Heroin can resemble an image a caring person; calming, there to relieve, and comfort all pain, inside and out. Once you accept, it attaches, holding on with a tight grip. The potent street opioid is hard to leave; starting from the first hit. In “Chasing Heroin” many of the addicts resemble the effects heroin carries. A variety of treatment options are available to reduce and remove those images and effects of heroin one may experience. Methadone a well-known treatment. Ever since the existence of methadone, addicts have turned to the drug to escape heroin.…
Because of my addiction I lost their trust. I also lost custody of my children because I simply was not fit to be a parent at that point in time. Over the course of my addiction my family and loved ones began to realize that they couldn’t even trust me enough to leave me alone in their house. I was not allowed to spend the night at anyone’s house, let alone live with them. This trust issue got so bad over time that when I was around my family they constantly hid or watched their purses or personal belongings because they were scared that I was going to steal something. My addiction made me do horrible things to the people I loved the most. I obviously felt horrible about these things but the drugs had a very strong hold on me. Because of these things my family and loved ones eventually wrote me off completely. I was not even welcome for Thanksgiving or Christmas. These years of my life were horrible ones, and I still to do this day do not know how I got through them. The biggest problem that my addiction caused between myself and my family was losing custody of my children. I knew that they should not be with me and I ended up leaving them in the care of my mother until social services got involved in the situation. Eventually I ended up losing my legal rights to them. This situation caused me so much sadness, grief, anger, shame, and guilt. Lots of guilt. These feelings seemed to fuel my addiction even more.…
Megan was 23 years old when she first transitioned from pain pills to heroin. She quickly became addicted and eventually lost everything due to her addiction. When she finally hit rock bottom and decided to seek treatment, she was not sure she would be able to recover. Megan entered a rehabilitation center and began the process of detoxification. Once she had detoxed, she was placed on a drug called methadone to control her cravings. After a couple months of being off heroin, she started attending a 12-step program that offered the support she needed to stay off the drug. Today, Megan is 5 years clean and attending college to become a drug and alcohol counselor. Even though heroin addiction is hard to recover from, with detoxification, methadone treatment, and a 12-step program recovery from heroin addiction is possible.…
As I watched the closest person in my life go from bad to progressively worse, I went through cycles of hope and despair. Today Iunderstand what my wife must have gone through with me during the years of my addiction, when I made many promises to her that never came true until I came to SA. I suffered a similar pain as I watched her dying.…
Many more people use and or get addicted to drugs than most people realize. People experiment with drugs for many different reasons. Many first try drugs out of curiosity, to indicate a good time, because friends try it, or in an effort to improve athletic performance or ease another problem, such as stress, anxiety, or depression. Getting addicted to those drugs never even crossed these people’s minds. The subject of drugs became very close to my heart because I acquired a friend who uses. He lets drugs run his life. He never goes a day without using. Just remember this saying, “Wasted? So is your life.” This became why I pledged to never take drugs under any…
With all this going on physically, the mind itself is also taking a harsh beating. Heroin easily ruins relationships with significant others, family members, friends, and even between the user and themselves. Many users will either choose to live very secluded lives; whereas others are forced to do so when the people around them decide it's time to let go of them. This is embarrassing and truly shameful only harming the person's relationship with themselves as well in the process. Being so isolated allows abusers to become more depressed which would only encourage the use of more substance (Rakusen 16). Financially supporting a heavy habit is not easy especially when most users aren't able to hold a job, this can add even more depression along…
Yes, I do know a guy from grad school and he’s openly taking marijuana and openly supporting legalizing other drugs.…
Addiction should not always be looked down upon. Addicts are not bad people, they are people in need of help to overcome something that has been so destructive. People may view them as bad or selfish people because they can abandon their family, they do not have self control, they can be weak, and they can deceive their families. Some may not realize that anyone can become addicted to…
The shift from sophomore to junior year of high school marked a major transition in my perspective in regards to drugs. Before this evolution of my personal beliefs took place, I believed that anyone who even pondered the idea of trying any sort of drug, whether it be something as benign as marijuana…
Addicts need to find new friends. In addition, they must find new activities they enjoy, so they aren't tempted to revert to their old ways. This needs to be part of the treatment process, so the addict isn't handling these major life adjustments without support. It is possible to overcome loneliness, boredom and depression without drugs, and people can have a good time without resorting to a chemical substance. Once the addict understands how to do this, their chances of a relapse…
This experience was eye opening and I feel that it has better equipped me to help others through the process of recovery. It’s easy to see why addictions are difficult to recover from and why it is considered a lifelong practice. I learned that it takes commitment, courage, and the desire to change and in order to create change, you have to create balance in all areas of your life, because this issue not only affects the addict, but the people around him or her as well. During this…
Once I took that one puff and that one sip. Smoking became an everyday ritual, as to where drinking was an every now and then process. But in my heart, I knew that the decision I was making was not right for me. I kept telling myself day in and day out. But the peer pressure of my friends forced me in the wrong direction.…
Though I have not experienced my own addictions I have been directly affected by those of my close friend Jason. In the time since junior high until now I have had an amazing friend in my life named Jason, I met him through mutual friends in 9th grade. Our friendship grew stronger over time and eventually he sat me down to explain that he was addicted to both alcohol and cocaine. As I was being told every detail of what he had been going through for the passed year of his life all I could think was how it was now my job to find help for him. From this point on I became very devoted to finding him help and trying to support him. Often times I had to distance myself from the situation because his changes in personality became to hard to focus on my own life. At many point in the stages of rehab Jason was in he changed drastically from being the person I knew to a very angry and bitter person. Grief was a feeling I found myself feeling a lot during his time in rehab, the quote from ‘The…
That moment marked a huge transition in my life. It has been about 5 or 6 years since that fateful day, and I can personally say that having a parent that struggles with drug addiction is one of the most taxing experiences anyone can live through. It not only changes the relationship you have with that parent, but it also changes your perspective of the world.…
Okay my freshman to senior years in school, hell I barely remember High School. I was not a dumb kid just board with school. I never could wait until the end of the day when school let out maybe because I enjoyed smoking weed more. A lot of times I would cut class, depending on what class it was. I knew I could pass the class even if I wasn’t there 100 % of the time so towards the latter part of the school day I would slip right on out of school to hang out. We would also get high before school would start hell. We would be in home room high off of some weed, marijuana, or whatever you want to call it- while they called attendance. It would help the day go by easier, so we thought. One thing I did know it made us happier. Riding public transit was a bitch especially in the winter time it was too cold to be standing on the corner waiting on a city bus. Being a teenager having a good time in High School you get a thing called driving fever. In those years we would drive any kind of car- a friend, a relative’s, even stolen cars. We did not care we just wanted to drive trying to impress the ladies and have transportation back and forth to school. Now back to cutting class on those days when nobody had a car to drive we would cut class and catch the subway downtown to Time Square getting high all the way and just to hang out on 42nd street or in Central Park. Sometimes we would get bored and head up to Harlem 145th and score some blow, cocaine if we had enough funds. Back then in the 70s cocaine was pretty cheap and easy to get. It was a blast and out of all of that getting high and hanging out we still managed to get to class and finish school. So after four years of hanging out high in school, I still managed to finish and graduate High School. Boy I could not wait to get out of school. I was very lucky to make it out of school in the 70s not hooked on drugs, ending up in prison or worse dead. I knew I liked drugs a…