Day 30/12 - "3, 7, 11"

Saturday, 23 December 2006 - Day 30/12 - "3, 7, 11"

I came across an interesting term yesterday: “3, 7, 11.” It is the first time that I’ve heard the term and thought I’d share. Apparently it is quite popular in the drug recovery world and I was amazed how fitting it was in my own life.

The term “3, 7, 11” refers to periods in your drug recovery - days, weeks, months, years. Most addicts either fail on days 3, 7 and 11 or find it most difficult on those days. Again on week 3, 7, 11, month 3, 7, 11 and year 3, 7, 11. This is, of course, a fight which will continue for the rest of my life. A disease that will fight to be part of my life again and all I can do is try and keep it under control. Even so, it is apparently the easiest after the 11 years.

I thought of my recovery since originally starting. Up to recently the longest I had been clean was 8 days. Try as I may during the months of my recovery I could never get past the 7/8 day barrier. On most other occasions I lasted only 2 or at most 3 days.

Even the recent lapse, although a few days off, was close. My friend, who I spoke about in an earlier blog, who died of heroin addiction was clean for 3 months before he relapsed and started taking again: “3, 7, 11”

It is just interesting to find this out. Whether it is just a co-incidence or if there are really some truth in it, I don’t know but at least I know to be extra careful around those days!