I am the only ex addict that thinks this show is stupid?

you're right when you say that it is different for everyone...but you're wrong about being able to kick the habit being easy. It's the hardest thing i've ever had to do in my life, and everyday is a struggle.

I'm twenty years old, and I can relate to at least three of the episodes. Each experience is different. I started taking speed to help me pass my exams freshmen year, then I started taking it for the incredible feeling it gave me. When I couldn't get enough I escalated. I went from being top of my class to barely graduating. My grandmother put me through rehab 4 times. And as much as I wanted to quit for her, I couldn't. It wasn't until I met someone very much like William Banks that I realized that in order to quit you have to want it for yourself.

Everyday is a struggle, and everyday is a memory...and everyday I learn that i'm stronger than the day before.

Dude. You just contradicted yourself. You said because something doesn’t gel with your experience yadda yadda and then threw some serious doubt on whether it really could have taken 7 tries for treatment to take.

Given that there are many out there for who treatment NEVER takes, I don’t find seven tries at all unrealistic. Whoever stuck by somebody for seven tries deserves a medal.

In any case, this is a TV show. Drawn from reality or not, it still has to be manhandled into the format of entertainment, as life doesn’t generally come ready for commercial breaks and optimistic endings.

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I'm not an addict but my wife is a counselor and I was a counselor for a few years when I was young. Of course, everyone's experience is different. However, I agree that while you may be a recovering addict, there is no such thing as an ex-addict or ex-alcoholic or ex-gambler, etc. An addictive personality is something you have to control for the rest of your life.

This show is based on a true story, but that doesn't mean it's 100% true and accurate. It is a television series, and dramatic license is taken to make the stories more dramatic and theatrically enjoyable. Most of real life is drudgery and boredom, and a lot of it just isn't interesting or understandable to "outsiders." For instance, changes have to be made in the street jargon used on "The Cleaner" or most people wouldn't understand it.

I don't expect movies or TV to be exactly like real life, and I am willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoying the show, just not to the point of outright lies, fantasy, or total impossibility. Of course, we all set the bar at our own level of comfort and acceptance.

I was gonna state the same thing. When I saw the subject line. Your always recovering and never an ex-addict. Rememeber one day at a time and it doen;t matter if you've been sober for 10 days or 10 years if your sober for that day then your just as sober as the bperson of ten years. Also remmebr we are bodily diffrent from our fellow man. Cause addiction is based in the center of the brain that deals with survival, food, shelter, etc. It had lines the substance of addiction to be as important as breathing air or drinking water or getting warmth or eating.

I identify myself as an alcoholic for the sake of which program I work since i've bene drinking for 13 years 10 of which was a everyday basis no matter what but I also had my fair share or tweeking, coke as well as dabbling around with X, shrooms, and luckily for me pain killers aren;t my type of high taht I like and heroin has never intrested me.

Anyways I have my 109 days of sobriety and am working a 6 month outpatient rehab which involves men's group, 3 phases that deal with how addiction works in the boy setting up boundries, relapse prevention and so on and at least 1 required AA, NA, SA meeting as well as a requirement that you must have a sponsor and by the end of phase 2 which is the 4 month mark. Maybe you should have tried a county sponsored program. Mine costs $37 dollars for up to a years treatment since it's based on a sliding scale and at the time of admitance I was unemployeed.

I have also been blessed with parents that could afford any of the inpatient treatments but it;s also been pointed out that outpatient is even harder. Because you have to make the choice to stay sober and work the programs and continue to go to all the meetings every week...

All and all I can relate on many levels to this show and I do think it is quite good.

I don't think this show is "reality" any more than Law & Order is....based on cases, sure. Maybe even pulled from the headlines, but the whole topic of addiction & recovery is soooooo complex, it's hard to put into an hour show. However, based on the feedback this show is eliciting, I think the writers/producers have hit on something. JMHO.

What a load of cods wallop. What are you in AA or some stupid 12 step program. They may work okay for some people but they are not the be all and end all to dependancy.

It is like saying there is an addictive personality. Absolute rubbish. No proof to it. People have ust said it for a long time so it is believed. Without foundation. Some people may be vulnerable to substance abuse because of a particular time in their life but that's it.

If someone has stopped something and is not dependant on it physcially, emotionally or mentally then yes they are an "ex-addict"... Want to know why? Because they don't need it any more! Like when you break up with a partner it becomes an "ex partner". Your not still an addict to a substance after 7 or 10 years of giving up and not touching it or rarely using it.

AND something else... A person who tries to give up something seven times and then succeeds is actually the median runner. On average statistics say that it takes a "user" or a person dependant on most drugs 7 serious goes at kicking it before thye will succeed.

As a recovering heroin addict i have to say that some of this show is true to reality. They depict addicts quite well in the way that they behave when they are craving their drug of choice or finally hitting bottom, but the one thing it seems like is that every addict is hitting bottom every time. i understand that's why william banks is called but it's also important to delve into how they became addicts. sure they may talk about it sometimes, but they don't really go into how they got the way they did completely. i think that's just as important sometimes in a lesson to viewers as it is to watching how they're spiraling out of control and in need of serious help. at least they're honest about one thing and that's the relapse rate. i myself have been clean from heroin for eight months and by statistical standards at this point i should be dead. this show does give some hope and sometimes miracles do happen. it took five visits to different rehabs (one of which was a four month stay) and a near death experience to get my perspective to finally change and realize that the drugs were killing me and i had a lot more to live for than just a fix. at this point in the show i'd say that it's a good refresher for me to watch it and see how devastated as a human being i truly was. on the other hand there are times when it's so intense my parents have to leave the room because it brings back memories of how i used to be when i was severely addicted to drugs. the other night in the last episode a kid died from an overdose in his room and they brought him back and it brought my father to tears. six months ago that was me. dead in my room at the age of 24 from a heroin overdose and thank god they were able to bring me back, but the reality of the situation is that people don't always wake up. sometimes there is no bringing someone back from the hell on earth that addiction can cause. in the end the person was saved and went to rehab. like many, that does happen, but some are not so lucky. this show is actually pretty close to reality. do i think it's a little cheesy? sometimes, but i think it's a good lesson to parents who are worried about their children, or young adults experimenting with drugs that think they are the solution to life's problems. they don't. they're fatal, and there's never a good reason to go down that road. trust me i know.