It consumes every aspect of the user's life, every decision they make is about the drug. Children and family members do not matter to this person as much as using the drug. Heroin comes first for these people, in my case, my sister has used opiates on and off since 2010. She's also used every other drug imaginable, starting off with pill addiction for at least 5 years before she got on heroin.
My mother was in denial. I tried telling her for years she had a serious problem. She's used crack, cocaine, painkillers, meth, alcohol, but heroin is the one she can't stay away from. My sister controls my mother's life, who is currently raising her 2 and a half year-old daughter while she is in jail for multiple counts of robbery. My mother has felt intense guilt I think, or maybe it's denial, or both.
My father was also a drug user, and has HIV/AIDS since 1994. He is still alive, currently using meth, but back in the 90s it was crack/cocaine where he ended up in prison for armed robbery. As a kid growing up with an addict parent I numbed my emotions, but never ended up a user myself. I hated my father. Absolute hate. My sister adored him, now she is just like him. I haven't spoken to him in about 6 years. My sister also has Hep C. Our entire family has been robbed and conned out of money or possessions on numerous occasions by my sister. I have so many stories. She's pawned her car, family heirlooms, put her child in danger. Drug users are professional liars. It becomes their job. There is nothing you can do to make the user stop, they have to be ready or they won't make it clean for long. I also have issues with my mother now because I didn't agree with how she handled the situation. Drug use has scarring effects on family members, the user will never understand what it does to us, nor do they ever seem to care.
That it is truly a disease that affects so many families. Many times drug abusers have underlying mental health issues. So many people are afraid to talk about it, yet so many are affected by it. The system in place now doesn't provide the best support for some people who are struggling to stay clean. Loving an addict when they are using is heartbreaking, scary, and frustrating.
Most users start with marijuana and then move to prescription drugs. When addicted they seek cheaper street options. If you have a friend or loved one using, DON'T HIDE IT. Get it out in the open, talk to them and involve all friends and family to seek help.
The chance of dying during relapse after rehabilitation from opioid dependency is the most painful experience your loved ones may have to face. Even in death we love you and wish there was a better outcome. I miss my wife every single day.
It can kill you instantly. Our friend died almost 5 years ago from an overdose. A few of his friends wondered why we hadn't heard from him in a few days. We had arranged to get together on this one evening and we kept calling, texting to no avail. We went to his home and saw his car outside, so figured he must be home. We kept knocking, then banging on his door and there was no answer. We contacted his brother, who we figured must have a spare key (as our friend lived alone) and when he finally arrived, he put the key in the lock and the deadbolt was on...that's when our fears seemed to be warranted. We had to contact the apartment rental office to try to enter his apartment and after getting the super to remove the door, his brother was the first to enter the apt.
When we heard his brother crying out, "Oh no, what did you do?", we knew that he had died. Those of us who were there that night will never forget seeing our friend humped over his coffee table in full rigor mortis with a belt and the syringe near him and the anguished call that this brother had to make to his mother. "XXXX is dead...." No one should have to ever make that call. The sad truth about this death is that no one knew that he was using...we just thought he was a pothead. He had been going through some personal trials and was justifiably depressed, but none of us knew what was going on. In fact, it seemed like his life was on the upswing...he had good things going for him. His ex-girlfriend had said that she knew that he had used heroin many years prior, but that he was very proud of the fact that he had kicked the habit. So, the other thing that everyone should know, is once an addict, always an addict.
While it is a personal choice to use, it is also a way of self-medication for other issues such as stress, mental illness, and low self-esteem. Just relying on rehab or detox does nothing for those who haven't been able to make good life choices their entire lives. Some need support that lasts years, if not their entire lives.
That they never intended for this to happen to them. That they wish they never would have started. They feel pretty bad about themselves already without judgment from everyone else. They were still good, caring people. Addiction just completely overtook them. Their families are devastated. Their siblings and parents left behind are forever affected, forever touched by this disease. This becomes a family disease once it touches even one person in the family. We are not ashamed of them. Through their addiction we continued to love them and forever will.
We are survivors of one the worst wars in America. We cry everyday. We cry for those that will die today, tomorrow, next week, next month and on and on. We cry for their families, and with their families. We are losing beautiful, creative, and loving people, every 19 minutes, and over 120 people a day. It seems like no one cares, that there is no outrage. This is a silent killer, and not enough noise is being made about this modern-day scourge in America.
While I am a mother who lost her son to an opioid overdose, it does not define me, or my family. My son still matters, even though most people cannot bring themselves to even say his name, or recall his memory. I am forever missing my son, Mitchell, and he is my inspiration to wake up and live, every single day.
It hijacks the brain and we need to arrest the addiction, not the person…to help stop the progression of the disease without stigmatizing the person as bad, but suffering from mental illness that addiction brings, by chemically altering the brains structure. The brain gets hijacked and wired only to seek what it now believes it lacks to be normal. The brain stops making serotonin and dopamine on its own and craves the opiates to feel well and not get sick. An addictive brain is a diseased brain and not a moral failure on the one suffering from addiction, but by a society/government that has failed morally to protect our citizens and loved ones from the profiteers of prescription drugs who have dirty hands in this epidemic.
We lost our morality and compass when we allowed profit over human lives. Stop the prescribing of these opiates to children/adults that are not in chronic pain. The FDA needs to be held accountable for their poor judgment of allowing these powerful opiates to be prescribed and for not stopping the many deaths this epidemic has caused by heroin addiction due to big pharma.
…My son died -- the unidentified young face of addiction that stopped Times Square the morning of April 12, 2013. He relapsed and fell into the subway and was electrocuted by the third rail. It was not suicide or anything other than another beautiful son/daughter losing their battle with addiction and the heartless society that shames them.
The stigma needs to be removed. It can happen to any family, regardless of social status. These aren't junkies in the street... these are your neighbors, the quarterback, our own children. Opioid addiction has been classified as a brain disease and the rate of relapse is extremely high.
That it KILLS!! I've lost BOTH MY BOYS to heroin overdoses. My 19-year-old Dillan in 2010, and my 28-year-old Matthew just two weeks ago, February 3, 2016!!! THIS KILLS!!!! DEALERS ARE CUTTING DRUGS WITH ALL SORTS OF CHEMICALS...DO NOT USE!!!!
That initially you made a choice to try it, but after that it becomes a disease. So many people need to really educate themselves on addiction. As a family member I have seen close family members and friends try it once and go down that dark path after. Once you're addicted you're hooked. Do you think addicts want to live on the street? Panhandle? Shoplift? Not have their family and friends' support? Feel less than? Not be able to get help through funding, etc.? I don't think so. I myself have never used drugs, however, I know it's a disease. I've lived through it with my family/friends, once we stop the stigma and really try and understand and educate ourselves then we can help the matter and not cause more harm. Why not be apart of the solution and not the problem?
It is taking bright, educated and promising young people and utterly destroying their lives, families, their futures and their dreams. My little sister was in college, on the golf team and getting straight As. Now she has been to prison, convicted of felonies, lost everything in her life including her relationships with us, her family and is living on the streets.
We feel so helpless and unable to reach her. We have tried and tried to help her "restart" only to fail every single time. She blames us for her failed attempts. She falls deeper and deeper in a pit that we can't reach into. It happened so fast and nothing seems to work. It is very heartbreaking and infuriating that someone you love is trapped in this hell that you cannot rescue them from. You just want to run in and scoop them up and whisk them away from their bad choices and unsafe lifestyle, but every time they run back.
That it can take one time; that not everyone gets 10 chances at rehab. That the reckless and glamorous life of your favorite band will not necessarily be your outcome. That you can overdose and die by snorting; needles are not required.
I provide education and support for families, referral for treatment for addiction and co-dependency. It requires sustained long-term intervention and support, and Suboxone is another big-pharmacy drug that is now so widely available, abused, sold on the street and prescribed by doctors to a heroin addict in an outpatient setting without requiring or making available any well studied evidenced-based practices.
If you have someone you love living under your roof actively using opiates at the very least you should look into obtaining Narcan (Naloxone) and some training on how/when to use it. After you speak with one parent who could not revive their overdosed child, well, this is the sort of advice that sobers up the family -- get them help, or prepare for the funeral. There are no old heroin addicts, unless of course you are old when you start.
That there is so much more to life than the life a drug addict lives. I think they don't always see that. That even family members can cause you life-erupting pain, and how important it is to face them with compassion (although it is okay to be angry too). That I have lost half of my friends and my sister to heroin addiction and that AA and Al-Anon works if you work the program.
That even though I live half way across the world now, and have no control over what is happening at home, I still feel the pain everywhere in my body when I think about my sister and all my friends whom I haven't spoken with in months. When I think of Seattle where I have lived the first 19 years of my life, the thought of returning home doesn't appeal anymore. When I think of home, I see a dark cloud of anger and pain and people I miss dearly, the constant dark clouds over Seattle have become so much worse than only the stereotypical weather. When I picture Seattle now I picture Pan's Labyrinth, a dark and twisted place that I have no desire to re-enter anytime soon.
It is difficult to watch for 15 years, a family member struggle and TRY to overcome it. They are now on methadone. Plus it is self-sacrificing and expensive to try to keep the family member fed, sheltered and from committing crimes.
That it is a disease that my son has! He has died once and has stopped breathing at least 10 times in my home and continues to use heroin! Either me (his mom) or his dad or brother have performed CPR until paramedics came, [and] he continued to use after that. We are traumatized, our family is not the same, never will be! Five treatment centers later and he lives thousands of miles away but he still fights this demon!
It can and will kill you. My beautiful 25-year-old daughter who had a three-year-old daughter of her own died from just wanting to get high. She died in a public restroom in the local casino. Now I'm raising my beautiful granddaughter and trying to comfort her when she doesn't understand why mama isn't coming home.
My boyfriend died of a heroin overdose on October 30, 2015. I wish they knew that doctors are creating addictions by prescribing irresponsibly high doses of opioids for extreme periods of time to patients with chronic pain who have nowhere else to turn. That the profile of an addict is much broader than most people perceive and can often be that seemingly functioning, well-respected professional you know and work with. That the jump from prescribed opiates to heroin isn't as far as you think. That addiction is a disease with emotional and physical aspects and not something most people can overcome through sheer willpower. That the disease lies. That getting someone into treatment can't necessarily save them and relapse is almost certain. That no matter how much an addict loves you, they love the drug more. And that even though your brain knows you can't save an addict and that what happens to them as a result of their addiction isn't your fault, it takes a very long time for your heart to know that.
It is a disease and it is very hard as a parent to not want to help your addicted child but typically the help turns into enabling. This disease now impacts all socio-economic levels. We were an upper middle-class family with an addicted daughter.
It makes you do things you never would have done before. My son stole family heirloom jewelry given to me by my parents, brought here from Italy, irreplaceable. It broke my heart to tell my mother what my middle son did. I died a little inside telling her it was forever gone. Once a good looking and decent man, he turned to drug use and then finally heroin use and abuse.
He flat lined in the E.R. 4 times in one night, [had] permanent brain damage and [is] now serving time in Kingman prison for theft as well as sex with a minor (16) while on heroin! He has had all of his teeth pulled now at the age of 27, ruined his looks and his mind. While he no longer has the chance for a normal life, I hope that many will listen and make some huge changes while there is still time! Parents, I quit enabling him for 2 years, only back in his life once he was ready and clean and prepared to serve his jail time and do the best he can to move on to the next sober level!
You can become addicted to prescription opioids and not even realize you have a problem, till it's too late. In the haze of the high and loved ones saying they're worried about you, you lie to yourself and them and say you need the pills, that the doctor wouldn't give you something that would hurt you, that you need them or the pain will be unbearable. So you pull away from everyone so they don't see you high. Not realizing you are not just taking the medicine for pain -- you now need it daily to just to get out of bed. Without it, you're physically sick. Your whole body hurts, and you know the answer to fix it all is the opioids.
I stopped using, I got help and got to see there is still life left to live. My younger brother passed in December 2014 from a combined drug intoxication and heroin was one of the drugs that helped take his life along with prescription drugs. He lost his battle but I am fighting it in his name to try and help bring this front and center, and let people know there is help out there, there is life after all this. They have to want to get clean, more than they want to get high.
That after the first hit enough will never be enough! My son died from heroin.
I wish people knew that heroin addiction does not discriminate. I wish people knew that those suffering from addiction are not bad people, but someone with a disease. I wish there was less stigma surrounding heroin addiction so that more people suffering would feel comfortable seeking the help they so desperately need and deserve.
The medical community in the US holds a great deal of culpability in the spread of opioid addiction. Irresponsibly prescribing heavy-duty painkillers to people over the last 20 years has caused a huge surge in the numbers of addicted. When the industry became aware the damage they had inflicted, they made it more difficult for people to obtain pain medications; many have switched to heroin.
I have seen so many in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous lose their sobriety, their lives and their dignity to pill addictions. Time and again, I hear sad stories of trust placed in doctors, and the beginning of a pill addiction. Please hold the medical community responsible --- our love of prescriptions and our trust of doctors has helped create this new nightmare in people's lives.
It's a horrifying addiction that destroys the lives of not only the user, but their family members. Watching its effect on my son for the last 7 plus years has drained me emotionally and financially. Heroin and opioid addiction has no bias. I've seen people from all walks of life fall victim to this monster — people who were straight up users and people who started out managing legitimate pain, only to graduate to heroin use. So many people dead. My own son has nearly died more times than I can count due to secondary issues (endocarditis, staph infections, etc.) all brought on by infections from the syringe use. He has had to have multiple surgeries to his heart. One time he was found unresponsive in the hospital.
One of the most painful things to watch is to see how other people treat addicts: as less than human. My heart and prayers go out to the families and loved ones. This is someone's son. A daughter. A father. A brother. A mother. No words can describe the despair of watching a bright and articulate son succumb to the drive to use again. How does one explain the feelings of being isolated and powerless to help? How can WE, in the Unites States, continue to prescribe opioids, make them so readily available, and not make it easier for addicts to get the help they need? It's a vicious and evil circle. I wouldn't wish this hell on anyone. I refuse to give up on my son, though. If it weren't for my faith in God, I'd have jumped off a cliff a long time ago...
I was a Registered Nurse. I never imagined that I could become addicted to opiates...lose everything I owned. I wound up homeless, on public assistance. Lost my license to practice, was chronically in trouble, in court, arrested. My life went from comfortably upper-middle class to indigent in less than six months. I used to be judgmental. I used to say, "I would never do that!" I would have the public know…Don't judge. Never see yourself as someone who "would never." I started with prescribed Vicodin. I've been sober now seven years. Every day, I'm grateful for life itself. My mother died of overdose on October 12, 2007. I've seen hundreds die before their time. We have to help each other.
I wish people understood that addiction is a disease and should be treated as such, that it can happen to anyone, that it is both chronic and fatal, that people with an addiction should not be shunned and separated from their loved ones, and that it is closely linked to mental illness and trauma. I would also like them to know that it can begin with a legal prescription from your doctor, or from making a choice to simply feel better, and that because there is not enough treatment available it is not as simple as wanting to get help. I wish people knew how difficult it is for an uninformed parent to learn about addiction and to learn what to do about it. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts.
Who it really affects. And how hard it is to get off of it without using worse drugs like methadone. The consequences last longer than the use. I'm over 3 years clean. My wife just got off of methadone but was stuck on it for over 2 years without a way to get off.
That is a disease just like diabetes or heart disease. It is not a moral failing.
I am a person in long-term recovery -- 27 years. I am also a mother whose son battled an opiate addiction for 16 years. After 9 good months of sobriety, my son relapsed and died on Nov 24, 2015. This plague transcends all barriers. It is a disease that is steadily killing our communities. The only way to battle this is together --educate and prevent. Erase the stigma.
Because heroin is so addictive, I will live in fear for the rest of my life of my daughter overdosing and dying. In 2014, she overdosed twice within a two and a half month period of time. I found her the first time and thought that she was so scared of almost dying that she would never touch it again.
This addiction affects the entire family. I have been caring for her son ever since she had the second overdose. He was not quite nine months of age when she overdosed the second time and went to jail. Finding treatment is very difficult. The only way that we were able to get her into treatment was to foot the bill ourselves.
Watch out if your child is prescribed pain medication at an early age. My son hurt his back playing football in his senior year of high school. He was prescribed pain medication. When the medication ran out, he started buying pills on the street. Then that became too expensive so he started using heroin. He passed away November 23, 2015 of a drug overdose. I miss him every day. He didn't realize what opioids were or how addictive they can be.
We need to get the word out to these kids. I would like to help in any way I can. This can happen to anyone. He was a good boy with good grades. He would have done anything for anyone. He always had a smile on his face. He was loved by everyone… family... friends... teachers... coaches. He always wanted to help out his friends so if there is anything I can do to help please let me know. This is what Peter would want.
I watched my son battle a heroin addiction that ultimately took his life 48 hours out of rehab. The heroin he bought was laced with fentanyl. What addicts and families need to be aware of is fentanyl is being added to heroin and killing young people daily. Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate is 50-100 times more potent than morphine.
Unfortunately for many who have overdosed on the heroin/fentanyl combination Narcan was not successful in reviving them. My son was given 3 doses of Naloxone and it was too late. Every time an addict injects,snorts or smokes what they think is just heroin could be laced with fentanyl. It's like playing Russian Roulette. God Bless all those struggling in active addiction and the families that love them.
Addiction is a disease and should be treated as one without stigma, and without cost prohibitive treatments.
I am a mom of a recovering addict! My son became addicted at a very young age without me even realizing through prescription drugs. As a young child he would always get codeine prescribed for his colds, than when he was 14 he had all his wisdom teeth pulled and was given Percocet. Marijuana was also an issue as well. Then, when he turned 21 and was of legal age to drink he thought he did not have a problem with alcohol, but the alcohol like any drug led him back to his cheapest high -- the heroin. I wish [people] to understand that it is like any addiction such as alcohol it may have been a choice in the beginning, but it than becomes an allergy!...
It is not easy to quit and many have no support system because they have burned all their bridges. If family and friends could understand it as a disease and be more compassionate and loving regardless if they seem to be un-loveable. They may have done a lot of awful things, but still are a human being and deserve to be treated with dignity. I wish society to understand that legalizing marijuana is ludicrous it is a gateway drug and if you ask anyone with an addiction they will probably tell you it started with marijuana and alcohol or prescription. We need to make rehabilitation and more programs that last longer than a few days available to all. It takes a minimum of 30 days to help them get a good start.
The addict doesn't want to be an addict. It's easier to chase the demon (heroin) than get the help to recover. Most addicts don't have insurance for treatment or family that has money to pay for it. I'm proof that without treatment the addiction has two paths, jail or death. My son died on November 22, 2014 from an overdose and his twin is in jail for drug possession charges.
It's a forever thing. The cravings, the relapses... it's forever. I've been clean for 6 years. My husband of 12 years, on the other hand, has not. He relapses all the time. He's overdosed 8 times that I have had to save his life. This last time, my kids were right there when I found him overdosed. It's traumatic for my kids and me, and he thinks it's a joke. That's how powerful this drug is. I'm scared to death everyday. I know my husband will die. It's not an 'if' anymore it's a 'when.' I've lost myself watching him like [he's] a 2-year-old.
Addicts are not bad people. They don't have a choice once addiction takes over their brain.
Opioid addiction can (and does) impact anyone, regardless of age, gender, status. It can start with a single prescription. Addiction is an illness, not a character flaw, and there are very effective treatment options. In just a short time providing medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, I have seen people quickly regain control over their lives once treatment is initiated, restoring relationships, succeeding at work, and finding emotional stability.
My mother struggled with chronic pain and an unrecognized, except by loved ones, addiction to narcotics. After her death, from an unrelated cause, I had avoided seeking special training in addiction, as I thought it would pose too much of an emotional challenge. However, after seeing patient after patient walk through my door with opioid disorder, often having no treatment options, I felt that getting trained in buprenorphine and offering it as a treatment option was the right thing to do, for my patients and my community.
It's an illness and doctors and big pharma are culpable. The sources of synthetic heroin need to be cut off. Treatment options are too expensive and far too scarce. Selfishness is not the reason why addicts become hooked. Many addicts (and their families) desperately try to help them(selves). That stigma only exacerbates the epidemic. That criminalization of the addict is not a solution. That doctors and big pharma are culpable (my repetition is deliberate).
These are people with a terrible disease and marginalizing them is not at all helpful.
Anyone can become addicted to opioids and "graduate" to heroin when the other drugs aren't available or become expensive, as is the case. My son started using Percocets with a girlfriend who had been prescribed the pills by her doctor. Once on that road, people don't realize how easy it is to stay there and when there is an end to the prescribing of the pills, heroin is a cheap alternative....but fentanyl is widely used to cut the heroin and is a quick trip to the morgue. There is no way to come back when you have enough fentanyl in your system to kill 3 or 4 people, as was the case with my son. We never think it will happen to us. We are wrong.
Too many people don't know what they are using, what it is that they are injecting or snorting, etc. And they are dying. Over 40 years ago my own mother became dependent on pain pills, Valium and others after she had back surgery. She took those pills, prescribed by her doctor for years afterwards. It was almost impossible for her to quit taking them. She had to be weaned off and I know she went through withdrawal. However, these were "legal" drugs, so people didn't think much of that issue, then. I believe drug companies are in the business to make money, support their bottom line and they don't care who uses their drugs, as long as they do use them.
I don't know what the answers are, as to legalizing drugs but I will say nothing that is going on now is working. I've read about other countries that have legalized drugs and regulate them, that those countries seem to have a better handle on their particular protocol. Do I think the US would be better served if we adopted that protocol? It might be better than what we have now. Seems what we have now is a huge mess and lots of sick, addicted and dead people. As a parent of a child lost to addiction, I can only say there has to be a better way.
