so i’m a drug addict.
ive been testing clean for 5 years next month.
i spent almost 30years mixxing with my fellow drug users and addicts.
during that time i was constantly told that we drug addicts were scum and that “normal” people were better than us junkies!
so 5 years ago i finnally stopped using and i spent the first 3 years of my recovery in the “hermit” stage.
then roughly 2 years ago now i started to go out and do things again and started meeting “normal” people!
WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT!
over the last 2 years ive learnt that the average normal person is an utter scumbag!
we junkies love and support each other, we generally dont backstab, we dont tell everyone each others secrets, we dont enjoy watching each other fail etc.
ok you cant trust a junkie with money drugs or anything of value that can be easily sold but that is a given, so you guard against it!
turns out that “normal” people arnt like that at all!
ive learnt that you can not tell a normie anything about yourself because if you do they will tell the whole world! also, if your doing well they hate it and will try to make you fail. they will belittle your achievments, they will laugh at your attempts to better yourself. they will deliberatly give you wrong information in an effort to hold you back!
oh and you cant trust them with money or items of value either! except unlike junkies where thats a given everyone tells you that they can be trusted!
so i have 2 questions.
1 why do normal people (who ive never done anything bad too) hate the fact that ive turned my life around so much!
2 how am i suppossed to make friends, when normies wont accept me because of their predajuice and i keep finding that their untrustworthy!
oh and dont even get me started about the different social rules of normies and junkies!
trying to learn the social rules of normal societly has been a nightmare! but thats something for another thread maybe
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I typically don’t tell anyone how to self identify. But for me I had to start viewing myself in a different light before others did. The term junkie carries really strong negative connotations. You are certainly in a safe place here but it’s a term I’ve learned to remove from my life in order to feel better.
It’s really hard being a person in recovery sometimes because the stigma is so strong. Try not to make it worse with the language you refer to yourself with. .
People are just people. Normies or not.
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Welcome to TS! And big congrats on 5 months clean. I think this difference has more to do with us than it does society. Many of us know how much it hurts when we hit that bottom. So when we emerge, we have an appreciation for so many more things. The homeless person is more appreciative of help and shelter than many who have had a roof over their head, for example. We help others because we know the pain of being in their shoes. Feel blessed to have this insight and send good vibes to those that don’t know- lucky for them. Our personal growth may turn more to the sun after being in the dark. Those always in the sun don’t turn toward it because they do not know the dark 
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I had a therapist correct me over and over years ago when i would refer to “normal” people. She’d always say normal means most…there are no normal people. All people are flawed in someway. I agree with my friends above it is most important how you identify and view yourself. I have not really experienced that with non-addicts. People are usually encouraging or they begin to ask how they can help someone they love with addiction. Either way welcome to a great place to vent and talk to people who understand you. 
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Congrats on five years, @jaimzthejunkie !!
This is a truly remarkable achievement and it is understandable that you’d like others to recognize it. That happens best with others who’ve been through it or are working on it. Like so many other things in life, if folks don’t experience what it’s like first hand, they can’t relate. I agree that word choice and how you view yourself and others is key. I struggled all my life with wanting approval from others and basing my happiness on others. I’m still working on that. So you’re in good company right here at TS. Glad you found us!
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thank you all for your responses!
ok i have a couple of quick points and then i might ramble abit once i get typing, you h#know how it is!
terminology.
yes i know and i do try to use better terms in everyday life but sometimes its just easy to use terms like junkie and normie as it generally saves a lot of explaining.
identity!
ive struggled with my changing identity.
so much so that i even had 1mil (works) syring tattooed on my right arm.
in the junkie world i was a someone, i wont go into detail but i was well known and respected.
for a long time of my recovery i self identified as an ex junkie or recovering junkie, however i got the stage around last summer where i didnt know what my identity was anyone, recovered junkie didnt seem to fit as i wanted to get away from the j word. and at first it really troubled me.
today it nolonger bothers me however i still dont know how to self identify!
i know there are aguments against pigeonholing yourself and labeling BUT having a simple term to identify with is helpfull to me.
as to what i want from “normies” i dont need them to recognise or congratulate my turn around.
what i need from them is to get out of the way!
to stop being jealose, to stop trying to hold me down.
ive litterally had people laugh in my face when ive said that im trying to better myself.
someone even made a video of me struggling to get in and out of my little car when i was 22stone to post on the internet so people could laugh at me!
fortunatly in the last few years i discovered a new life philosophy that allows me to take the negativity people send at me and draw strength from it and ive used to that to lose 8 stone of weight but there is a limit to the amount of negativity i can take.
quick note.
i hqave to laugh a little at the fact that some people are jealose of my success.
i mean come on!
im pretty sure if they knew about the 30 odd years of pain and misery of drug addiction, their jealosy would evapourate quicker than water in the desert!
thing is some of them know about my past and yet they are still jealose!
i get the feeling that those people think that an exjunkie doesnt deserve to get well!
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What other people think of me is none of my business. Let them be miserable. Thats on them. I can relate to having to find out who i was after i stopped using…i was someone in that world. In the real world i was no one special. But in those 12 years i built a life got 3 degrees and have a career…though i slipped last year for a few months on alcohol i still don’t recognize that person from years ago. You will find where you belong in “polite society” those people that wanna make fun or try to make a joke of you cut them off…they dont deserve access to you. Sounds to me like they aren’t part of polite society and have no life of their own. Misery loves company. Anyways stick around and keep venting with us. If thats how you identify i accept that and respect you & your choices. Keep rocking. I try not to say things like this on here but Fuck them.
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