Heroin Addict: Methadone Detox Facts

Question: What is it like to be a heroin addict?

(Posted by: janiesays on 2009-11-08 14:38:52)

What is it like to be a heroin addict? Not me - I just have to do an oral interpretation of "Smack " by Melvin Burgess. I want to convey the emotions of the main character as best as I can, please help out? What goes through the mind of a heroin addict, what goes through the mind when one takes it in, and how does it make you feel? Also - what are the withdrawal symptoms?

Posted by: Revolutionary Road on 2009-11-08, 14:44:27

Watch the movie "Trainspotting " it will give you all the answers you need, believe me. :) Help! au.answers.yahoo.com/ question/ index;_ylt= ArSURrx6jKO_9Nb871O4Qhfg5gt.;_ylv= 3?qid= 20091107212410AALKPsM

Posted by: Always Tired** on 2009-11-08, 14:56:33

You get a Physical sensation rush, Slow shallow breathing, Confused poor mental functioning, Nausea/ vomiting, Dulling of pain. if you do it for a long time you can get infectious diseases (HIV/ AIDS, TB, Hepatitis B and C and other blood born illnesses) your veins can collapse,you can get bacterial infections, you can get infections and abscesses, also you can do damage to heart lining and valves, and arthritis. when all this pain happens you want more heroin to stop it.

Posted by: A on 2009-11-08, 15:26:00

I don't know for heroin, never tried it. But for benzos the doctor gives you a prescribed amount, usually enough to make you calm the first few days of use if you use them as prescribed and then the tolerance builds up quickly, so you save them and don't take them every day as prescribed. When you start to feel anxious or nervous at some point in time in your life you take a larger dose than prescribed and the first few times you do that you feel a wave of calm but never euphoria (in fact there is no 'postive' euphoria with benzos instead they can take you from a dysphoric state to a calm and peaceful state, that's the barb on the hook/ addictive qualities of benzos). So after a period of months of taking benzos when your a little anxious or what not every few days, your dosing habits eventually turns into every other day which turns into everyday as it was prescribed, and pretty soon you run into the limit set by your doctor. Benzos have the reputation of having one of the worst withdrawals of the common drugs, so once at a higher dose you have to slowly tapper off through very long anxiety stricken days till your using a smaller dose, and hopefully get off of them. But this is where I answer your question: at the small doses you know you want to go lower and want to be off them completely for your long term health and social stigma reasons. But there comes the day again where something just overwhelms you and as much as you hate the idea of taken more benzos to cover the negative of that day or hour you feel the panic build hour by hour until you give in, when you give in you feel guilty and ashamed but that goes away somewhat when the calm sets in. At times after the medication has kicked in it feels it may have been worth while to have taken more that day at other times it just feels like your just being an addict, eventually things turn back to normal and so to do the wishes that you don't have to take benzos to get through in life, but that is a start of the cycle again is it not?