People normally associate heroin with tattooed junkies and bums; derelicts writhing in a dark alley or in an abandoned and dilapidated building, riding the next high to shortly search for another. While this is still the case and is still a common occurrence, this is only for those who have hit rock bottom. Their families and friends have stopped trusting them.
But teenagers are given a lot more slack than adults, especially in the suburbs. It’s common for parents to not know much about what their teenagers do in their spare time. And if the teen has an allowance, they can become addicted for months before anyone notices.
From a Young Addict
“My whole life was about when was the next time I could use,” one boy said. “I didn’t care about anyone or anything. I didn’t eat much; didn’t want a girlfriend because I knew she would give me a hard time about going to (a nearby town) and getting high — I didn’t need that.” This comes from a teenager in a well-off suburban area. He reported he started on one bag every 3 or 4 hours and progressed to 10 bags a day to keep himself level-headed.
All this time, his parents suspected that something was up, assuming pot or booze, but not heroin addiction. Heroin has the worst reputation of all drugs perhaps matched only by crack and meth. His parents had no clue, even when he was racking up 100 miles a day on his odometer. His father even jokingly said to him “You better quit going to (a nearby town) every day to buy drugs.”
Heroin’s Effects
“First you get a head rush and you feel kind of lightheaded. Then you get this warmth throughout your whole body, even your stomach. You’re completely relaxed. Nothing bothers you. It’s the best feeling in the world,” said one recovering addict, sober for several months. “You’re always chasing that first high — ‘chasing the dragon’ it’s called — and it’s never the same. The very first time I did it, I felt like ‘This is what I was put on this earth to do.’ Heroin was what I was looking for my whole life.”
With an endorsement like that, it’s no wonder people put their entire lives on hold, cheat, steal and kill to get their next fix. In the grips of addiction, a person will go to great lengths to reach that high. This causes them to build up a tolerance and require more just to not get sick. The possibilities of overdosing or just choking on their own vomit are real and heroin addicts in the know will often lie on their side to make sure that, if they do vomit in their sleep, it will land next to them, not drown them.
Why Heroin?
It’s the logical next step when a person runs out of prescription opiates such as Oxycontin to abuse. Perhaps they can’t find a doctor who will give them another prescription or perhaps the cost of the prescription is too high and heroin is a cheaper substitute. You can snort heroin, but a person gets a better high injecting it. Thus, this increases their chance of an overdose.
About the Author: Bradley Winston is a health and wellness writer who is former heroin addict. He recommends if you or someone you love is coping with a heroin addiction, learning about Narconon and how they can help.