YES, AM A DRUGGIE.

Druggie definition:  ☆ drug·gie (drug′ē), noun, slang: a habitual user of drugs.

I am officially on 12 medications.  5 are regular, which I take because of my Type II DM, and the rest are shelved on the medicine cabinet for "just in case" or "when the attack hits" (such as head aches, back/wrist/knee and various body pains, TMJ/TMD, allergy reactions to food).  8 are regulated and can only be dispensed with doctor's prescriptions, the other 3 are regular over the counter.  3 are for maintenance, 3 are preventive, 8 are curative.  The good thing?  I don't have to pay a single cent.  Free.  Gratis.  Libre.

One perk of having served in and retired from the military is the continuous medical benefits. Yes, that includes:  all check-ups and follow-ups, evaluations and examinations, tests, surgeries, referrals, prescriptions and drugs, including scheduled refills.  And am covered anywhere I go, back in the US or overseas from head to toe, inside and out.   And if by chance I ran out of my meds and the refills didn't come on time, I could go to a local pharmacy and buy my medications and get full reimbursements.  You can't beat that!  Just imagine if I were to pay for all those with my modest retirement pay? I'd be screwed big time.  

I know there were more than one occasions when and where I've badmouthed and bit the hand that fed, clothed and sheltered me for a couple of decades but those "moments of temporary ungratefulness" were out of the usual frustrations, exhaustion, the feelings of being burnt out and burnt down.  We all feel that, we all go through that.  How many times have you thought about not going to work because you hate somebody or everybody or because of deadlines, or thought about throwing a stapler at somebody, or wished you could choke your supervisor, or hoped your office building caught on fire?  It's a normal human reaction no matter how much we love and value whatever we do.  At some point, or at one point, we hated our jobs.  In the final analysis, we keep and maintain total loyalty and everlasting gratitude to the professions and careers we chose to pursue and do.  

Do I miss the military?  A little bit, to be honest.  I don't miss the deployments and detachments.  I don't miss the standing of watches, I don't miss the inspections, I don't miss the very regimented and structured lifestyle, I don't miss the uniforms.  I don't miss writing reports and evaluations, I don't miss waking up very early in the morning or having not good enough sleep.  I don't miss the weekend and overtime work.  But I do miss the traveling part, visiting different foreign ports, the shopping, and of course...I miss my friends.  Friends are the ones I missed most.  The camaraderie, the fraternity, the closeness, the after-work get togethers, the parties/socials.   If there was only a drug that would make me numb, ignore and oblivious to the things I didn't like and didn't miss, I would've taken it in a heartbeat even if I got addicted to and dependent on it for life.  I wouldn't care if I had to pay for it so long as I could enjoy the things that I sorely miss.   

"Crack is whack!" - Whitney Houston