Has anyone done heroin?

I am an idiott wrote:

John Clendon wrote:

Took a strong pill of hydrocodone/acetaminophen once. Threw out the bottle after. Scared the s**t out of me. Couldn't imagine heroin.

I fell and got a separated shoulder. the DR prescribed hydrocodone to me. I took it for the pain and honest to God, I did not feel a single thing. I tried it again and nothing. People were telling me to be super cautious with it because it would make loopy and also to be careful driving. They also warned me of getting addicted too. Yet nothing.

I thought that was very strange. It was almost like he gave me placebo.

Similar here. Prescribed Tylenol 3 and a friend said it would make me feel awesome. It literally did nothing for the pain... but when I broke out in hives and my throat started to close, I found out I was allergic to codeine. So that was fun.

It doesn't compare to using marijuana or being drunk, it's a totally different experience. You're mostly oblivious to your surroundings, relaxed and pain free. You also only have a handful of hours before you'll be sicker than you can imagine.

Withdrawl from opiates is unbearable. You ache from inside of your bones, always from your legs, and if you're in really bad shape from your forearms too. From the outside one may think that two or three days of aching isn't too bad. The biggest problem is that time passes more slowly than you can imagine, and you won't sleep. It's 72 hours without sleep, aching from deep in your bones, a throbbing pain in between your calf and you tibia that just won't quit. Your legs are constantly moving, because movement give you the sense that the aching is ending. You can't eat, you can't focus, you sweat uncontrollably and you teeter on the edge of sleep, but you don't cross that threshold.

The absolute worse thing is that you know that with one little bag, for just a few bucks, you can make the pain stop. You do't have to wait 72 hours, you can make the pain stop instantly. You think to yourself, I'll use just one more to stop this agony, and then I'll quit for good. You can't quit though, not that simply, because the next time you're in all that pain, you think the same thought... "just one more." Its a seemingly endless cycle of misery.

Heroin addiction is all consuming, it takes over your entire life and eventually takes your life.

I've used heroin, it started with seemingly harmless prescription drugs and it evolved. It took over my entire life and I used for years, never thinking that I could stop. It's now been 10 years since I've used any drugs. I'm more proud of that than any of my PRs.

this is some heavy stuff, but also enlightening for those of us who have never used. Every once in a while Letsrun will give us a thread like this that promotes real, honest, and productive discussions.

Thank you to everyone willing to share their experiences so candidly.

There was a mention of the lure of the spike, being addicted to the use of a needle. Another in the complex phenomenon we know as addiction.

maybe try medicinal marijuana strains with cbd and thc plus consume pepper corns with. for terpenes. .

The stuff I did was white.

I remember it was not a huge hit (I didn't puke).

Much better than oxys and Opana

Hillary 2016 wrote:

JAKIR wrote:

Exactly which is what I was trying to say in my long convoluted post. It's a public health issue that has been driven in large parts by big Pharma. It's ridiculous.

We should all do what we can to make heroin addicts feel better about their drug habits. Its the least we can do to support them.

Yes, because what is really important is that other people can feel morally superior to those drug users. Damn the evidence. By no means do we wish to have effective drug policies driven by research.

I'm sure we can just continue to arrest our way out of the problem. Seems to be working so far...

I often think there is a link between the addiction that some of us feel towards running and the addiction of certain substances. [i realize this is nothing new] look at the variation in response by those here who have tried various opiates? Some had no positive association at all, whereas some noted the positive association but didn't feel the compulsion to continue.

During a stint of leg treatment, the chiro I saw told me a story of a guy he had in frequently who told him running had replaced heroin for him, but just as with heroin he kept having to up the miles to keep himself feeling right, and consequently there was the potential for injury. When he would come in he would say, "doc, you gotta help me or I'll start using again."

I also second the notion that painkillers are overprescribed. I took exactly zero pain meds after each of my four surgeries. I simply wanted to be able to keep track of the pain and not overdo it. I have had plenty of injuries as well and always keep the NSAIDs to a minimum because pain is a sign of something.

Aside from the physical and chemical dependence brought on by opiates in particular, a major contribution is not treating the cause of seeking out these drugs in the first place.

Devil Dog wrote:

You want hones............. I can choose to live in the light is what keeps me going.

damn. thanks for your service and sharing that. glad you got help.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Hillary 2016 wrote:

We should all do what we can to make heroin addicts feel better about their drug habits. Its the least we can do to support them.

Yes, because what is really important is that other people can feel morally superior to those drug users. Damn the evidence. By no means do we wish to have effective drug policies driven by research.

I'm sure we can just continue to arrest our way out of the problem. Seems to be working so far...

Captain zero led the way to an alternate approach by releasing 10000 heroin dealers from federal prison while taking a supportive stance on drug use. The result in my area was threat heroin deaths increased by 25% in Pennsylvania last year. You are correct that there are other ways to end the epidemic than by forcing addicts into treatment under the threat of prison.

Hillary 2016 wrote:

Captain zero led the way to an alternate approach by releasing 10000 heroin dealers from federal prison while taking a supportive stance on drug use. The result in my area was threat heroin deaths increased by 25% in Pennsylvania last year. You are correct that there are other ways to end the epidemic than by forcing addicts into treatment under the threat of prison.

Hey, look at that, Heroin death rates have been spiking up nationally since 2010 (and quadrupled since 1999). So any actions taken last year really haven't changed the trajectory.

And local deaths are likely due to changes in supply. Either changes in purity or changes in additives.

I'm sure that's too many actual facts for you. If only we could come up with some solutions???

Oh, heh, medical marijuana leads to dramatic decreases in presciption drug use in a wide variety of classes, including opiods:

Heroin and opoid deaths decreased substantially in states the legalized medical marijuana:

But enough of that. Let's just arrest them all. screw sensible drug policy that leads to better health and social outcomes.

wineturtle wrote:

There was a mention of the lure of the spike, being addicted to the use of a needle. Another in the complex phenomenon we know as addiction.

Yes, there were definitely periods of my use where I was just as, if not more, addicted to the needle and injecting myself than to the actual drugs I was shooting up into my veins.

I will say that the fantasies about the needle became less frequent as I ruined my veins over time, so that shooting up would turn into a 30-minute or 1-hour process that was just about as frustrating as anything. It's awful when you're sick, but you can't find a vein to get the drugs into you to make you well.

And, yes, as someone mentioned elsewhere, by the time you're a long-term addict, your money isn't going into getting you high anymore, but just making you well enough to function to go to work or just get out of bed. It's impossible to describe withdrawals just based on the physical symptoms to those who haven't had it. The mental symptoms make everything agony. Your brain is depleted of any sorts of chemicals that make you feel at all normal. I dreaded it, and still do dread it, since I'm on Suboxone.

I definitely think that I became an addict in part because of my obsessive personality. When I was using, I used to go onto the drug equivalent of forums like LetsRun and wanted to learn as much as possible about drugs, and wanted to try as many kinds of drugs as possible, the same I was obsessed with knowledge about running before I got into drugs.

And yes, I've always learned in treatment that drug addiction isn't necessarily the CAUSE of one's ills. 99% of the time there is something underlying addiction--anxiety, depression, more severe mental illness--that led a person to want to escape those feelings through drugs in the first place.