Over 17 years ago, I was sitting inside a camper shell of an abandon truck, putting a piece of tar heroin inside a makeshift bottle cap cooker, squirting some water in it from my syringe, and getting ready to cook it. I tied myself off so that I could get a vein ready, and then it hit me! I'm an addict, and I have a heroin addiction. I don't know how to stop using, and this is what I will be for the rest of my life! I had the sickest feeling in my gut about what had brought me to this situation, and what I had become. In that moment, without thinking anymore, I broke off a bigger piece of the opiate, dropped it in my cooker, cooked it, chewed up a piece of cigarette filter,dropped that in the cooker, drew up the brown liquid with my syringe, registered blood, and proceeded to push the plunger.
When I came to, I was slumped over on my side, and confused. I didn't quite know what had happened to me. I tried getting up but I couldn't lift my right arm. I turned my head and saw the syringe stuck in my arm, and still tied off. Then it hit me for the second time, what I had tried to do. I had made a feeble attempt to take my life, but in the process, I overdosed, and didn't inject all the opiate into my arm. I yanked the syringe out of my arm, threw it, untied myself, and sat there in tears.
I think about my past heroin addiction from time to time when life throws me a curve ball, and I am feeling sorry for myself, or sitting on the pity pot. It wakes me up, reminds me how precious life has become for me, and how much I want to live. I have many good reasons why I had to stop my using. I normally don't disclose to the public my past personal life with heroin addiction, and how difficult it was to stop using, but I felt that I needed to share a small portion of it, and where the path of addiction took me. There is much more to my story, and there is also another path that staying clean from drugs has taken me, and I prefer that path much better! Heroin addiction is not part of my life anymore, and I have been clean for 17 wonderful years!
If you search, you can find much material on heroin addiction, how to stop using. and treatment. My focus for the moment is about heroin addiction, and the reasons why you should stop. I found out through research, that most of the inmates in U.S. prisons are there for drug or drug related charges, and that is staggering! We are not winning the war on drugs in America, and the problem of drug use is growing at an alarming rate!
You don't wake up one morning and decide that when you grow up, that you want to be an addict. It doesn't work that way! There are many life factors that can lead to heroin addiction, and once involved, very difficult to stop using.
Heroin addiction is the shame of the addict's family, and if you are an addict in a relationship, it becomes the frustration of your partner. Everyone who are directly or indirectly in contact with the addict are affected. A mother did not carry her baby in her womb for 9 months, and at birth, fed, clothed, and loved her baby so that her child would grow up to become an addict! If you have become a heroin addict in a relationship, your partner wouldn't have stood at the alter, and say I do if your partner knew you would be an addict, and provide a life of misery for him or her, and you because it will become difficult to stop using.
I feel for the heroin addict, for the family, loved ones, children, and friends. From time to time, I hear addicts say, "I'm not hurting anyone, I'm just hurting myself". If you were clean, you would cringe at what you said, because you would understand how everyone is affected by your heroin addiction! I want to provide you with five reasons what the heroin addict is up against if he or she can't stop using, and it isn't a pretty picture!
1. Heroin addiction is escalating
It has been reported that the use of opiates in the United States has increased approximately 20%. Approximately 1 in 3 heroin addicts will experience overdose, and approximately 1% of those heroin overdoses will lead to death.
2. Disease is on the increase
Approximately a third of intravenous addicts will contract HIV, Hepatitis B or C, due to risk factors such as sharing needles, and unsafe sex practice among users.
3. Pregnant female opiate addicts
The use of opiates during pregnancy has also increased the chance of premature delivery, and the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
4. Prison Incarceration rate is increasing
It has been reported that approximately 70% of prison inmates across the U.S. are in prison for drug or drug related charges. It has also been estimated that approximately 80% of prison inmates in the U.S. have had a history of substance abuse in the past.
5. Prison recidivism rate among drug users
It has been reported that approximately 40% will return back to prison due to drug or drug related violations.
This is just the tip of the iceberg if you are a heroin addict, and you can't stop. How about your family, the children, your spouse or mate? Did you think your heroin addiction wasn't going to affect them? Think about it, you already know what the end of the road looks like if you don't stop using opiates. Now is the time to give it some real thought, and figure out what kind of treatment can work for you!
I was in your shoes at one time, and I know how difficult it is to follow through with treatment for heroin addiction, and trying to stay clean. It isn't easy, but it can be done. I am living proof along with many thousands that you can stop using heroin. You can be helped, and your life can change. No one can make the decision for treatment for you. It has to come from you. Do you want to stop? Don't just exist from day to day, live it!
