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That certainly hasn't been my experience, and I have a quite extensive history with opiates. They feel fucking awesome. But obviously the pleasure received is d

by smabie 6y ago

That certainly hasn't been my experience, and I have a quite extensive history with opiates. They feel fucking awesome. But obviously the pleasure received is different for different ingestion methods, and also different types of opiates.

throwanem 6y ago
I think there's more variance to it than just that. I wouldn't call my experience with them "extensive", but neither am I a blushing naïf, and I've never found them to be pleasurable for their own sake. Granted, this may in part be due to the fact that my only encounter with heroin was as part of a luckily failed attempt at sexual assault, but it's not as if I've never tried prescription opiates for recreational purposes, and I'm told by those who should know that IV Dilaudid, which I was once given during an ER visit for what turned out to be a stuck kidney stone, is comparable to heroin in its effects and subjective experience. Later in the same visit, I was offered a second dose, but turned it down; something about the CT contrast I'd been given had by then moved the stone and alleviated the pain, or maybe it had just moved on its own, and I found nothing in the effects of the drug to desire for its own sake. On the other hand, I've known people who haven't been so lucky, and have ended up badly hooked. I suppose I shouldn't have spoken so positively about what opiates are like, when I can only really speak with confidence about what they're like for me.
- nyolfen 6y ago
  i think your experience is idiosyncratic; for most people, opiates feel very pleasurable
  - didgeoridoo 6y ago
    There is substantial genetic variation in responsiveness to opiates. For some (an estimated 1% in Norway, at least [0]) the standard dosing comes with all the side effects and none of the benefits. When I was recovering from sinus surgery, my wife handed me oxy on the prescribed schedule, and it was worse than nothing — pain still there, plus brain fog and massive constipation. Tylenol worked an absolute wonder, though. Pain is a bitch. I hope we come up with something better than these blunt instruments soon. [0]: https://partner.sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-ntnu/genetic-defect-makes-some-nearly-immune-to-morphine/1436463 https://partner.sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-ntnu/gen...
    - throwanem 6y ago
      For what it's worth, it's not that they don't suppress pain when I take them. They do, quite effectively; it's just that I don't find anything else about the experience to be at all pleasant. To your point about genetic variation, I'm told I have an unusually high pain tolerance; at that same ER visit, when the doctor came in to discuss the CT results showing the size of the stone, she expressed some surprise that I hadn't done any screaming. My mother tells me that she's the same way. So maybe it's something to do with that? I really don't know. In any case, it's clear from the responses I've gotten that to generalize from my own experience here is unwise, and I won't repeat the error.

by smabie 6y ago

throwanem 6y ago

I think there's more variance to it than just that. I wouldn't call my experience with them "extensive", but neither am I a blushing naïf, and I've never found them to be pleasurable for their own sake. Granted, this may in part be due to the fact that my only encounter with heroin was as part of a luckily failed attempt at sexual assault, but it's not as if I've never tried prescription opiates for recreational purposes, and I'm told by those who should know that IV Dilaudid, which I was once given during an ER visit for what turned out to be a stuck kidney stone, is comparable to heroin in its effects and subjective experience. Later in the same visit, I was offered a second dose, but turned it down; something about the CT contrast I'd been given had by then moved the stone and alleviated the pain, or maybe it had just moved on its own, and I found nothing in the effects of the drug to desire for its own sake. On the other hand, I've known people who haven't been so lucky, and have ended up badly hooked. I suppose I shouldn't have spoken so positively about what opiates are like, when I can only really speak with confidence about what they're like for me.

nyolfen 6y ago
i think your experience is idiosyncratic; for most people, opiates feel very pleasurable
- didgeoridoo 6y ago
  There is substantial genetic variation in responsiveness to opiates. For some (an estimated 1% in Norway, at least [0]) the standard dosing comes with all the side effects and none of the benefits. When I was recovering from sinus surgery, my wife handed me oxy on the prescribed schedule, and it was worse than nothing — pain still there, plus brain fog and massive constipation. Tylenol worked an absolute wonder, though. Pain is a bitch. I hope we come up with something better than these blunt instruments soon. [0]: https://partner.sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-ntnu/genetic-defect-makes-some-nearly-immune-to-morphine/1436463 https://partner.sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-ntnu/gen...
  - throwanem 6y ago
    For what it's worth, it's not that they don't suppress pain when I take them. They do, quite effectively; it's just that I don't find anything else about the experience to be at all pleasant. To your point about genetic variation, I'm told I have an unusually high pain tolerance; at that same ER visit, when the doctor came in to discuss the CT results showing the size of the stone, she expressed some surprise that I hadn't done any screaming. My mother tells me that she's the same way. So maybe it's something to do with that? I really don't know. In any case, it's clear from the responses I've gotten that to generalize from my own experience here is unwise, and I won't repeat the error.