I’m a 28-year-old male, living in Vancouver BC, Canada. I tried my first Percocet about 2 years ago. Knowing that I’ve got an addictive personality, I stayed away from them for years, when lots of my friends were doing them. I was pretty much hooked after that first one.

I started doing them just on weekends at first. Then I started doing them during the week at work, I moved up to doing them everyday pretty quickly. I was doing about 6 a day for quite a few months and I was just maintaining my habit. I was able to function just fine, I even ended up getting a promotion at my work. At the time I felt like Percs helped me put in that extra effort, which led me to my promotion. I was feeling pretty good about this and was making quite a bit more money. So I started eating more and more Percs.

I was doing about 15 a day everyday for quite awhile, and at an average of 5-6 dollars a Perc, it was starting to add up quite a bit financially. So, I started buying Oxys because they were cheaper and I wouldn’t have to take nearly as many pills buy pain meds overnight. I could buy one Oxy 80 for $40 and it was like having 16 Percs. So I started breaking them up into quarter pieces and eating them throughout the day. But soon enough one 80 wasn’t enough and I started doing 2 80’s a day.

I didn’t know how bad my addiction was becoming, everything in my life had become a blur, I wasn’t motivated to do anything anymore, I wasn’t performing at work, my relationship with my girlfriend of 7 years was starting to deteriorate. I just lived for Oxycontin, it’s what I would think about before bed and when I got up in the morning. If for some reason, I didn’t have any for first thing in the morning, I’d have to go get some before I went to work.

I ended up getting fired from my managerial job, for being late and not performing at my work. I blew through all my savings within two months, pretty much all on Oxy’s. After that I borrowed money from friends and fronted as much pills off my dealers that they would allow so I could support my habit. I’d hit rock bottom, I had to sell off all my furniture and car to pay off money I owed and I moved back into my parents house. The day I moved back I made up my mind: I had to quit.

I didn’t want to go to rehab, so I did some research online and all I could find about quitting opiates was pretty much, to take some Valiums and sleep it off. So that’s what I did, I got some Valium and quit the following morning. That first day was hell, I had the worst back pains and my stomach was extremely upset. The next day was the same, just a tiny bit better. The third day was a bit better, but I still couldn’t function properly. I was starting to think maybe I couldn’t do this.

My best friend from high school came over to see me and he brought me some herbal pills. He had been doing some research into herbal remedies for this problem, since it’s such a big problem in Vancouver and he had been experimenting with the drug himself and could see how extremely addictive it was.

I tried them and within 30 minutes, I felt instantly better! It was actually amazing how much better I felt! We actually went out for a bite to eat, it was my first time out of the house in 3 days. The next day I got up in the morning and popped a few herbal pills and went about my day. I was finally free from my addiction to prescription pain killers. I asked him what was in them and he listed off about 10 ingredients, the only one’s I’d heard of were St. Johns Wort and Panax Ginseng

I’m glad I have finally found a natural, herbal, holistic way of treating this illness. If you are suffering from drug addiction, keep your head up. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. If I could quit, I believe anyone can.