Journal - Need help with staying off MDMA

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SWIM thinks he is addicted to E. The first time he tried it was roughly 7 months ago and ever since he has never rolled less than 3 times a month, sometimes up to 7 or 8 times in a single month. At first it was fine. He would feel fine, if not better the next day after his first few rolls. He felt like a changed man, like a better person. Slowly but surely, his rolls lost value and he was just doing it for the buzz. There was no longer a spiritual side to the rolls and SWIM started wondering why he was doing it.

It got particularly bad when one long weekend SWIM dropped 3 times in 4 days, upping the dose each day so as to feel some effects. By the last day, SWIM just felt physically ill and really experienced no euphoria. Needless to say, he came down incredibly hard and decided to get himself clean for a month at first, just because he thought that if he could at least keep it to once a month, he could continue on with life without too many adverse affects. He got to 16 days and once again succumbed. He could not stop thinkign about it. He just craved the feelings he got when he first tried it and wanted so badly to repeat them. Slowly his quality of life has started to deteriorate. He is snappy with friends, and finds himself depressed more often than not and not really undertsanding why. It just seems to SWIM like the colour has been sucked out of the world and there is no point in anything.

SWIM is in a predicament because he has a constant supply of readily available E and money is no problem. He wants to get off it so that the magic can return and maybe he can treat it with some respect, but it just seems impossible because it's always there. SWIM figures he needs some sort of replacement, one that wont take as much of a toll on his mind but does not find pleasure in any other drug he has tried (speed, meth, lsd, miarjuan, alcohol)as much as e. The only drug that has come remotely close is DXM.

What can SWIM do to stop using but still enjoy his night out with mates? Is he addicted? What are the main signs of addiction? Is it okay to replace an addiction with another drug or is going totally clean the only way?

Anyway, sorry for the long post, SWIM just wanted to give all the possible details. Thanks in advance