Finding a Hobby After Quitting Drugs?

Question by athomewithkyle: Finding a hobby after quitting drugs?
I’m a 19 year old male who went away to college freshman year. Prior to going away, I found myself involved with alcohol and marijuana. I think I was led to this path after I tore my ACL playing baseball when I was 13. That ended my hobbies… sports. With no sports in my life I found myself getting a job at the age of 14 and I constantly held a job. However, work for most people, especially teens, is not fun. This is where I believe the alcohol and marijuana came in.

Come Fall semester last year, in addition to drinking and smoking weed, I found myself doing ecstasy, salvia, shrooms, percocet, ambien, adderall, xanax, and promethyzine. I only did all those a couple of times, except ecstasy. I fell in love with ecstasy and went on to do it 7 times in the span of 4 months.

During the 2nd semester, I was arrested for drug paraphernalia (smoking pipe). That gave me enough reason to stop smoking marijuana. 2 weeks later, I took some ecstasy and come towards the end of the night and my “roll,” I thought I was going to die. This was enough to get me to quit all drugs. A week later after this incident I was rushed to the hospital for dehydration and that’s when everything went downhill. After I was released from the hospital I felt horrible for the next week. I went to urgent healthcare on campus just about every day with the same symptoms of dehydration. It turns out, what I was experiencing was heavy anxiety and a little depression. After this week of hell, I knew it was time for me to head home and get my health back together.

I stopped all drugs including alcohol for 2 months. Then I found myself drinking again. Not as much as I used to, but I still went back to it. I stayed clean from all other drugs for another 2 months and then I found myself using marijuana again. I would smoke 5-6 times a day and pretty much was high all day. This lasted for 2 months, until this week.

During this week, my anxiety has gotten bad once again and now I just want my life to go back to normal. I no longer feel like I’m living a normal life. I go to work and come home now and repeat this every day. Drugs were my hobby and now my life has a huge gap in it without drugs.

How can I go about finding a hobby that I can enjoy and keep my mind of these drugs and hopefully get my life back together.

I would love to play sports, but at my age it’s hard to play unless you play at a competitive level. Since I haven’t played competitively in over 5 years, I most likely won’t make any team especially since I never got surgery on my torn ACL. Art is out of the question, I absolutely suck at it and can’t bare to watch myself attempt doing it haha. I love music. However, most of the music I listen to deals with drugs (whether it be hip hop or indie rock). I’m not good at any instrument and my singing isn’t too pleasant.

There are many things I would love to get involved with, however those hobbies are very expensive. Some things I would love to get into, but cost way too much for someone my age who has to pay for school: jetskiing/boating, skydiving, and working on my car more.

I would love to try snowboarding as I tried it once when I was 8. However, I live in Long Island, NY and the closest ski place is like 2 hours away.

I would also love to work out more. But, every time I’m nearing the end of my workout, my anxiety decides to be a pain in the ***. I think this has to do with the fact that working out will make you sweat, increase in heart rate, weak…. which I experience all when I’m having a panic attack. Also the reason I was rushed to the hospital for dehydration was due to working out at the gym.

So now I’m open to any suggestions as a hobby for a 19 year old male. I know this was a long *** post/question but I appreciate anyone that took the time to read it all and contribute. You may be able to change a young mans life.

Thanks!

Best answer:

Answer by John
You spend a long a** time with that 5 paragraph essay. No ones going to read it.

Answer by Alan
brother, i hear you. I was released from the military for a severe disability. It took what youth a had away from me. no more baseball for me either. I battle with the drugs and booze too. anything to fill my time and keep my mind of the crazy stuff. my best advice that i have to offer is….. fish. I started out with a small tank and worked my way up. it was a good recovery for me with the substance abuse because it allowed me to take care of something else. Something else depended on my sobriety. After a while you start to watch them grow and change and it gave me a little sense of pride. for me…. my 2 tiger oscars are my best support group, as lame as that sounds. good luck man, keep possitive.

Give your answer to this question below!

 

New flying padre ready for Top End bush rounds
The flying padre service has been operating in the Top End since 1945, providing support services to 120 cattle stations and remote communities. Captain Howard, who has previously worked as a chaplain on drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, says … Read more on ABC Online

Tags: alcohol rehab, substance abuse, alcohol rehabilitation, long island, alcohol rehabilitation program, drug and alcohol, panic attack