What does it feel like to be addicted to drugs/ a drug addict?

Scroll to see replies

you need to experience it yourself to know

I think getting addicted to prescription drugs is a lot more common than people think, but it's not talked about. And it's not the typical living on the streets or in a hostel/squat type addiction. I had a decent £20k+ job at the time, owned my own house, and really nobody would have guessed.

There's not much help available from the GP, and 12 step isn't always appropriate (I thought it wasn't relevant to me or my circumstances). So it's really going it alone, but there are many other people in the same situation and online support groups.

Reply 42

username1539513

Original post by Anonymous

Sometimes I do think that prescription drugs are more harmful than some illegal drugs. But you did pull through in the end and that's all that matters really

Reply 43

AlexanderHam

Original post by Reachin4TheStars

I doubt there are many, if any drug addicts at all on this website but go ahead. :toofunny:

That's a rather naive assumption. Perhaps you have lived a sheltered life and thus are not very knowledgeable about such things?

Reply 44

TeenRose29

Original post by AlexanderHam

That's a rather naive assumption. Perhaps you have lived a sheltered life and thus are not very knowledgeable about such things?

I just wouldnt expect it on 'the student room' if you get me. But okay.

Reply 45

Kürbiskern

Idk if it counts so much as an addiction or as a bad habbit, but I'm a pretty big pot head and have been for a long time. I haven't smoked in 2 weeks though and I feel fine, no withdrawal, just cravings. I would smoke it everyday, sometimes all day. If i didn't smoke it then I didn't ever get any withdrawal symptons except for agonizing boredom and thinking about it all the time. I kept trying to quit but always impulsively went back to it. Sometimes it got really bad, but other times it was better, the worst it got was when my face was covered with spots and I was getting fat because of stuffing my face with junk food I still couldnt really stop. My social life was dissapearing, I would chose weed over putting any effort into getting laid, chose it over clubbing or partying. I drank maybe 5 beers in 8 months, but smoked weed every day. I even crashed my bike because I was high, lost my debit card and did a bunch of other stupid ****, I couldn't stop. I don't really regret it however, because I still love MJ and feel that it does amazing things for my creativiy and gives me amazing clarity to see the world and people for what they really are. It's an amazing affect. Sex feels more intense, music sounds amazing, learning can be really fun and you feel so chill, you appreciate beauty everywhere and become overwhelmed by it That was part of the problem, that i actually really enjoyed smoking it every time.

Reply 46

username1539513

Original post by AlexanderHam

That's a rather naive assumption. Perhaps you have lived a sheltered life and thus are not very knowledgeable about such things?

Tbf TSR strikes me as a website primarily populated by the children of cossetted middle class folk so I wouldn't expect there to be a lot of former drug addicts here either.

Reply 47

AlexanderHam

Original post by Reachin4TheStars

I just wouldnt expect it on 'the student room' if you get me. But okay.

Addiction is common amongst all social classes, among both men and women, young people and the elderly, urban and rural. For a forum as large as TSR, with something like a million users, it would be very strange if there weren't. Statistically speaking there would be thousands.

Reply 48

AlexanderHam

Middle-class children are often the ones with the most serious drug addictions. In fact, some studies show that drug use is higher among middle-class people. They use different drugs than working-class people, but they also have more money to carry on an addiction.

I take your point about cossetted, but drug use and drug addiction spreads far and wide beyond council estates and working-class neighbourhoods. There are plenty of drug dealers in the suburbs and and wealthy centre.

Reply 49

TeenRose29

Original post by AlexanderHam

Okay.

Reply 50

Anonymous #2

Speaking in my own case, as someone who had a serious heroin habit (about 2 grams a day, which is a lot given an opiate-naive individual could get high off 2.5 milligrams), it works on two levels.

The first is the physical addiction; when you're taking heroin everyday, after around 3 weeks you become physically addicted to it. That means if you go around 24 hours without taking it, you go into "withdrawals". When you're in withdrawal, it's like having a really bad cold, you sweat a lot, you shiver, you find it impossible to get comfortable, when you lie down your legs ache, it's very hard to get to sleep. On top of that, you feel mentally very low, very anxious, a bit fragile overall. All of this is compounded by the fact that you know that a small hit of heroin you will immediately feel better; all the physical withdrawal symptoms disappear, and if it is indeed a small hit, then you will feel normal rather than the depression, anxiety etc described above.

The second level is that of psychological addiction. Taking heroin is like being wrapped in cotton wool, feeling completely safe, completely sufficient, completely whole in every way. Opiates like heroin are used as painkillers for physical pain, but interestingly they are also very effective for mental pain/discomfort/anxiety etc. That leads me to believe that there are perhaps some physiological/neurological similarities between how the brain processes the two distinct types of suffering.

When you take heroin, the first feeling is a euphoric rush, but it's not a rush in the sense of extreme stimulation (like 10 cups of coffee). It's a rush more like an orgasm, a feeling of exquisite satisfaction but also feels physical as well, because you can taste it (as the heroin moves through your bloodstream, it will pass through blood vessels in your nose and tongue, so you really can taste it). After a couple of minutes the feeling then becomes a very mellow feeling as described above; like being wrapped in cotton wool, feeling safe and whole. You feel quite drowsy, and can nod off quite easily. You also have very vivid dreams in those "nods" (these dreams were Samuel Taylor Coleridge's inspiration for his poem Kubla Khan, and also described in Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater).

I'm not addicted at the moment, I was coming up to exams and wanted to be as clear-minded as possible particularly as it was for land law (I got a 71, so I'm happy). Since then I haven't started again, and I'm prescribed a drug that blocks any cravings (Subutex). But I wouldn't say it's completely unlikely I would use again. I really enjoy opiates, unlike alcohol or cocaine they are not inherently damaging to the body (in fact, some doctors believe it may slow down aging as all of your metabolic processes slow down); it's not neurotoxic (kills brain cells) or cause cell death. The main health problems associated with opiates are when people inject it, with blood borne viruses from that, or when they spend all their money on heroin and don't eat properly, don't exercise, etc

Reply 51

AlexanderHam

Original post by Reachin4TheStars

Okay.

Okayyyy

Reply 52

Anonymous #1

Well, the drugs I was taking (codeine) are very similar in effect to heroin. Other opiates are similar.

I really think that more should be done, because my GP knew I was taking them and didn't warn me. But then possibly if they had it might not have been different, because I didn't know I was addicted until I had to stop

Reply 53

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

Were you prescribed the codeine? The way I first got into opiates was being prescribed oxycodone after injuring my knee in a car accident. Oxycodone is ludicrously addictive, and I continued to get prescriptions and was allowed to increase my dose twice. By the time they started to taper it down, I didn't want to stop.

In the modern day of dark net markets, I didn't have to go and seek out some grubby drug dealer in the ghetto, I just went online and had it sent in the post.

If I may ask, were you taking codeine with paracetomol or did they give you the straight 30mg tablets? It's the stuff with paracetomol that can really mess one up due to the liver damage. Codeine by itself is not damaging