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 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?
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.
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.
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.
It's not about a moral issue. It's a chronic illness that can be managed with treatment.
When a person is heavily engrossed in the cycle of addiction the notion that most loved ones seem to not be able to comprehend is that of -- "why can't you just stop." This is not a rational thought for an addict. There, within this vicious cycle of lies, pain and remorse that encompasses and takes over a person's thought process one axiom is ever present; that is the complete lack of the ability to say "no."
I know it is hard to comprehend but just imagine waking up in the morning and your first thought being of heroin. The ways and means of how you will get this one thing into your body to make life worth living. Now imagine the person doing these things despite any and all responsibilities that they may have. Children will take a back seat. Basic morality never comes into play when it comes to the end goal of putting this substance into your body. That is what it does to you mentally -- it is an ever present thought. Physically, imagine the worst flu-like sickness you have ever had then factor it by ten. So you have a mentally and physically tortured person who knows that if they obtain this one thing "all will be well." Would you have a choice? It's as if a tortured prisoner were offered the key to their cell door, they are going to take it, there would be no choice. This is the short, short example I have of the cycle. Something drastic has to happen to break it. For some, a stint in rehab works. Others may just experience enough pain and be ready.
But like anything addiction is progressive, I used heroin for over six years, things were bad, very bad, I felt I had no way out. It was either continue using to numb the pain or kill myself. Eventually I was arrested and spent a few months in jail, after my physical symptoms were gone I was able to reflect on my life and at that point I had a choice. Continue to use and die or go to prison, or to do something with my life for a change. I was given Drug Court and the structure of this intensive probation has worked for me. Today, I have not used. Tomorrow morning, I am going to get up, iron some cloths, put on my tie and go to work. This was an impossible task when I was using. But tomorrow I have a choice. I see so many news reports on the heroin epidemic that is widespread and all the fear it must put into every parent. But I see almost nothing about the stories of the people who have battled this thing and won. There is so much hope out there and it was the knowledge that someone else got out of the living hell I was in gave me the motivation to do it too. If you are reading this as someone who is in that cycle right now seemingly without HOPE, know that there is a way out.
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.
Heroin is a terrible drug, but opiate users are not sociopathic junkies like the stereotype says. We are human beings with a disease, and with the proper support we can recover.
I have struggled with opioid addiction on and off for 30 years with the most clean time being 7 years consecutive. The thing that I think that people are quickly understanding is that opiate addiction does not discriminate and is not a moral failing.
Many of us that have become addicted are intelligent, valuable people who lost control after experimentation, curiosity or having the opiates prescribed. I didn't ever intend to be a heroin addict; it quickly got out of control and led me to places I never dreamed of.
These are people with a terrible disease and marginalizing them is not at all helpful.
It can totally encompass your life. It leaves you unable and unwilling to exist in the "real" world. Heroin make you do things that go against your entire moral values.
We really can't see what's obvious to you and to everyone else and to me, just not when I look in the mirror. It seems unbelievable but it's true. It really does make you blind to your own addiction and in that respect I truly believe it is a disease. Heroin addiction is a disease.
While it may have been a choice to start using opiates, nobody chooses to become an addict.
I wish people understood that once the addict becomes addicted to heroin or opioids, it’s no longer a choice. It does and will consume every part of your life. The drive to get the next is no longer about the actual high, but more about not being sick. The drive turns into needing the drug to just feel normal. The body needs the heroin just to function.
When a heroin addict finally has the desire, desperation, or willingness to put the drug down and get help, the psychological battle will begin … the mind will literally go into panic mode for the next high. Without the right guidance and support it is almost impossible to get clean from this drug. It is a complete lifestyle change, not as simple as just don’t get high. The shame guilt and embarrassment will consume the addict without counseling or therapy.
Recovery is possible. This is not a death sentence. We do overcome the disease of addiction. I am a recovering heroin addict. I have 20 months clean from heroin and any other mind- or mood-altering substance. I now work as a recovery specialist in one of the city’s detox facilities. Also one of the four organizers of my town’s Overcoming Addiction, which holds candlelight vigils but also helps families understand addition and offers support. With that I am also a panelist with the district attorney’s opioid task force, where I can give my experience to lawmakers and city officials — a perspective on the life of an addict, and hopefully give hope to the families that have lost it. Most importantly I am a daughter again a sister, a fiance, and a friend….. no longer a hopeless junkie!
The best advice I can give to people that do not understand this disease is every person in the throes of addiction is someone’s child, mother, brother, sister, father. They were not always the drug addict you see before you. They are lost and need to be found. So before casting any judgement try encouragement. You never know what someone is battling.
