Motivation!! How are you motivated to get and stay clean??

[JVegas50]

Hello everyone.  I wanted to post this because I think it will help everyone, especially the new people that are trying to beat their addiction.  I believe it will also help someone that has beat the initial part of the detox or recovery and maybe need some kind of motivation to keep going.  Motivation!!...That’s the theme of this question \ post.  As you know, I am in the middle of opiate detox and the only way I am going to beat it is by being motivated to be clean and healthy.  I’m  also personally really motivated by the money that I will be saving.  If you know my story, you know that my addiction is Oxycondone.  I purchased all of my pills off the street and it cost me on average $120 a day = $3600 a month = $43,200 a year.  So I have put a few numbers in front of me for motivation.  On my desk at work I have the number that I have spent on pills which is about $80,000.  Also, every single day that I’m clean I add $120 to the list and total it up.  In the past 3 weeks, I have already saved $1680.  These are tools for me to stay motivated to quit.  Another thing I have done to motivate myself... I made a list of all the reasons why my life will be better without pills or alcohol or whatever.  I made a list of about 15 things.  The first one for me is: I do not want to die from pills. Second: I will have a ton of extra cash, etc.  
Motivation is one of the main factors of getting clean and beating your addiction…even more so, actually staying clean.   I would appreciate it if everyone would share what worked for them. If you had a system or some tools that worked or if you have any ideas of things that will help people get and stay motivated.  

I think this can really help a lot of people.  Maybe something that helped you will be the thing that gets someone through detox or maybe it gets someone like myself to quit forever. It could make a huge impact on someones life.
Thank you to everyone that responds.

[Ben727]

My cash burn was roughly equivalent to yours, I had home delivery from my dealer and spent between $1K and $1500 per week. I did this for a good number of years, so I spent north of $300K over that time. Not spending money on drugs was a huge motivator to me. It's been a year-and-half since I quit, and that's essentially put $100K back in my pocket.

I also hated myself for getting addicted to something in the first place. Not having that guilt and taking that hit to my self-esteem is something I remind myself of often. And health is a big one. A body is not happy about processing the toxins in drugs everyday. There are many small physical side-effects that I'm glad to be rid of. A lot of the other things people have already mentioned too.

[JVegas50]

Lol...  I never heard that line before.  I like it! :)    I love life too... Thats one of my motivations as well.  I want to feel life and all the emotions that come with it.  Thank you for sharing your story.

[ActingBrandNew]

Those old school N/A and A/A ers will relate to this as its been floating around the rooms for years.

"I'm allergic to drugs and alcohol....every time I use I break out in handcuffs"

That's one of my motivations....tired of doing time. Cant say that I care or think about the money Ive wasted on drugs over the years. It didn't stop me from using before so I dont think it will factor in today either. I dunno...my kiddies aren't kiddies anymore....there teenagers. When they were little...nothing I did hurt them. (At least they didnt show it) Nowadays....well, if I do something stupid like use...it would be written all over there face.

I love life but more importantly I love God. I want to honor both by trying every day to be better than I was the day before. That's my story anyways.

[3Xs_U_R_Out]

BarbRTR..your words ring soooo true. This uS exactly how I've felt. The pills change you and you don't even notice. My marriage is hanging by a string and I know it's all because I am no longer me, I want me back. And most importantly, I want my son to know and love me. I want to be his perfect mommy. I want to be everything for him and right now my failing marriage and be truly not being here is doing nothing but damaging him. I have been tapering for almost a week now. It's not a lot, but it's progress and I haven't had that til now. I'm going on vacation tonight and I am determined to continue my taper even though my mind automatically goes to oh vacation = a break. I will win the battle with my mind. I WILL succeed with my taper...for my son, for my husband, for me!

[digger1976]

The motivation for me was and is seeing far to many of my close friends and acquaintances die from drug over doses. Watching there family's go through hell at the funerals isn't a nice thing to see or live with. I didn't want to do that to my family, it's selfish! I was sick of being sick and I didn't want to die. I try and remind myself daily that it doesn't matter how crap I still feel, it's nothing compared to how crap my family have felt for 14 year, bad sleep, low motivation and anxiety I can live with, the though of killing off my parents with grief and heartache I can't. There's no going back, period! The cravings have been wild lately and yes I wanted to give in, but I never and won't. I have jobs in the pipe line and money put away for somewhere better to live, I work from home at the moment so I can be patient with myself. All I need now is a new girl to share it with and I'll live happy. Why would I throw all that in to go back to the gutter, selling and taking drugs to survive! I'm one big mistake away from disaster, always will be. So my motivation is I would like to live!!!

[OpenMind24hours]

You couldn't talk me into stopping and you couldn't shame me into stopping. And nobody ever needed to tell me how I was acting when I was using. I knew. As an addict I knew exactly what I was doing to in order to get my drugs and how I was when I was using them. I also knew everyone else knew; including my doctor as I re-upped as I ran out. No big secret to uncover there. I knew life would get better if I quit, I'd not be giving away everything I earned in money and happiness, but I didn't give a $hit. My addiction had sent my head out to get my a$$. I just didn't care as long as I could keep getting loaded. And the drug use was only a small fraction of my disease of addiction's long list of symptoms. It's a mental, physical and spiritual disease. I was spiritually bankrupt, physically wrecked. and mentally insane.

My drugs were my one and only motivation to stop. I was driven to quit. Drugs are 12-step groups and the drug abuse treatment business's best advocate. They cause the users tremendous harm leading them to jails institutions and death. I reached bottom 4 times in my life. The first time netted me long term sobriety. Recently during the last 3 times it kept getting worse in stunningly quick succession. I didn't want to quit, I HAD to quit! Drugs filled me with the desire to stop using.

Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, said it best in the last paragraph of the first step in the "12 Steps and 12 Traditions" written in the early 1950's: "Under the lash of alcoholism we are driven to AA., and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation. Then and only then do we become open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be. We stand ready to do anything that will lift the merciless obsession from us."