The Life of an Addict

Bann

Bann

Doris Day meets Lady Gaga
vraiblonde said:
I can't believe some of you are trying to compare smoking cigarettes to being hooked on heroin. :lol:

Or, even better, trying to compare being hooked on heroin to diabetes and heart disease. :lmao:
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...because that sort of changes the focus of the tread then, huh?
 
BOP

BOP

Well-Known Member
Dakota said:
I think the article supports what many of us have been saying all along... the heroin problems have started with the over prescribing of pain pills.
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It's cyclical. Heroin was a problem in the '70s, and after a while, it was cocaine, and so on.
 
BOP

BOP

Well-Known Member
Chasey_Lane said:
Worth a read.

Heroin in Southern Maryland: The brief life of an addict - Southern Maryland News


“He had a disease and the disease won,” she said. “I don’t feel guilty because our family tried everything.”
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No, you didn't try everything. You enabled him. Here's the clue:

Realizing the rehabilitation process was still ongoing, Rosela quit her job with an Annapolis-based defense contractor “so I could totally focus on him and give him strength. I would take him to meetings and monitor him. And he was doing really well.”

Who does that in this day and age!? I can't afford to, and I don't know anyone who could. It'd be different if he came back from Iraq or Afghanistan and needed physical care 'round the clock, but even then...I'd have to hire someone at least part time. No way I could afford to quit working to "focus" on one of my children who needed a kick in the ass and regular trips to NA, rather than me or my wife babying them.
 
BOP

BOP

Well-Known Member
luvmygdaughters said:
While I feel bad for this poor woman, I cannot sympathize with her. There are too many kids in this world who dont get a fair break, live thru hell and still manage to turn out okay and become productive members of society. As long as we continue to treat self induced addictions as a "disease" there will always be a crutch to lean on and excuses to be made for them. Its not up to the county, state, or federal government to get your kids off of the drugs. I dont know how any sane person can tie a tourniquet around their arm, stick a needle full of drugs into their body and then want me to feel sorry for them.
This kid may have loved animals, poetry and been a gentle soul, but, he also was involved in accidents and fled the scene. He was stopping people on the street to get money or drugs, was he also breaking into peoples homes? Robbing gas stations?

The war on drugs needs to be increased, tougher penalties for pushers and users. Tougher sentencing for crimes involving drugs. Thats the only alternative I see. Warehousing drug users with rehab isnt going to do it.
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Yeah, because that's been working so well for the last 4 decades or so. In the end, the war on drugs has made the drug cartels rich, and lined the pockets of those who enable the cartels, dealers, and pushers; it's militarized our police forces, and fueled a prison industry in this country that's now the largest in the entire world, and what do we have to show for it? Less drug use? Not so you'd notice. Less crime? Please.
 
my-thyme

my-thyme

..if momma ain't happy...
Patron
I stand by that no one starts with heroin, or crack, or meth, or any of those other really nasty addictions.

They started by watching their folks smoke, and swipping cigarettes from the pack the folks left sitting around. Or grabbing a beer from the home fridge.

The were probably the same 2-yr-olds that you struggled to take the bottle and pacifier away from. :justanotheraddiction:

:evil:
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
poor impulse control


I want to ....

a) stick a needle in my arm
b) smoke a blunt
c) pay for sex


:whistle:
 
queencity28

queencity28

New Member
Dakota said:
I think the article supports what many of us have been saying all along... the heroin problems have started with the over prescribing of pain pills.
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While it is correct that we are all in control of our choices, and that most claim victim to a "disease" that they choose to partake with...there are some enabling azz doctors out there.

My mom is an addict. An alcoholic, drug addicted, mental health mess. I don't coddle her or make excuses for her behaviors. However, there have been times where she has cleaned herself up and became a functioning member of society on occassion. About eight years ago, she was attending NA and AA meetings (which I honestly believe are a cult among themselves) and doing all the things recovering addicts do to "get better". Yet, her doctor was prescribing her kolonopin and xanax for anxiety and those damn pain patches that killed Michael Jackson for pain due to nueromuscular issues from an old back injury. She about died three times from taking too many pills with those patches. Seriously...ICU trips from an ambulance.

I called the doctor that was prescribing that sht. I told him that it was killing her. Yes, I get HIPAA rules and all of that, but you know what this jerkoff did? He told her I called. Stirred up the pot. And then continued to prescribe her more. Eventually she ended up being a Dickerson Beach regular, Great Mills Road inhabiting waste of life. And guess what...that d!ck head doctor continued to overprescribe mess to other people for several more years until......wait for it.....

Calvert Neurosurgeon Arrested for Running a “Pill Mill” | Southern Maryland News Net
 
B

bilbur

New Member
MMDad said:
Most diabetes is caused by poor choices. How can you say diabetes, a self-caused disease, is a disease but addiction is not?

Same for many cancers. Most skin cancers are caused by the choices people make. Is malignant melanoma a disease? If a smoker gets lung cancer or a chewer gets lip cancer is it a disease?

How about heart disease? Almost all of it is caused by poor choices. Is it only a disease if you eat right, but if you eat too many burgers it is no longer a disease?

You may not have any sympathy for those who become addicted, but that does not mean that the addiction is not a disease.
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I am sure the people with parkinson's disease and MS really feel sorry for those poor addicts.
 
mAlice

mAlice

professional daydreamer
queencity28 said:
While it is correct that we are all in control of our choices, and that most claim victim to a "disease" that they choose to partake with...there are some enabling azz doctors out there.

My mom is an addict. An alcoholic, drug addicted, mental health mess. I don't coddle her or make excuses for her behaviors. However, there have been times where she has cleaned herself up and became a functioning member of society on occassion. About eight years ago, she was attending NA and AA meetings (which I honestly believe are a cult among themselves) and doing all the things recovering addicts do to "get better". Yet, her doctor was prescribing her kolonopin and xanax for anxiety and those damn pain patches that killed Michael Jackson for pain due to nueromuscular issues from an old back injury. She about died three times from taking too many pills with those patches. Seriously...ICU trips from an ambulance.

I called the doctor that was prescribing that sht. I told him that it was killing her. Yes, I get HIPAA rules and all of that, but you know what this jerkoff did? He told her I called. Stirred up the pot. And then continued to prescribe her more. Eventually she ended up being a Dickerson Beach regular, Great Mills Road inhabiting waste of life. And guess what...that d!ck head doctor continued to overprescribe mess to other people for several more years until......wait for it.....

Calvert Neurosurgeon Arrested for Running a “Pill Mill” | Southern Maryland News Net
Click to expand...

He was my pain management 'specialist' before he was arrested. You should have seen some of the patience in his waiting room. I heard that a lot of his patience could not find care after this incident, because other doctors weren't taking any of his patience. I feel very fortunate to have been accepted by another office. Between the criminals and the DEA, people who need pains meds are having a hard time getting them. I've experienced this myself.

This is all kind of a double edged sword. While I can see the need for oversight and caution, and has gone from one extreme to the other.

Here's an interesting article out of Florida.

Florida's pill mill crackdowns hurting those in real pain | firstcoastnews.com
 
B

bilbur

New Member
my-thyme said:
I stand by that no one starts with heroin, or crack, or meth, or any of those other really nasty addictions.

They started by watching their folks smoke, and swipping cigarettes from the pack the folks left sitting around. Or grabbing a beer from the home fridge.

The were probably the same 2-yr-olds that you struggled to take the bottle and pacifier away from. :justanotheraddiction:

:evil:
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This may be true but I started smoking at 16 by steeling my dad's Camel non-filtered and I never had the urge to stick a poison filled needle in my arm.
 
Grumpy

Grumpy

Well-Known Member
mAlice said:
He was my pain management 'specialist' before he was arrested. You should have seen some of the patience in his waiting room. I heard that a lot of his patience could not find care after this incident, because other doctors weren't taking any of his patience. I feel very fortunate to have been accepted by another office. Between the criminals and the DEA, people who need pains meds are having a hard time getting them. I've experienced this myself.

This is all kind of a double edged sword. While I can see the need for oversight and caution, and has gone from one extreme to the other.

Here's an interesting article out of Florida.

Florida's pill mill crackdowns hurting those in real pain | firstcoastnews.com
Click to expand...

Wow, ten minutes and the spelling nazis haven't hit yet.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
bilbur said:
This may be true but I started smoking at 16 by steeling my dad's Camel non-filtered and I never had the urge to stick a poison filled needle in my arm.
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Same here, but they were Marlboro lights.

I think what MT is getting at is that there are people who just have addictive personalities - my mother is one of them. She has compulsions that she either can't or chooses not to control, and that is in many aspects of her life (although she doesn't smoke, sorry Nazis!). So if that addiction-prone person is compulsive about smoking or beer, they will likely be compulsive about drugs as well.

Or something like that.

And surely no person ever started with crack or heroin as a substance of choice. One would think they have almost certainly smoked a cigarette or drank a beer by the time they get to be dope shooting age. But that doesn't mean that every teen who smokes a cig or drinks a beer will wind up shooting poison in their veins and eating the flesh of innocent bystanders. I smoke and drink beer and so far my friends' faces are safe from me.

So far.
 
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