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I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

m.nautil.us

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Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#541

Post by AntiImperialist »

renewiltord wrote: post #414

The fascinating thing about this stuff is that you can have outlier people. For instance, tobacco is supposed to be highly addictive. Well, I picked up smoking from a girlfriend in college and we used to smoke all the time. Like ten cigs a day for a year and a half. Real bad, right? Well, one day, I decided "Meh. I'll just stop" and I did. Not because of any reason. I just chose not to. Now cigarettes are way addicti…

Nicotine helps calm down anxiety. People with anxiety disorders get addicted to it because when they do it, the anxiety subsides. The anxiety starts setting in once the effect wears out. One doesn't get addicted to it right away because it takes time for the body to model what is this thing that is helping it and how it is getting access to it it. Once the body finds out, it seeks cigarettes; usually the body "overfits" and thinks it needs a particular brand of cigarette... and reliance on a particular brand is a problem, one can switch to another one by alternating with the brand you want to switch to... you can use the same strategy to switch to vaping or other nicotine delivery mechanisms.

For people with no existing anxiety disorders, like you, there is no significant effect so the body doesn't bother seeking it.

Same is true for any other drug addictions. They work by suppressing trauma or sadness or depression... and when the effect wears out, people need it again because the extreme emotions that were being suppressed come back with a bang.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#542

Post by JoelMcCracken »

I read this a few hours ago and didn't decide to comment then. But I just have to.

I just lost my brother-in-law to heroin overdose. He overdosed because he went into rehab, came out, and then used far more than his body could tolerate. This is unfortunately common. Not because he mixed it with alcohol or antihistamines or whatever.

Overall, his entire life has been extremely tragic. He was a good guy at heart. He was a hard worker and did good work in general.

However, he did did A LOT of crazy things. He was the poster child for "your emotional development stops at the point you got addicted to heroin". He basically acted like a troubled 13 yr old in a 40 yr old's body. This craziness has caused a LOT of problems over the years, especially for his daughters.

I get that the popular notions of drug use are wrong, but when is that not true of anything? Drug use does itself cause a lot of problems. While some people may be able to use them without any issues, many cannot.

The way a lot of this is phrased, it makes it sound like drugs are fine and there is a conspiracy to demonize them. While the popular notion of them isn't perfectly balanced, it is not the case that they are just fine for people to use.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#543

Post by emsy »

ChrisRR wrote: post #159
emsy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do insulin users have a drug problem? I think at the core of the issue is that our society generally regards psychological ailments as a personal flaw, rather than a health issue. (I’m talking generally, not about the professor from the article)

That's a false equivalence and you know it. Insulin is not a recreational drug This article is very clearly about recreational drug use

I was not talking about recreational drug use. Please read my full comment before replying.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#544

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #364
nimbius wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fully agree. Carl is a white collar professor. The worst thing that can happen if his drug indulgence becomes a problem is he knocks over the water cooler or loses his job. I work a blue collar job servicing heavy diesel engines. Casual hard drug users are aggravatingly cavalier to work alongside. They forget important things constantly. They show up late and lose things often. You'll spend all day repeating things t…

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#545

Post by gonehome »

JoelMcCracken wrote: post #542

I read this a few hours ago and didn't decide to comment then. But I just have to. I just lost my brother-in-law to heroin overdose. He overdosed because he went into rehab, came out, and then used far more than his body could tolerate. This is unfortunately common. Not because he mixed it with alcohol or antihistamines or whatever. Overall, his entire life has been extremely tragic. He was a good guy at heart. He wa…

Yeah, the piece reads like a rationalization by a drug user still in the early stages of a problem.

We'll see how things turn out in the end (maybe I'm wrong), but I'm pretty skeptical of a positive outcome.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#546

Post by tptacek »

likpok wrote: post #540
tptacek wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You grew up in a neighborhood full of opium poppies?

It may be legal to grow opium poppies in the US for garden or seed purposes, just not for the processing into opium. https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/resources/wp-resource_s... Michael Pollan also wrote an essay about it (I think taking a slightly stronger position).

I don't doubt it, but are they so common that I might walk by them in my own neighborhood? (I'm asking, I have no idea).

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#547

Post by superkuh »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #397
ohnemint wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I decided, for New Years, to try getting addicted to caffeine and alcohol Why did you decide this?

I wanted to better understand the experience. I've known several addicts in my family. My wife and I adopted a deeply addicted family member's son, who was born with severe problems from her drug use. Bear in mind, I am willing to take vacation from work and go cold turkey as needed. I do this a couple times a year for caffeine, just to be sure, and the headaches are brutal.

It's easy to become dependent on caffine. But caffeine itself is not intrinsically addictive. It does not directly interact with the systems in the brain associated with predicting reward.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#548

Post by gnagatomo »

thezoginator wrote: post #390

My dad used to say the exact same thing, until he lost his job his family, and his life. He used to pretend that he was "functioning", and that his drug use wasn't a problem. This is a classic example of someone who we will read about losing their job and life in 10 years or less. The only bit I will agree with is that addiction is not caused by the drug itself, and is typically the result of childhood trauma. With t…

>The only bit I will agree with is that addiction is not caused by the drug itself, and is typically the result of childhood trauma.

Traumatic experiences plays a big role on addiction, but purely chemical addiction should still be factored in. Heroine is extremely addictive not just because of traumatic experiences, but because it induces very high dopamine releases.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#549

Post by moreranchplease »

JoelMcCracken wrote: post #542

I read this a few hours ago and didn't decide to comment then. But I just have to. I just lost my brother-in-law to heroin overdose. He overdosed because he went into rehab, came out, and then used far more than his body could tolerate. This is unfortunately common. Not because he mixed it with alcohol or antihistamines or whatever. Overall, his entire life has been extremely tragic. He was a good guy at heart. He wa…

The fact that they're illegal and you don't know the dose is why this happens though.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#550

Post by pvitz »

gonehome wrote: post #545
JoelMcCracken wrote: post #542

I read this a few hours ago and didn't decide to comment then. But I just have to. I just lost my brother-in-law to heroin overdose. He overdosed because he went into rehab, came out, and then used far more than his body could tolerate. This is unfortunately common. Not because he mixed it with alcohol or antihistamines or whatever. Overall, his entire life has been extremely tragic. He was a good guy at heart. He wa…

Yeah, the piece reads like a rationalization by a drug user still in the early stages of a problem. We'll see how things turn out in the end (maybe I'm wrong), but I'm pretty skeptical of a positive outcome.

Agree! When he said that he meets his parental, personal [...] responsibilities, I thought I would like to hear if his partner and his children think the same. Maybe everything is really fine, but more often, the drug user doesn't realize how his (ab-)use affects his closest environment.
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