Matt: What’s up everybody, this is Matt and Greg with Project Unbroken. We are two former heroin addicts. I’m about 10 years out of my addiction, Greg’s about eight years out of his addiction. We both took different paths to recovery, and today we’re going to lay out the six steps that we would take today if we had to get out of our addiction.
Greg: Yeah. So step number one is you got to want to quit, okay? So you got to make the decision that you’re going to quit, very simple. If you don’t want to quit, you’re not going to quit, so that’s step number one.
Matt: Step number two is get your support system in place. So before you even necessarily stop taking your drug or whatever and try to do this on your own, tell the positive influences in your life what’s going on, that you need them in your corner to help find recovery.
Greg: Definitely. So step number three is find a maintenance program, really big. I used methadone, Matt used Suboxone, do your research, all right? We have videos on each of these, we go into depth. But what we found is a lot of people who don’t use a maintenance program, they get clean for a while and then two months in they get right back in it, right? So a maintenance program can get you away from heroin for a year or two, get you away from that life, and it really is effective.
Matt: Step four, after you have your support system in place, you have your maintenance program set up, first appointment scheduled, you’re ready to go, you need to start cutting ties. Anybody in your life that is in heroin, in drugs, in those bad circles, you got to cut ties. You don’t need to really explain this to them, just ghost them, whatever, get them out of your life immediately.
Greg: All right, so step five is mindset maintenance, as we call it. And this is just turning around the way you think, okay? You got to start thinking positively. When you think about your addiction, think of all the negative things it did for you, okay? Don’t let your mind play tricks on you, don’t think, “Well, I can just use this once because where I’ve been away from it so I can just control it now.” Really control your mind, think of the positives and move forward in that direction.
Matt: Step number six, start to look at replacing your addiction with something positive. So, Greg and I always talk a lot about how exercise has helped us get out of our addiction and stay away from our addiction, but there’s stuff like meditation, yoga. We suggest things that maybe happen in a group atmosphere, where you’re surrounded by positive people, they can only help lift you up and keep you away from your addiction.
Greg: Yeah, so again, Matt and I both went through heroin addiction. We did each of these things but I think we didn’t do them all at the same time. So if we had to redo it, we would probably go through them in that order exactly. Whereas when we were trying to quit and we failed, we would do maybe one or two of these things and we didn’t have it all together. But once we did get this all together and it took some time, if we had this in place from the get go I think we would’ve quit a lot sooner.
Matt: Absolutely. Well thanks for watching guys. If you have anything to add to this list, leave us a comment or hit us up on the contacts section at our website, projectunbroken.com, and we look forward to talking to you soon.
Greg: See you everyone.
