My cousin died from a drug overdose when I was 14 and before I really knew about drugs. I dont know 100% for sure but I think it was heroin related. I never had anyone I would consider an "inner circle" friend pass away if that makes sense, but I know a few people who were friends of inner circle friends that have. Two were from heroin overdoses and the other was from a combination of benzos and alcohol. And that's just people I would talk to on a somewhat regular basis, there's a lot of people I wasnt really friends with but knew who they were and would recognize them if I saw them in the street that died too. It is hard at first but life stops for nobody.
There is a grieving time that should be allocated for sure, and you always want to remember the person for the good times they had, but in the end, we must all move on. It's not like everyone is going to live forever anyway, and if I were to die of an OD I would not want people to feel suffering over a choice I ultimately made in the end.
Of course it's not that easy because life is never that easy. But the greatest advice my grandfather ever gave me was at my cousin's wake. He was pretty quiet throughout the whole affair (I mean, even for a wake he was quiet) and I'll never forget as we were walking out after the last pass byes and everything he just looked me in the eye and said
"Don't do what he did and trade 40 years of your life for 40 minutes of happiness."
And at the time I was still pretty naive to everything about drugs so I was just like "uh yeah sure I wont" and just kind of forgot about it for a while. But looking back now after having used opiates and other drugs, I realized he was exactly right.
You need to think about all the time and effort people have invested into your life. And I realize not everyone has the most stable and supportive family, and that sucks because those are the people that make you feel the most empathetic. But if you have a family that cares about you, or even someone who cares enough about you to post your pic in this thread to keep your spirit living on, just take a long and deep look at what opiates really are. Because if you leave this Earth, not only are you wasting your life, but you are forever scarring anyone who has ever truly cared about you.
I'm not going to preach to anyone here because everyone must come to their own conclusion about moral choices in life, because we all have different morals. But I would hope that all of you at least have the moral of not wanting to harm people you are close to. So the next time you're thinking about doing that next shot, or driving home from the bar because you cant get a DD, or doing that speedball, just take a second and think of anyone who's ever given up a moment of their time to help you out.
Because if they are kind enough to give you at least a moment, you sure as hell dont want to make them give up the rest of their lives wondering what could have been.
Sorry for the long post but I've just thinking a lot about this stuff lately because until you actually see someone there one day and then never again, it doesnt truly sink in how tragic it is.
And until we all meet them again on the other side just
keep your head up and know that nobody disappears from existence entirely, we are all just constantly reforming into new matter and as long as you keep the memory of these people in your hearts you can know that somewhere out there their spirit is still infused within this ever fascinating and changing universe.