Why is heroin so destructive?

[janef001]

I have a friend in the UK who I was chatting to after connecting on LinkedIn. She told me that one of the popular middle class girls ended up dying on the streets after overdosing on heroin.

I don't like saying it but she doesn't fit the typical stereotype of a heroin user. Her parents were educated at Oxford and while not very rich, they were pretty well off. Apparently, she went over to the States for work, got hooked on opioids, and moved to cheaper heroin. The stealing and lying eventually led her to burning bridges with her family and friends.

I feel sad that she ended like that but for some reason I've heard that strong opioids are the quickest way to destitution. I know far more people who've become addicted from prescription stuff (in the UK less so but in America with benzos and opioids and going downhill quickly) compared to alcohol. This girl did party excessively beforehand but I don't think anyone would have called her an addict at the time.

What to me is also unique about heroin addiction in comparison to other addictions, is as well as the swiftness of addiction, that it will take the nicest person and strip out all their morals until they really are just a smack rat.

I've seen plenty with addictions to other substances sink to that level, but it's uniform for smack addicts. It's beyond heartbreaking and I'd say try to not judge what a smack addict is doing as being them.

This is MN where alcohol is literally the worst drug ever and cocaine and heroin not that bad really and manageable.

Ok.....

This piece by John Crace from a few years ago set it out really clearly in all its utter horror:

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/22/patrick-melrose-captures-heroin-addiction-perfectly-it-brought-my-memories-flooding-back

It's quite funny reading what people are saying about alcohol. It reminds me of a talk at college where two ex heroin users came in to talk to students and said that coffee was the worst drug in the world.

Never taken heroin, have taken Oxycodone without a prescription (someone close to me had them prescribed). It was warm, comforting, cosy, bliss. I can see why people get addicted

the effects of heroin can vary from person to person. for one person, a single hit is enough to give them a life-long addiction and they will then spend all their time & money & friendships etc chasing that same feeling. but they can't get it back because each time they need more of the drug to make it work.

other people can take a drug like that occasionally without getting addicted and (if they can afford it) without having major negative consequences in other areas of their life.

alcohol probably wreaks more lives because it is more widely available and more socially acceptable. but the number of people who can drink alcohol without major negative effects is very large. the number of people who can take heroin without the negative long term effects is v small.

I think it is that heroin feels like you re being loved. Like you are warm and safe; wrapped in your mother's arms, as a child who fell over. Overwhelming warmth and 'safe'. Even when you are too addicted to get that, it can knock the whole world out for a few hours; take away the shit surrounding you. Give you blissful nothing, even if you can't get warmth and peace.

In contrast, methadone doesn't have that effect. It stops you being actively ill without that nice safe warmth, but doesn't replace it. It is also surprisingly hard to get. Drug projects and doctors cause frequent cock ups with scripts. I have known many heroin addicts who felt that their drug project/gp and it's failure to do scripts on time was their biggest barrier to sobriety: once a month they were looking to buy methadone or heroin to replace a script that didn't get to the chemist/didn't get there quick enough for issue (if dosses are missed, the pharmacy cannot give them the remainder). There are also links between long term methadone use and depression also. There is very little support to come off a long term script, only short term.

Essentially, the heroin provides what is lost from your life. Then you want that feeling for ever more and management to reduce/end use is imperfect at best and destructive at worst. You are stuck as soon as you become seriously addicted - and that only takes an awful 6 months where you slipped without anyone seeing.

(From a child of a 39 year heroin addict. She's managed a professional job and home for decades. Just can't live without the smack, to force a world she detests away.)

My ex boyfriend is a heroin addict. His addiction was the reason we split up. He’s lucky to still be alive tbh. He comes from a well to do family. They’ve paid for him to go into rehab twice. I was with him when he relapsed after 10 years clean.

As others have said, the sensation from opioid drugs is incredibly addictive. Most heroin users will go back to it at some point, sadly. It’s very easy to overdose which is why people so often die.

My ex has unresolved pain from childhood. It has to do with his dad but he won’t tell anyone what happened, even his sister. I still miss that relationship, and I think he does too. The heroin makes you forget it all.

Lol...

I have watched a few Documentary, s about the Opioid crisis in the US, people were legitimately being prescribed Opioid, s and getting hooked on them when their prescriptions ran out they found buying heroin was far cheaper than illicit medication ,fentanyl is much bigger problem.

It's actually rubbish that you can get addicted from your first time. Absolute bollocks and scare mongering.

I used to use heroin twice a week as a teenager. That's all the heroin addicts would let me use (fucked up childhood hanging around in crack houses) so I wouldn't get addicted and I never did.

Maybe psychologically you can - like crack/coke but not physically. If you could get physically addicted from using once then diazapam and other legal opiates would never be prescribed and you'd never ever be given morphine.

Heroin has been around for many many years in different forms. It has an awful impact on your life and your loved ones life if you become physically or psychologically addicted but the whole - use once and you're addicted is bollocks.

I was once given morphine (out of necessity, nothing else had touched the pain) at A&E and by the time I got to see the doctor I was suddenly the very best ever version of myself again, despite everything: coherent, warm, affable, articulate polite, considerate, helpful. Everything I am usually NOT when unwell. So from that I can now I think understand why some HCPs can be so keen and too quick to prescribe opioids.

It is addictive never had it but I’ve had Iv morphine and that is like sinking into a cloud. You’re still in pain but that doesn’t matter, nothing matters.

I read a book once with someone getting hooked no one starts injecting they smoke it, only junkies inject right? Then they are addicted and comedown feels like spiders clawing through your brain and under your flesh. Then it’s a daily thing and a £10 bag a day becomes £20, £40 £60. There are people who function on heroin they have money and keep up this expensive daily habit. For the rest the money runs out and injecting is now a cheaper, better high but tolerance builds up and now you’re a junkie and nothing else matters but the high.

100% agree - excellent, but very sad, series. Sounds like this is possibly what happened to the girl you knew.

I think all drugs are destructive. Its sad.

That sounds like the description I have had from quite a few long term, functional heroin addicts too. The type who hold down jobs and families. Perhaps aren't using every day, but a few times a week on a methadone programme too. I have heard it described as a 'reset' back to a fully functional person so many times.

Takes the world away for a bit, then sends you back able to cope again. For a bit, any way.

I do not blame my loved one's for their addictions. They have had hard, hard lives that frankly needed some respite, with no mental health support to provide relief. I can see how it happened. I am just sorry that in their non functioning periods, they impacted my own life so overwhelmingly destructively.

I think research has shown that people have varying degrees of sensitivities to opioids. This also impacts how likely you are to become addicted. Obviously addicted at first use is an extreme example I imagine there’s only a small number of people who would be that strongly affected. Likewise a small number of people wouldn’t be affected at all and the rest of us somewhere on a spectrum between the two. Maybe you were just lucky? Are you easily addicted to other things nicotine/ caffeine/ alcohol/other drugs?

I also wonder how many people lie about how they got addicted.

Actually research and studies have shown that even when you remove the legality, amount of users etc, then alcohol is still a more dangerous drug than heroin. Alcohol would never be legal if it was discovered now, it would be considered a class A substance.

A lot of our view on drugs come from the types of people who use them (Coke vs Crack, E vs Meth) and the legal and social status.

There was an excellent Horizon programme a few years ago on drugs, scientists and researchers classified drugs purely on the levels of danger. Not sure if it is watchable still anywhere.

What makes some drugs worse, is the fact they are illegal, and expensive and therefore the addiction can take over in a way that alcohol addiction doesn't so soon. Alcohol is very cheap and someone can maintain a functioning level for a long time compared to opioids and heroin.

This is a fascinating read, thank you to everyone who has contributed and I am so sorry for your experiences.

I agree that some people will not get addicted from the first puff I was given it by one of my cousins thinking it was a joint when I was about 20 and it was amazing absolutely phenomenal but equally I was not going to take that again and I never have.

@CatchersAndDreams ·
''It's actually rubbish that you can get addicted from your first time.''

It isn't ''rubbish''.

Some people do get hooked on the drug from their first time and want to repeat the experience again and again until the habit controls them.

The fact that you did not does not mean that everyone will have the same experience....

I was given a lot of

Yes alcohol can be destructive, I know someone who was an alcoholic from young but he died following taking hard drugs not alcohol (alcohol wrecked his life then he turned to illegals)

I drink alcohol sometimes, but equally I can not drink it - heroin is very different, far more addictive.

I had a morphine injection in hospital and, to me, it felt like being drunk but with the nice parts of being drunk taken out - i.e. I felt sick, swimmy and groggy. It dealt with the pain which was my main concern but no other pleasurable feelings. I guess opiates take people in different ways.

That is anecdotal evidence though and doesn't mean that heroin is more dangerous.

I can also drink and not drink. I have smoked and stopped without any side effects or difficulty. I just decided I would stop smoking. Doesn't mean giving up smoking isn't dificult.

The research shows that alcohol is more dangerous.