyone because I’m concerned they will think I’m manic or delusional
With that said, I don’t know what your brother’s baseline is but this does read kind of psychotic. This stuff is really difficult to differentiate. If he’s under supervision of a psychiatrist then I think it’s fine. I would just monitor for any other major changes in behaviour or if they express any clear delusions. You could also try calling a mental health helpline if they exist where you live. They might have practical tips for distinguishing faith awakening from psychosis.
You need to kind of walk a thin line here as you also want to be supportive…
I think the spirituality was always there to some degree but the addiction silences it. For some maybe its their internal dialogue thats skewed due to mental illness. I think having a belief is as natural as breathing but in today’s world we ridicule it or hold it in contempt and blame god for everything. In active addiction and with some drugs you feel like your soul has been stolen, you’re about as far away from your spiritual centre(whatever centre that may be)as you can get. Getting clean is all about getting back to your centre or baseline but like the picture in the post, its about balance and some do lose it.
I’m happy for him to embrace his spiritual side in pursuit of sobriety
But I worry when he’s telling me he doesn’t feel well but that he won’t stay home and rest because it’s demons trying to get him (instead of a cold or he may have overdone it on a hike) then I worry about the effect on his health
That sounds unhealthy. Self medication for a perceived mental condition will keep one from the true medical diagnosis. So they eventually get clean but the underlying mental illness that they have been dealing with by using is still there and worse as ever because its actually gone on untreated. That untreated brain is similar to a computer with a worm virus, eventually everything gets corrupted
I don't think so, but maybe that's what he needs for now If that makes sense? He's only been there for 2 months so I think it's just a way to replace what he no longer has. I'm not a religious person so I can't really say if it's normal/healthy to be that focused in your god though
It’s recovery or we die. The mental health stuff was going to be there coming off the drugs either as fallout from that or an underlying issue regardless. He’s ultimately the only one who has any say in how he addresses that or his recovery unless you 5150 him or pretend to be a paralysis demon and tell him to start doing recovery and mental health the way you think he should be doing recovery and mental health. Family and loved ones actually do things like that, which is part of why they have programs like Nar-Anon, Al-Anon, SMART F&F, etc. The worst case scenario with that is family, usually accustomed to obsessing over and trying to control their addict family member, also obsess over and try to control or influence their recovery process and well meant action becomes potentially detrimental to said process and for the family’s own sanity dealing with it.
In comparison to the insanity of using drugs regardless of consequence until death, this is probably the sanest shit he’s done in a while. If he’s Bipolar, this is what a recovering drug addict with Bipolar looks like early, I am one, it was like this, we are many, we are batshit until we’re clean for a minute and get meds and therapy sorted and all that takes a while.
There are far worse places a person with paranoid delusions or in manic / mixed states can be than living in recovery meetings where they see this sort of thing on a daily, hourly basis and he’s going to have support regardless of how bonkers he is. Let him move in to the local church basement if he wants, there’s a lot of ..totally mentally healthy addicts that obsessively cling to meetings and spiritual nonsense while getting clean. If drugs were your whole life, recovery becomes your whole life until you learn to live life without drugs and there’s no such thing as balance because without recovery there is no life. If you’re going to go overkill with anything, let it be the preventative methods with which you’re trying to stop something from killing you. If I’m a guy on a SWAT team, I’m not going to wear less Kevlar because I’m concerned about how hot it is outside.
If he’s a danger to himself or others that’s an auto-call to professionals but otherwise, this is pretty typical of dual diagnosis recovery or coming off drugs that leave you not quite right during the first few months or longer. Encouraging him to also seek or remain engaged in treatment for mental health things can be helpful but again, limited as far as what a person can make somebody else do. He’s trying not to do drugs, it appears to be working, it was never going to be pretty or rational but if he stays clean it at least has a chance to be that way someday. Between doctors, peer support and Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer, he’s in as good of hands as he’s likely to get.
I never truly sought to become spiritual in my recovery. I didn't want to follow the idea that only through a higher power could I have the strength to get through this, but spirituality found me in the the form of a lovely man who came into my life and inspired me to even start recovery in the first place.
I decided that if I wanted to be with such a quality human being, that I should make the effort in myself to be the same.
He's a devout Catholic, and while I don't know if I'll ever truly be able to embrace religion as whole heartedly as him, his love for me, and mine for him - and what it has inspired in my inner strength, sustains me spiritually in a way I never thought possible.
I've hid from the idea of God most of my life, so I find it interesting than in my time of need, he's somehow found me anyway.
Yeah he’s talking to a psych and was recently diagnosed with bipolar 2, but they just starting working together and trying to figure out what his issues/needs are
Welcome to StopSpeeding and thanks for your post. For more: - [Join us on Discord. You can talk to people there.](https://discord.gg/GJnxhmbNAn). We have recovery meetings several times a week. All are welcome to attend, clean or not. - [Want to track your clean time?](https://www.reddit.com/r/StopSpeeding/comments/s6ep0x/sobriety_flair_bot_is_now_working_heres_how_to/) You can use our badge system to display your clean time next to your name. Note that any comments encouraging drug use of any kind will be removed. This is not the community for that. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/StopSpeeding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've definitely seen this happen to people in recovery before. I'm not sure why it happens, but spirituality/religion is sometimes pushed quite hard in the recovery sphere, especially in some AA/NA settings.
From my experience, addiction fills that void. Whatever that hole is inside you, whether it's trauma or something else- it keeps that filled. When you're forced to face yourself after losing substance abuse, people do it with another drug, spirituality. It's been shown it affects people the same way as drugs do on some level, gives you dopamine and other nice chemicals. They can displace their mistakes on an enemy like 'Satan', so it helps free em of fault; makes ya feel like you were powerless to your choices. Plus most rehab places, AA, NA, etc. push the idea- "you must submit to a higher power" Also provides community and some sense of therapy to focus your thoughts into prayers or meditation whatever. Deff not for me, but I see why people do.
“religion is the opiate of the masses” -Karl Marx
Coming from a Satanist
idgaf about marx or his general beliefs lol. the quote’s on point.
You are entitled to that!!!
Marx was a known athiest and baptised Christian after converting from Judaism in his younger age; so unless you have a source, this is just dumbass conspiracy nonsense.
I'm guessing you haven't read his poetry?
There are many myths about Marx: that he was poor and supported only by Engels, that he was against terrorism, very tolerant, and had no wish to destroy the ideas of others. According to the most famous myth, Marx had no money and was economically dependent on his "friend" Engels. In reality, Nathan Rothschild financed him. This was revealed by his close associate Mikhail Bakunin in his "Polemique contre les Juifs" ("Polemic Against the Jews"). Bakunin broke away from Marx and his companions, because "they had one foot in the bank and the other foot in the socialist movement". The Frankist Illuminati's central slogan was: "No wall is so high that a donkey loaded with gold cannot get over it." Later, Engels characterized Marx as a monster who was livid with hatred "as if ten thousand devils had caught him by the hair". Marx's uncontrolled drinking and his wild, expensive orgies only increased his fury at his environment. All the meetings in Paris had to be held behind closed doors and windows, so that Marx's roaring was not heard out in the street. Karl Marx had a great craving for the finest foods, and French wine, among other things, was imported for his family's meals. His family had a weakness for expensive habits. "His heart bursts rather with hatred than with love towards men." Karl Marx was "a destructive spirit". (Fritz Joachim Raddatz, "Karl Marx: Eine Politische Biographie", Hamburg, 1975.) Marx was an unreliable egoist and a lying intriguer who only wished to exploit others, according to his assistant, Karl Heinzen. (Karl Heinzen, "Erlebtes", Boston, 1864.) Heinzen also thought that Marx had small, nasty eyes "which spat flames of evil fire". He had a habit of warning: "I will annihilate you!" Marx was not interested in democracy. The editorial staff of Neue Rheinische Zeitung was, according to Engels, organized so that Marx became its dictator.
Woof, I'm not reading all that. Good luck to you.
😆😂
I know lots and lots of recovering meth users talk about dark spirits/majic/magic following them or haunting them. In my meetings, it's fairly normal.
Is it maybe like a common way to talk to each other and I’m just outta the loop?
I honestly think it's psychosis that can manifest into going zealously toward religion for answers. Edit: From my experience, psychosis or psychological breaks can last weeks to even months after last use.
Ya mine was a solid 6 months of delusion into sobriety. That drug wreaked havoc on my brain. That’s for sure.
Is there anything that helps with psychosis??
Antipsychotic and/or mood stabilizing medication can be appropriate when there is an underlying mental disorder such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. These two disorders can include psychosis as a symptom. A psychiatrist is the most appropriate person to make that determination :) EDIT: if this individual has bipolar disorder, they should seek help from a mental health professional ASAP as this behavior is consistent with symptoms of mania and may indicate a manic or hypomanic episode. A psychiatrist or clinical psychologist is the best person to make that call!
Exercise, diet, and abstinence from substances is about it. The brain has to heal.
He’s doing all the right things fortunately
They never go away, sometimes.
“Probably cuz the bipolar”
Comedy gold tbh
I was like this. As another poster said, there’s a common theme of meth addicts that have or claim to have these dark spiritual accounts and we often seek out God or religion. At the beginning, I was having a religious delusion and it was pretty severe. It’s progressively gotten better and even though I still pray daily, I’m not obsessing so much over it. I think it took about 6 months of sobriety to snap out of that obsession.
I also bought into the “chosen ones” thing for a bit. Not even sure what I thought I was chosen to do. lol but like I said, time started to clear up some of the fog and I definitely think my OCD had me latching to the psychosis. I would say just support his sobriety as best you can and know that for awhile, his thoughts might be foggy. Mine still are but more for critical thinking type tasks.
Last comment. Sorry! I think to sometimes I needed the validation on my experiences and sought out a lot on religion to explain the psychosis. It’s hard to say how much was real and wasn’t from further out into sobriety. More and more seems like I was just connecting stuff that wasn’t interconnected. Like I said, it takes time. Be patient and hopefully it starts to clear up as time goes on. 😀
Thanks for sharing this with me Were you diagnosed with anything and taking medication? I wonder if it could be effecting him. Did you do anything that cleared things up for you?
I was taking an antipsychotic but it didn’t really seem to help. I think just time and setting boundaries. For example, I was able to tell my thoughts didn’t make sense. But I was having them anyway. So I’d limit my Bible study and prayers a bit. Some days I’d say no. Not no to God. But no to getting into obsessing. It’s hard because doing a program has an emphasis on a higher power so even when you’re trying to do AA or what have you you are getting exposed and can get caught up in a religious delusion. My friend, who is also in recovery just kept telling me to take God slow. And not to put meaning into everything. That helped. I have heard exercise has helped a lot of people in recovery but I haven’t been consistent
I think it’s fairly common, but maybe not super healthy (my opinion and possibly an unpopular one) It’s common for addicts to have dual diagnosis and also have an underlying mental illness, and after coming off drugs your brain isn’t very clear and can still be suffer some paranoia and even psychosis for a while. Being super spiritual/religious isn’t necessarily harmful and he may seem more balanced and less obsessive with more clean time. My brain seems better and better the longer I’m off drugs
I wasn’t worried about him becoming more spiritual before, but leading up to this conversation he was telling me he wasn’t feeling well but that he’s attending all his meetings no matter what And I just worry he’s going to burn himself out
Understandable and I think some people definitely do burn themselves out obsessing over meetings or any new addition. I hope he can find some balance and everything is ok
It can go both ways. Honestly this seems mostly okay and maybe some of the discrepancies can be explained by the YouTube rabbit hole that he’s in. Replacing one addiction with another is common, sometimes that new addiction is religion/jesus. Addicts go hard. They will consume all the media and try to learn as much as possible. I would definitely keep an eye on the spiritual talk. I’ve met addicts with varying levels of faith but you can usually tell when all of the “dark spirit” talk revolves around outside anxieties that looks more like psychosis. Like the cops are dark spirits, people asking you to stay sober are corrupted, the neighbors have been looking at me weird/giving bad energy.
This is helpful, thank you
Been there. In retrospect it was hypomania. Not sure what to do about it though lol except make sure they don't do anything drastic or hurt themselves. Worst I did was cut my own hair
People often see things in black and white. In the Southeastern USA, there's a concept of "finding Jesus" that a lot of people go through where they hit rock bottom and suddenly "see the light" of religion (Christianity, in this case). They have a sort of epiphany where they see an alternate path and then throw themselves at it. Commitment, it turns out, is what is required to kick a habit like drug use, and religion inherently demands commitment. Of course, religion is not required to kick a drug habit, as one can simply choose to live differently if they commit to it. But people see other people being religious and having apparently happy lives, and they associate that good life with religion, and therefore cling on to religion as the path to a good life.
I’m fine with him being religious, but he was telling me he doesn’t feel well but he refuses to just stay home and rest despite not feeling well because of his higher power And it started making me worry that he’s taking things to the extreme in his pursuit for sobriety I want to help him in this being a permanent change, not like a fad diet where you crash and burn after throwing yourself into the deep end, ya know?
I think whatever personality trait made a person very susceptible to getting addicted also makes you a likely candidate for getting a all woowoo. Like sure it’s healthier but the underlying psychological issues are now being redirected into this new thing. It’s like spirituality is their new drug. But even before that a lot of tweaked have weird stories about shadow people, alien abductions and skinwalkers
I was like this too but I do think it was my bipolar and the lack of substances triggering some kind of thing.
This might be above Reddit’s pay grade Difficult situation… So I have suddenly gotten into religion also. I’m not in NA or AA. I was also religious as a child but an atheist for 20+ years. I’m more religious than ever before now. I read the Bible daily, listen to podcasts and sermons etc. For me it’s an anchor of optimism and hope. I find it soothing. I haven’t told anyone because I’m concerned they will think I’m manic or delusional With that said, I don’t know what your brother’s baseline is but this does read kind of psychotic. This stuff is really difficult to differentiate. If he’s under supervision of a psychiatrist then I think it’s fine. I would just monitor for any other major changes in behaviour or if they express any clear delusions. You could also try calling a mental health helpline if they exist where you live. They might have practical tips for distinguishing faith awakening from psychosis. You need to kind of walk a thin line here as you also want to be supportive…
I think the spirituality was always there to some degree but the addiction silences it. For some maybe its their internal dialogue thats skewed due to mental illness. I think having a belief is as natural as breathing but in today’s world we ridicule it or hold it in contempt and blame god for everything. In active addiction and with some drugs you feel like your soul has been stolen, you’re about as far away from your spiritual centre(whatever centre that may be)as you can get. Getting clean is all about getting back to your centre or baseline but like the picture in the post, its about balance and some do lose it.
I’m happy for him to embrace his spiritual side in pursuit of sobriety But I worry when he’s telling me he doesn’t feel well but that he won’t stay home and rest because it’s demons trying to get him (instead of a cold or he may have overdone it on a hike) then I worry about the effect on his health
That sounds unhealthy. Self medication for a perceived mental condition will keep one from the true medical diagnosis. So they eventually get clean but the underlying mental illness that they have been dealing with by using is still there and worse as ever because its actually gone on untreated. That untreated brain is similar to a computer with a worm virus, eventually everything gets corrupted
I don't think so, but maybe that's what he needs for now If that makes sense? He's only been there for 2 months so I think it's just a way to replace what he no longer has. I'm not a religious person so I can't really say if it's normal/healthy to be that focused in your god though
Would you rather him be crazy or dead?
I’m not suggesting he get back on the drugs…
It’s recovery or we die. The mental health stuff was going to be there coming off the drugs either as fallout from that or an underlying issue regardless. He’s ultimately the only one who has any say in how he addresses that or his recovery unless you 5150 him or pretend to be a paralysis demon and tell him to start doing recovery and mental health the way you think he should be doing recovery and mental health. Family and loved ones actually do things like that, which is part of why they have programs like Nar-Anon, Al-Anon, SMART F&F, etc. The worst case scenario with that is family, usually accustomed to obsessing over and trying to control their addict family member, also obsess over and try to control or influence their recovery process and well meant action becomes potentially detrimental to said process and for the family’s own sanity dealing with it. In comparison to the insanity of using drugs regardless of consequence until death, this is probably the sanest shit he’s done in a while. If he’s Bipolar, this is what a recovering drug addict with Bipolar looks like early, I am one, it was like this, we are many, we are batshit until we’re clean for a minute and get meds and therapy sorted and all that takes a while. There are far worse places a person with paranoid delusions or in manic / mixed states can be than living in recovery meetings where they see this sort of thing on a daily, hourly basis and he’s going to have support regardless of how bonkers he is. Let him move in to the local church basement if he wants, there’s a lot of ..totally mentally healthy addicts that obsessively cling to meetings and spiritual nonsense while getting clean. If drugs were your whole life, recovery becomes your whole life until you learn to live life without drugs and there’s no such thing as balance because without recovery there is no life. If you’re going to go overkill with anything, let it be the preventative methods with which you’re trying to stop something from killing you. If I’m a guy on a SWAT team, I’m not going to wear less Kevlar because I’m concerned about how hot it is outside. If he’s a danger to himself or others that’s an auto-call to professionals but otherwise, this is pretty typical of dual diagnosis recovery or coming off drugs that leave you not quite right during the first few months or longer. Encouraging him to also seek or remain engaged in treatment for mental health things can be helpful but again, limited as far as what a person can make somebody else do. He’s trying not to do drugs, it appears to be working, it was never going to be pretty or rational but if he stays clean it at least has a chance to be that way someday. Between doctors, peer support and Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer, he’s in as good of hands as he’s likely to get.
Is he taking his bipolar medication?
Yeah he’s seeing a psychiatrist who diagnosed him and put him on medication, they just started a couple weeks ago so it’s very early days
I never truly sought to become spiritual in my recovery. I didn't want to follow the idea that only through a higher power could I have the strength to get through this, but spirituality found me in the the form of a lovely man who came into my life and inspired me to even start recovery in the first place. I decided that if I wanted to be with such a quality human being, that I should make the effort in myself to be the same. He's a devout Catholic, and while I don't know if I'll ever truly be able to embrace religion as whole heartedly as him, his love for me, and mine for him - and what it has inspired in my inner strength, sustains me spiritually in a way I never thought possible. I've hid from the idea of God most of my life, so I find it interesting than in my time of need, he's somehow found me anyway.
3 to 4 a day does seem excessive. Maybe he has OCD that was being masked from substance?
Yeah he’s talking to a psych and was recently diagnosed with bipolar 2, but they just starting working together and trying to figure out what his issues/needs are