Hello, everyone! I apologize that I haven't been as active on these boards as I used to be as of recent. I have had a baby, finished school, got my master's degree, and acquired my license as a mental health counselor. Most importantly, I've gotten clean! As some of you may remember I had been horribly addicted to heroin and strong painkillers for nearly 10 years. I was able to successfully able to finally quit after finding out I was pregnant I finally had the motivation, commitment, reason, and drive to not only get clean and stop allowing dope to consume my life. I did so in a somewhat controversial way, I did use methadone. But regardless of that, today I am clean. I have attached a picture of my beautiful baby and I in this post! I have studied addiction and the substances that contribute to this condition at great length both in my education and also in my field work. I have seen a small degree of physical dependency to opiates occur after using them heavily for only a few weeks. This makes sense to me and I have no doubts about this. My question is, I have had several clients insist that they had withdrawals after using only one use or dose opiates. For example, one woman had been clean for three years. She went into the hospital to deliver her baby. Things didn't go according to plan and she had to have an emergency cesarean section. After waking up when she was still groggy and a bit confused about what was going on she complained of being in pain, the doctor told her he'd take care of this. The next thing she knew she was being given an intravenous dose of hydromorphone (Dilaudid). She claims that after this dose wore off she experienced HORRIBLE withdrawals. Similarly, another woman I worked with went into the hospital for knee surgery after being clean for only one year. She was embarrassed about her history of addiction and thought she could just turn down the narcotics without it being noticed. Her boyfriend who also didn't know about her history complained to her doctor and nurses that she was in too much pain and that they needed to do something about it. The next thing this woman knew a nurse was bringing her in a shot of Dilaudid. She was given this every 4-6 hours for the entire day until she was discharged. She claimed that she too, after a very short period of time on the narcotic opiate painkillers experienced withdrawals. My issue with this is this, I don't see any logical reason why someone would become physically dependent to a drug faster the second. Or third time they are exposed to it than the first time. I do understand that the mind is very powerful and that these people who think that are going through withdrawal may be going through some sort of psychological symptoms but I just don't believe someone can becom physically dependent on a substance again of any kind after only a day or even two or three. In my learned education and personal experience, addiction and physical dependency are very different things. Does anyone have any reliable or credible information on why or if addicts become physically dependent faster during the second exposure than the standard time period it took them to become dependent during their first exposure? Are there any studies or research that has been done on this one of you could possibly link me to? If I am wrong, and addicts for some reason ARE truly able to sometimes become physically dependent to narcotics faster than others, I'd be very interested in knowing why! Any information beyond just opinion or personal experience (which is of course also welcome!) I would especially appreciate!
Oh! And if this topic would be more appropriate elsewhere, please let me know where I should move it! Thanks! =)
There seems to to be a corrolation between gene variance and different levels of dependency. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16220108 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322306015496 These studies just show a corrolation,they don't discuss how the variation in genes cause variation in dependency. I'm guessing it has to do with differences in metabolism of different substances, or maybe the rate of downregulation of receptors. But I'm not very knowledgeable about such things.
I can say this, I have been battling opiate addiction for more years than I care to think about. Recently, I was hospitalized for complications with polysystic kidney disease. The only thing they could do was control my pain by IV dilaudid shots every 2 hrs. It worked, but undermined what I had done over the past few months in lowering my tolerance. I'd love to quit but, now have lots of low back pain due to my kidney issues. I also tried the methadone. I was in a clinic for 5 yrs, but it made it very hard for me to travel with my job. I lowered my dose on my own until I thought I could quit, but I really thought I was gonna die. The withdrawals from it were way worse than opiates. Now, I'm back to square 1. The only legal option I ever found was poppy pod tea. That worked, but I'm not even sure if it's legal anymore as this was about 4 yrs ago. I'd love to hear any options anyone has to kick this habit. I have forgot what it's like to lead a normal life, not waking up worrying about being sick from withdrawals. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!
Addiction tends to start where it stopped. No matter how long it's been. It is not like starting from the first time all over again even if the tolerance is down.
*this is purely speculation and admittedly only covers the psychological aspect of addiction... I do not expect or wish for my experiences (whatever they are) to be used as evidence* I can offer this analogy: It's easier to keep a ball rolling than it is to get a ball rolling... It requires more force to surpass the threshold of static friction (getting the ball rolling) than it does to surpass the threshold of kinetic friction (keeping the ball rolling). A person may initially be reluctant to try a drug like cocaine (in their head, they would never touch it). However, once they try the drug, they may think "well, I'm still able to function as I used to before using the drug, this means I can do this much more". This eventually leads to rationalization after rationalization, pulling further and further away from the original mindset of absolutely never touching the drug. The amount of psychological effort (think of it as a "force") needed to make the person use this drug (for the first time) is tremendous. If the person stops using the drug for awhile, perhaps a year or more, urges may come and go (after all, the person may have been introduced to other wonderful experiences under the influence of the drug... Great conversations, a partner, life-long memories)... The amount of psychological effort needed to convince oneself to use the drug again would surely be less (at least in this strictly limited scenario)... Once again, before using the drug, the person had the mindset that they would never touch the drug (maybe they thought it was "dirty" or just a terrible form of behaviour)... However, once they've tried the drug and experienced many pleasant sensations, it takes much less self-convincing than if the person had to convince themselves to use the drug for the first time (and overcome all of the initial fears...) - - - - - - The OP states that having a child gave them the motivation to quit... This motivation (I'm guessing) comes from the preparedness of the person; it would actually be harder to continue using the drug and have a child, rather than to just have a child (the guilt would be almost unbearable, aside from the point that caring for a child while on heroin may actually take more effort than to just not do the drug at all... Less stress...). By the way, congrats on everything.
I'm no professional in psychology or addiction, but i spent my whole life up to this point sharing a household with two veteran meth addicts so ive got some first hand observational experience. Here's what I've gathered from that. As others have stated, both psychologically and physically its easier to go back once you've danced with a devil the first time because every fiber of you knows exactly what the benefits and drawbacks to this behavior are going to be. Its easier to justify enduring the negatives because the second, third, ect time around your body and mind are that much more desperate for the high as well as being painfully aware that when your relapse becomes known to loved ones there will be that much more unpleasantness distributed to them and from them to the addict. This internal guilt borne shame itself is sometimes enough to drive a person out of recovery and back into the arms of their substance. Theres a comforting "safety" in the familiar consistency of addiction in any capacity whether thats food, gaming, drugs and drink, porn or sex, and even indulgence in self harm/mental disorder. Almost all addicts simply substitute their substance of choice with something more conventional, and moderate when in recovery. Thats why people who attend NA/AA meetings always have coffee, some form of highly processed sugar food at their gatherings, and smoke cigarettes like regular air is out of style. The same substitution is applied when the choice substance is unattainable for whatever reason; when my parents cant get dope they'll drink heavily, and take as many of my mother's perscription pills as needed to either fall into a mini-coma or quiet the urge enough to feign functionality. No addict ever reaches full recovery in which they no longer want to get high even if every single stressor that drove them to take that dive initially is out of the equation, and for all intents and purposes their life is picturesque with contentment.
