How to avoid potential overdose:

Ok, so what can I do to protect myself from causing heart failure(could also be respiratory failure?)?

CONSISTENCY!!!!

Yes, consistency is very important. I am not encouraging you to make sure that you are always shooting up, I am saying that when you ingest, do it in the same way every time.

This can mean doing it
-at the same time of day (I.E. 6:00 every time)
-the same location (I.E. on the same couch in your living room)
-in the same injection spot (if injecting)
-have the same song/type of music on
...you get the idea.

Obviously it may be hard to do everything exactly the same each time, but the more consistent you are, the safer you will be.

Ok, so why does consistency make me safer?

Well, this directly relates to classical conditioning; a form of behavioral learning. Classical conditioning is when neutral stimuli are paired with unconditioned stimuli to produce unconditioned responses. When paired enough times, the neutral stimulus can trigger the response by itself. It is then referred to as a conditioned stimulus, and the reaction is a conditioned reaction.

But that all sounds like a bunch of technical stuff, do you have a practical example?

Yes, I do. A famous research project was conducted on the salvation of dogs by Ivan Pavlov. To sum up the experiment, saliva production levels of the dog were constantly monitored. The dogs were fed by research assistants, and research assistants alone. Every time they were fed it was the same routine, the research assistant would walk into the room, and feed the dog beef powder (ew!).

Naturally the dogs would salivate when they saw the beef powder. However, at a certain point the research assistants stopped bringing the food with them. They would merely walk into the room, and the dog would start salivating. The dogs had learned to associate the research assistant with food, thus resulting in a reaction of salvation.

So what does this have to do with heroin?

Your body will learn in the same way that the dogs learned which stimuli are associated with the drug, such as time of day, location, music that is playing, etc. Upon receiving this stimuli, your body knows that it is about to ingest heroin/morphine. Your bodies natural reaction is to speed up your heart rate (maybe your respiratory rate as well?).

You may notice that if you are very consistent, your heart rate will be very fast before you ingest, which is good. Your body is compensating for the slowing effect that heroin has on your heart rate by speeding it up so that once the heroin starts to effect you your heart rate is relatively normal.

Most overdoses occur when a person uses in an environment that they do not usually use in. Your body does not receive the cues that it is familiar with, so your heart rate does not increase before you use. This is extremely dangerous especially if you have a large tolerance because your heart rate will drop to very unsafe levels. A lot of times this is due to someone not getting their fix and desperately trying to inject as soon as they get some.

please do not do this, as hard as it may be, wait until you are in familiar settings, as you have far less of a risk to overdose.


^^^
This may be misleading. After reading through more reports it seems that the majority of fatalities due to heroin use occurred in individuals who had taken a break for a period of time and then started using again. Examples were people who had served jail time or people who had been in rehab that use again. Typically after that amount of time without heroin in your system it will have a greater effect on you than when you used to use.


I know I have bad spelling, but as long as it is somewhat readable that was what I was shooting for. Hope this helps someone!

Many overdoses also occur when a user takes opiates in combination with depressants.

Most common depressants include:
-Alcohol
-Barbituants
-Benzodiazepines (tranquilizers)

Generally depressants work by increasing GABA levels in your brain. GABA is a inhibitory neurotransmitter that essentially slows neuronactivity in your central nervous system. Part of your central nervous system that controls regulatory involuntary bodily functions is your medulla oblongata. This is slowed down by depressants as a result of excess GABA production.

Opiatesalso cause slowing of bodily functions including heartbeat and respiratory rate among other things. These rates can become dangerously low solely due to opiates or depressants, but when used in combination they are extremely dangerous.

Don't smoke at a gas station, don't take depressants with opiates.

For those seeking further information / research:

http://www.acnp.org/g4/GN401000070/CH070.html

Start reading at:

INFLUENCES OF LEARNING PROCESSES ON TOLERANCE TO BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF DRUGS

To obtain information pertaining to this topic.

 

this also makes it MUCH harder to quit,nevertheless a helpful post for people who are in it for the long haul

 

Ay, but for the people who use at levels that could potentially cause heart failure its better to be addicted than dead.

 

are you sure :-/

 

First off most Herion overdoses and opiates od's are not from heart failure the leading casue of death is respiratory failure and complacations caused to the lungs. You pretty much are drownding in your own fluids as they build up in the lungs. Part of your statement is right consistancy is important. But its not the consistancy you talk about like being in the same location, the same injection spot, being in a comfortable place, etc. Thats means nothing at all sorry to say. What does matter is having a consistant amount of opiates going into your body every day so your body gets use to them and can handle the effects.the best bet not to OD is building up tolerance over time to opiates. Most Od's happen to new users who try to use hard shit like Herion or OC's right off the bat or people who stop for some then go back and think they can handle as much as they were doing before they quit.Every OD I have ever had and almost all I ever saw was when the user is in comfortable enviorment. My od's were in my house in my Friends car and in the street outside of the dope spot all of which are places I was comfortable being in. Maybe some of your opinions and theories play a minor roll in some one who is knew to hard core opiates and is nervous about using ??? Who knows.But when it comes to a seasoned opiate or Herion user the main reason why OD's happen is 2 reasons doing more shit then you are use to doing and can handle and doing other drugs while on dope like benzo's,alchool and coke. If people would pay attention to those to things while they used Herion or opiates 75% of all OD's could be prevented.

 

Sandbar got his first sticky! Nice.

 

Hmm well you're definitely right but I dont think you understand what the person who made this thread is saying, go back and re-read the whole post. While you are right too, people OD a lot because they dont know how strong something is that they are taking. Definitely true. The post starter is talking about a whole nother side of it that is also correct though, so dont say its not true, you just dont understand it

 

I think I am right.Its very very easy there is no whole other side to opiates. oding on herion is not a hard process to understand what so ever. There are on 2 main reaosns why OD's happen and those are doing to much of the opiate you are using and mixing other durgs with opiates.Factors such as Time and place,Shooting into the same vein and the song playing on the radio play no factor at all in the OD. They do nothing to the over all power of the Herion or opiate what so ever going into your body !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Your second point is valid. These external stimuli have no effect whatsoever on the power of the opiate going into your body. An opiate is the same opiate no matter where or how it is consumed.

These stimuli do cause a neurological response. Your body recognizes the familiar stimuli that you have associated with opiate use. Once this recognition has been made your body prepares itself for the opiate before it is ever ingested.

 

Although I completely agree, you need to cite sources.

 

Thank you I have added an article that sites many of the research articles on this subject and has summarized and related them nicely. It can be found on the bottom of the first post.

 

I would NEVER suggest using the same injection site..I'm sure you've heard of infections. I've been shootin heroin for 10 years now. Move your injection sites and be clean about your needles and injection sites. And it boild down to starting with smaller amounts to see what your body can tolerate. And of course when it comes to heroin the consistancy of the product varies greatly. So start small with whatever batch you get. Even as you tolerance grows you need to be careful with smack.. I learned that the hard way several times..Luckily the medics came quick with narcan...respiratory failure...Just be easy yall. I know I don't wanna see anyone od even with pills. And it's not right to put your friends or family through the pain of you od'ing and dieng...I love yall...Be ez -J

 

I dont think consistency is something a person overly strive for. All thats going to do is cause a bad time when something doesn't go perfectly right.

Wouldn't it be a good thing to be used to doing Heroin when your body is not prepared? Cause one day your body may just not prepare properly and you wouldn't be ready for it?


I probaly dont know what im talking about...

 

Didn't Pavlov use bells to condition the dogs? He chimed a bell whenever feeding, and eventually, just the chime of the bell would cue the dogs to salivate. His experiment is often referred to as two things: Pavlov's Dogs or Pavlov's Bell.

Now, couldn't the actual deed of opening a bag or popping a pill be the bell? That's more of a parallel than what you have described. Atmosphere has so little to do with Pavlov's experiment; the dogs probably would have salivated anytime or anywhere, hearing a bell.

Just my $0.02 .. to me, this analogy makes more sense.

 

I totally agree. The OP's argument is majorly flawed.

 

i've read that it is very difficult to overdose on drugs. i laugh inside thinking that, what a dumb thing to say. it read, "when you ingest pills, your body waits until you're unconscious, then throws up whatever excess you ate."

 

Excellent post!

 

so now i'm stuck with either shooting myself, or hanging! fuck!!