Congrats Pinksoil on being clean!

There are many ways to become clean, as everyone is so different. For me, it took many tries. The final attempt was my biggest effort. I am now officially 1 year clean, although aside from a few slip-ups it is more like a year and half.

To get clean, I left the town I was living in. I used to live in a small town, and so in order to get away from temptation, I had no choice but to leave. I had to rid myself of all temptation. That included the places AND friends I associated with drugs. I started to see a therapist who specialized in addictions. The wait list for rehab was too long (8 months!!) and I couldn't afford a specialized facility. For various reasons I did not want to go to AA or NA meetings. Basically, I took myself out of the place that tempted me. In a sense, drugs are easier than alcohol, because once you move to a new place you have to actively seek out ways of attaining the drugs, whereas with alcohol you can walk into any bar. I was lucky enough to have the support of close friends and family. Overall, the most important thing was my need and want to quit. Over time, the cravings lessened.

Exercise is a great way to speed up the process because a lot of the toxins from drugs and alcohol are stored in fat cells, thus, if you exercise you are killing fat cells ie the toxins.

As far as staying clean is concerned. I did slip up. The key is to not look too much into a slip-up. Mistakes happen. A big issue with relapse is that one slip-up will often throw people right back into the cycle of use. Don't beat yourself up about it. Once is okay, you can use it to learn about what makes you use, so as to prevent it in the future. That really helped me, knowing that one slip-up was not the end of the world, it did not make me a failure, it only made me human.

Basically, to stay clean, I found healthy ways of spending my time. Made new friends who were not into drugs and alcohol. It's not always easy. But you can do it. Make lists of all the bad things drugs/alcohol did to you/friends/family, and whenever you are seriously tempted, go read that list to remind you of why you stopped.

Good luck!