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My experience as a 28 year old former heroin addict is equally as anecdotal but contradictory. As preteen and teenager I was a big pot smoker and later cocaine

My experience as a 28 year old former heroin addict is equally as anecdotal but contradictory. As preteen and teenager I was a big pot smoker and later cocaine enthusiast. I medicated throughout those teenage years but never saw opioid pain medication or heroin even though I was fairly deep into the NYC drug scene. If you had asked then if I would ever inject heroin I would laugh at you. Around my freshmen year of college (2007) pain pills started showing up. They were an instant hit and all my friends start doing them. I explicitly remember sniffing my first oxycodone in my dorm and thinking "this is what I've been missing my entire life". My life spiraled downhill quickly. As a lifelong programmer / math enthusiast I managed to get to my second semester junior year before my lifestyle really caught up. By then I was homeless, facing serious felony charges, OD countless times, doing whatever I could for my fix. Oxycodone was around for a few years before they reformulated and then you needed heroin to get high. I was shooting it only a week after first trying it. For the next several years I went from a middle class college student to a IV homeless heroin junkie. I caught very serious charges and took drug court. Violated drug court 3 years in and then spent a year in a bad NY jail where I leaserned to fight and throw urine on people. I learned to act like a fucking savage. I got out and finished drug court only to get addicted again. I finally got on Suboxone about 4 years ago. I finished my degree and went from homeless to making 6 figures in those years. I'm literally the only success story I know. For most of my peers they died or are doing long prison bids. We all started from pills, and I can honestly say I would never have started if it weren't for them. However I recognize the need for them and don't know if serious restriction is the right way either

natecavanaugh 9y ago
Wow... It sounds like you and OP are roughly the same age, and the same age as my youngest brother, who also kicked heroin addiction (he kicked it a couple of years ago). What I'm wondering is if there is something generational here. My father also kicked heroin before I was born in the late 70s, and since his recovery was such an important part of our life as a family, when we learned my brother was using, it shocked us, because it seemed so obvious not to do it. What I've been wondering is why the current crisis is affecting your generation more heavily than the ones between (or maybe I'm selectively seeing it in your generation). Was it the easy access of oxycontin in the late 90s that finally trickled it's way through the culture and started a resurgence? Was it some other factor (the fashion cycle that goes in and out every 20-30 years)? I do know my brother was exposed to it from a friend around his age, and of course during a painful part of his life, but I'm curious as to the origin because I see how culture and influence work it's way though our lives, but I'd love to have some hints as to why heroin itself made such a comeback.

natecavanaugh 9y ago

Wow... It sounds like you and OP are roughly the same age, and the same age as my youngest brother, who also kicked heroin addiction (he kicked it a couple of years ago). What I'm wondering is if there is something generational here. My father also kicked heroin before I was born in the late 70s, and since his recovery was such an important part of our life as a family, when we learned my brother was using, it shocked us, because it seemed so obvious not to do it. What I've been wondering is why the current crisis is affecting your generation more heavily than the ones between (or maybe I'm selectively seeing it in your generation). Was it the easy access of oxycontin in the late 90s that finally trickled it's way through the culture and started a resurgence? Was it some other factor (the fashion cycle that goes in and out every 20-30 years)? I do know my brother was exposed to it from a friend around his age, and of course during a painful part of his life, but I'm curious as to the origin because I see how culture and influence work it's way though our lives, but I'd love to have some hints as to why heroin itself made such a comeback.