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Addicted
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
When you think of a drug addict (not just a regular user or what not) maybe addicted to a drug you take, or addicted to a drug you wouldnt take/havent taken what images or thoughts pop to mind. Do you think the person is weak? or 'fucked up'.. do you feel compassionate/sympathetic/empathetic...?
Do you feel that you could, with a lot of will power quit the drugs you take, or do you think that it would take more than that to stop?
Would you say you were addicted, either mentally or physically to a drug?
Has anybody thought u were a drug addict (how ever rightly or wrongly) what view did they have? did they stereotype you?
I started thinking about this after a few close friends became concerned that i am addicted to a particular drug, they take this drug themselves, fair enough, in lesser quantities/for different reasons, they believe i am weak for not being able to say no.. i can see addiction setting in in them too, but they are in denial i guess, or maybe havent even noticed, when they talk to me about drug addicts we know they use words such as 'dirty' or refer to the person as being 'fucked up' ... got me thinking about how others view addicts
Do you feel that you could, with a lot of will power quit the drugs you take, or do you think that it would take more than that to stop?
Would you say you were addicted, either mentally or physically to a drug?
Has anybody thought u were a drug addict (how ever rightly or wrongly) what view did they have? did they stereotype you?
I started thinking about this after a few close friends became concerned that i am addicted to a particular drug, they take this drug themselves, fair enough, in lesser quantities/for different reasons, they believe i am weak for not being able to say no.. i can see addiction setting in in them too, but they are in denial i guess, or maybe havent even noticed, when they talk to me about drug addicts we know they use words such as 'dirty' or refer to the person as being 'fucked up' ... got me thinking about how others view addicts
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I've seen people addicted to alcohol, never really to heroin or coke or anything that heavy, i dont think the person is weak really, they just have got too used to the high off whatever
drug and feel like they need it, their body gets used to the high and whenever the person isn't high their body starts to react bably without the drug so the person has to take more to feel better and has to take a larger dose to feel the same effects, its an endless cycle for junkies and the sort.
Mentally i think i am addicted to cannabis yes but not physically in anyway at all.
Some of my non smoking friends have said that we smoke cannabis alot...well used to anyway but they don't really say it anymore.
Whats the particular drug your friends say your addicted to?
Cocaine.. i dont know whether its true or not. i guess to some degree it is, but im not on it 6 times a day every day. Just when im pissed off/feeling rough or bored etc during the week and on weekends. So i dont know if theyre right or wrong. I dont really know the definition of an 'addict'.
Im the same with cannabis, i think mentally im addicted but more to the going out, skinning up, getting stoned ~ the whole situation and process, rather than to the drug itself, if that makes any sense? I see it as a bad habit, for me, rather than a mental addiction.
Its interesting i think that you dont neccesarily see the person as weak, a lot of people i know who are just cannabis smokers see addicts as weak and 'pathetic'
Some I try to help, some I try to avoid. Some I stay friends with, others I was never friends with in the first place...
I think what I'm trying to say is that being a drug addict doesn't erase the persons identity and personality, it just smudges it a little. They are stiull people and still all unique and different. You can't develope a personal philosophy for dealing with all drug addicts.. Or, you can, but it's more than a little unfair.
Well do you see a person as weak who is addicted to something, i see them as stupid rather than weak.
With regards to cocaine i dont use it but a person i know told me its not worth it, the effect is amazing he said but its too dear.
I know for a fact that I had a preaty serious problem with speed, but I have never done as much as some addicts. With that and coke I think it has a lot to do with your state of mind. Even now, some two years since I stopped I would say at least every other day I have a big craving for it.
I wouldnt say my first reaction to addiction would be to say its dirty, its just seriously unfortunate for some, and for others, well I do think that some people are destined to fuck up.
I think I have a preaty addictive personality, and I can get into the habit of using a drug quite quickly. But I dont have access to anything that I know would cause me problems.
The friend who I met my wife through had painted me as some druggie fuck up, which was nice, I'm still not sure why she agreed to meet me, I'm glad though.
I dont see them as weak, i think it depends on the person as to how i view them.. i used to feel sympathetic towards my mate who is an alcoholic, he wanted to get out of it and i tried to help him as best i could. Then he decided he couldnt be bothered to try anymore, so i think hes stupid.
Cocaine, i wouldnt even call it amazing, i love it i really do, but its not the best high in the world, and it is very dear~but theres something about it. As ive said before, it just makes things feel right.
I found this info after a quick search, thought it was interesting - http://www.dotpharmacy.co.uk/upadict1.html
his doctor put him on pills, he was on valium and temazzies for various addcitions, the doctor aranged for him to go to hospital to be watched whilst he was trying to overcome it, he was meant to get picked up, they never arrived. 6 months on, still no sign. They now dont have a bed for him. Hes on so many drugs, alcohol, cannabis, crack, pills and cocaine~but nothing replaces his alcohol. And with his personality there is NOTHING we can do to help him, its down to him. Hes one of those hells angels 'im so hard' punk 'fuck authority' people, he does what he wants, when he wants and nobody can stop him - hes 40 today and he said that his lived his life, he just wants to spent the rest of it fucked. Hes happy. Im worried.
He wont be happy someday, hes 40 and been using drugs for how long?? does he work or just sit around getting fucked all the time?
well nobody can stop him only him, so its fighting a lost cause in his case sorry to say.
Eventually he admitted to my mum and dad he had a problem with smack and I thought well at least he's trying. Mum and dad sent him to Spain on re-hab and he was there for nearly a year, came back clean, put on loads of weight and then gets straight back on the stuff and totally fucks up again. Now this I say is a low-life, smack ridden fuck up.
He ended up going back to Spain cos my mum and dad couldn't handle anymore of it. Came back now a few months ago, was ok for a few weeks, got his first dole payment and spent it on smack :rolleyes: what the fuck. This time he told my mum straight away. He's now on this tablet that blocks it, he can take it but it doesn't do fuck all to him so there is no point. He's kept his weight he's gained and I keep seeing him out pissed up, on pills, and i've sold him some skunk (all drugs I know but nothing compared to smack) and he's ok now.
My opinion is that with stuff like heroin it is a disease (like cancer) which no-one wants, but once you've got it its hard to get rid of. I feel for the people who are on it and don't have a family like mine who have helped get my brother through it (its taken years).
I do still however think the people who are been helped but don't want the help are complete fuck-ups and a waste of space, and through all the shit my family has been through I would have wiped my hands with my brother a long time ago if I was his dad, but there effort has finally payed off now.
since he as 13, he doesnt work, he lives with a retired alcoholic rich bloke, spends his pension on drugs/drink.. hes not got too long to live and i guess now its coming to a case of theres not much hope left
Heroins a fucker, ive seen the damage it does too, im glad your brothers on his way ~ i think i would have washed my hands of him too, im glad for him that your family didnt, must have taken a lot of strength on their part.
But there are always going to be people who are just arent ment to be around, for whatever reason they just cant deal with things in the way we can.
mroll, why did you try it?
The problem would be solved for any addiction if it wasn't done in the first place. People see what smoking does to you, drinking, gambling etc.. its in the papers all the time, but at the end of the day people do STILL get into it.
My brother got into it when he was still at school, you do stupid stuff and don't really understand at that age. I'll admit my brothers gave me some before and it was only my mate that stopped me buying some. I would have never done it if I knew what I know now.
She's clean now, has been for years, and she's a wonderful person, really caring.
A friend wrote this about her brother who became addicted to heroin, I thought I'd just add it:
MY BROTHER
My brother is a heroin addict.
Words i never expected to say about my bright, beautiful brother.
A few years ago, he had a good home, job, friends and family who
loved him. Now, at, twenty-nine, he's one of the faceless people
of the streets. As you pass him by, you clutch your purse and try
to avoid eye contact. He's thin, dirty and looks sick. And you've
probably forgotten him by the time you've reached the end of the
block.
But we, his family, cannot stop thinking about him. Thinking
about the little boy that once was; the boy so full of promise.
I remember him teasing and clowning around, so much you could
scream. A kid who excelled at everything he tried. A kid who made
friends, good friends, friends for life.
Have we let him down? Could we have done anything to change his
fate? Futile questions that only magnify feelings of guilt and
grief. His only mistake was loving a girl whose weakness became
his weakness.
We worry about the world he must live in. Aids. Winter. People
whose lives are as desperate as his own. Such a violent world for
such a gentle man.
Try to imagine having to phone the morgue every time there is
a rash of overdoses.
This is not soemone elses problem. He could be your brother,
father, uncle, son. I hope you never have to live with the
helplessness and hopelessness we live with every day.
I can no longer answer the phone late at night without bracing
myself for bad news.
I now have to turn him away when he's looking for a place to
stay, because he'll steal from me. He once warned me never to
trust him, and I must accept that warning at face value.
I would give all I own to see him off drugs. But i realise
that its his battle, and he must fight it alone.
So, the next time you pass by, at least understand that he
was not always a junkie. At one time, he was a hard worker, a
good brother, a loved son. He was someone you could be proud
to call friend.
He is someone that matters. And someone that is loved.
There, but for the grace of god, go I.
My brother is a heroin addict.
And I love him.
the oportunity was there ...fuck it why not? made me sick as a dog for about an hour. then i felt nice and safe and warm in a way i never had before ...cocooned. tried again later that night and wasn't sick ...vegged in the corner if i remember rightly, drifting in and out of reality and opium dreams. didn't get physicaly addicted for a long time ...to smart to become a junkie ...to strong ...always determined and busy busy. knew a few junkies and didn't like them very much. i would never be like them becuase i was far cleverer, brighter etc. the rest as they say is history.
if you fuck with heroin, it will fuck you over big time. very very hard to escape once your under it's spell. i find it realy hard to realy relate to the fact that i was a heroin addict. a lot of it is a blur. it's like some alter ego did it ...not me.
say no to heroin ...it isn't even all that interesting a high to be honest, more a delusion and the ultimate painkiller. comfortably numb to the point when your concsions is almost numb as well.
Thats similar to how ive had it described to me by a friend, its always seemed like it would be a beautiful drug, but evil too with the rattles next day etc. I dont think i could ever take it, it sounds too much like something i would get hooked on, just like everyone else.
But do you think most of the youth would not start it with the knowledge of what they have now...but as you say theres always going to be an amount of people who want to use it, to get out of problems in their lives and see this as the only way possible.
Maybe schools should get people in who have been addicts of heroin and the harder drugs for them to get the point across because all I got at school was some stuck up teacher reading out of a text book. I think this, if done the right way, could hopefully scare children away from using the harder drugs.
as an ex junkie i couldn't get accross the missery and confusion and danger now. i look very healthy, indeed am very healthy. bright bubbly, smiling confident. just like most other ex junkies.
what kind of message would that send out? hey these guys are living proof that heroin aint so bad?
and ZOMA ...that was very poignant. remember everyone when you pass by that street junkie ...it could be a very much loved son and brother.