An addict dies. How do you feel? (18 year old, kids, work)
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Some of the people we know, whose relatives are addicts, often say their relative was " not all there" as a child
I wonder how many of them have forms of social anxiety or hear voices that cause them to seem distracted. Depending on when they start to hear voices they may never admit to it because they don't want people to think they're crazy. "Not all there" covers a wide range of potential issues, many of which would be mitigated - albeit only temporarily, and with undesirable side-effects in the longer run - by certain kinds of popular drugs.
I wonder how many of them have forms of social anxiety or hear voices that cause them to seem distracted. Depending on when they start to hear voices they may never admit to it because they don't want people to think they're crazy. "Not all there" covers a wide range of potential issues, many of which would be mitigated - albeit only temporarily, and with undesirable side-effects in the longer run - by certain kinds of popular drugs.
Excellent point. A lot are self medicating with illegal drugs much like people sporadically use alcohol for social anxiety when hanging out in large groups.
I feel bad for the family, kids, and those who were impacted through no fault of their own, but not for her. She was well aware of the situation and continued down that road, willingly and knowingly.
How do you feel when an addict passes?
It's really impossible to answer your question because there are as many stories as there are addicts. But if we are going to speak in generalities, I would say that I feel great sadness not only for the addict but all of the people than also suffered as a result of the addiction. Devastating for everyone.
I say this because I believe that the great majority of those who begin using physically addicting substances really don't understand that they are starting down a slippery slope that will eventually lead to their death; or they blind themselves to that reality because using the drug is the only way they can find comfort. They are average people with hopes and dreams and weaknesses and frailties. Sure, they make a choice to use at one point but as others have mentioned, soon the substance takes away their ability to make a choice to stop using.
It is yet another example of man's inability to understand or deal with the end effects of technologies that we create - in this case, the technology to create purified addicting substances. It is also an end effect of a society that creates an environment of hopelessness that tends to push addiction prone personalities into self medicating; and on top of that as others have mentioned, we invest precious little resource into mental health support or services. So this is why I say, in GENERAL I am sympathetic with the plight of the addict.
Last edited by GearHeadDave; 01-03-2016 at 03:54 PM..
The death of an addict is, to me, no less tragic than the death of anybody else. Most people who abuse drugs started using them as adolescents.
A child. A broken child.
Is the loss of a life defined by the value of the life? Maybe.
However, as a mere mortal, I find myself under qualified to judge the value of someone’s life and it is not up to me to decide who is worthy of an existence.
That decision has obviously already been made and I won’t be the one to question it. I will defer to quotes from greater minds than mine:
"The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future." - Oscar Wilde
“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.” - Mother Teresa
“There, but for the grace of God, go I. “ - John Bradford
Last edited by coschristi; 01-03-2016 at 06:30 PM..
Reason: format
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I'm sorry, but if you are stupid enough to look at a filthy, track-marked heroin junkie or some meth addict who's face looks like a jack o' lantern left out on the front stoop until the third week of November and think that hard drugs are the way to roll in life, I doubt very much you were destined for much greatness anyways. There has been enough people in this world that have had their lives ravaged and utterly destroyed by hard drugs that anyone with half a brain should know using them is bad news, but yet we still have braindead dolts taking up the habit every week.
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You must realize that not all addicts are street junkies, right? And that 80-90% of even hard drug users have few, if any, issues with them? And people don't get started with drugs by seeing someone strung-out on the street and walking up to them out of nowhere and asking, "can I have some of what you have?" Usually they get started with friends who they see having what appears to be a good time and wanting to join in. Or, in some cases, they have a loved one who is a (at least at first) functional addict and they want to use with them to feel closer with them or to show them that they don't judge their addiction (I know an addict like that). Or they have emotional issues and hear that such-and-such a drug will make that problem go away, even just for a short time, and seek it out as self-medicating. Or it's just something that people in their family circle does. In higher-income circles, users may not even have ever seen a really strung out addict because they don't go to places where they're public and either they just haven't seen them in movies or they figure that the movies exaggerate or don't reflect their privileged circumstances. In the movie "Traffic," for example, the daughter of the Drug Czar ends up a junkie pimped out by her dealer. That story line is not false (I know the daughter of a high-level police administrator who essentially ended up in similar circumstances) - but it's also not the most common thing to happen.
When addiction was considered to be limited to the social and economic underclass it was not all that important. Now that the addict is as likely to be a "soccer mom" as a destitute hooker the society is paying attention.
IMHO - all of us are going to die someday. Unfortunate people with an addictable metabolism can make that someday come a lot sooner. I think that addiction is a metabolic disease, like diabetes, that should be treated as a disease and not as a criminal evil. We need the medical industry to figure this out. Until then I suggest providing the addicts with maintenance levels of affordable drugs so they can avoid the physical suffering associated with withdrawal without having to resort to bootleg heroin. Just that action might prevent accidental overdoses and early deaths.
When addiction was considered to be limited to the social and economic underclass it was not all that important. Now that the addict is as likely to be a "soccer mom" as a destitute hooker the society is paying attention.
IMHO - all of us are going to die someday. Unfortunate people with an addictable metabolism can make that someday come a lot sooner. I think that addiction is a metabolic disease, like diabetes, that should be treated as a disease and not as a criminal evil. We need the medical industry to figure this out. Until then I suggest providing the addicts with maintenance levels of affordable drugs so they can avoid the physical suffering associated with withdrawal without having to resort to bootleg heroin. Just that action might prevent accidental overdoses and early deaths.
Agreed.
Also, addiction is really not the issue in and of itself for most people-there are most often underlying issues/traumas or just a social disconnect that an individual is dealing with (or not dealing with). What happened to "never judge before you have walked a mile in their shoes"?
Sure, a lot of addicts are terrible people- but so are many non-addicts.
.........an addictable metabolism can make that someday come a lot sooner. I think that addiction is a metabolic disease, like diabetes, that should be treated as a disease and not as a criminal evil. ...........
It's possible that there is an "addictable metabulism". I was given morphine last year and I hated it. The doctor switched me to oxycodone and I couldn't wait to get off of it. As soon as I could tolerate the pain, I went off the pain pills. I don't understand why anyone would take them deliberately. They made me feel awful. There is no "happy" feeling that goes with them. There is no good feeling of any sort, just yuck.
My son felt the same way when he was on opium based medication. He hated it and couldn't wait to get off of it.
Those people who are getting addicted to morphine and oxycodone pain pills are definitely having a completely different reaction to it than I did. Their body is doing something entirely different with it if they develop a craving for it.
You must realize that not all addicts are street junkies, right? And that 80-90% of even hard drug users have few, if any, issues with them? And people don't get started with drugs by seeing someone strung-out on the street and walking up to them out of nowhere and asking, "can I have some of what you have?" Usually they get started with friends who they see having what appears to be a good time and wanting to join in. Or, in some cases, they have a loved one who is a (at least at first) functional addict and they want to use with them to feel closer with them or to show them that they don't judge their addiction (I know an addict like that). Or they have emotional issues and hear that such-and-such a drug will make that problem go away, even just for a short time, and seek it out as self-medicating. Or it's just something that people in their family circle does. In higher-income circles, users may not even have ever seen a really strung out addict because they don't go to places where they're public and either they just haven't seen them in movies or they figure that the movies exaggerate or don't reflect their privileged circumstances. In the movie "Traffic," for example, the daughter of the Drug Czar ends up a junkie pimped out by her dealer. That story line is not false (I know the daughter of a high-level police administrator who essentially ended up in similar circumstances) - but it's also not the most common thing to happen.
Sad. What a waste. Utterly Unnecessary if they were treated as Unwell instead of Illegal. How can we teach the young ones.
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