Opioids Concerned and puzzled about friend

Hey folks, I am not sure if OD is the place to post this, so MODs move/merge if necessary.

Anyways, I am concerned about a friends behaviors, as I have never seen anyone ever act this way ALL the time. Maybe one of you people know, or have an idea of what the hell is wrong with this guy? I wouldn't even know where to begin to start a Google Search on it.

Here is how I met this guy, and got to know him. His roommate is one of my long time best of friends, and every week I would come here and crash for several days for the past 9 months or so. For the past 2 months I have been living here though, so I have gotten to know this guy and watch him a lot.

First off, this guy is an alcoholic I am sure of it, and also has depression, because I have noticed empty Prozac pill bottles around. The man cannot function without alcohol either. He drinks nothing but Natty Daddies all day, all night. HE DOESNT SLEEP AT ALL. The only sleep I EVER have seen this man get is from nod offs when he does heroin, or MAYBE a couple hours cat nap. This past week he has had NONE. how is this possible?? As much of that malt liquor this guy drinks staying up this long drinking would have many people comatose. I know he is definitely alcohol dependent, because after he has to go an amount of hours without it, he gets the DT shakes pretty violently. Can't fish a cigarette out of his pack even. On occasion when he didn't have the funds to get booze, he would beg me and my friend in the middle of the night, waking us up even to ask for money for it, and if it was too late and stores won't sell it, he would steal it.

I am sure he is an insomniac, he has to be, but doesn't the brain require rest no matter what? Is he just getting the brain rest from the 20 half hour naps he takes per day? Me and my buddy hear him up all hours of the night talking to himself, and making weird noises like grunts and moans, all the time. There has been times where he's been delirious, thinking there was people there that weren't, not knowing what time or day it is. Is this schizophrenia?

Moving on to the opiate use. This is quite possibly the weirdest.... Everytime this dude shoots up, if the dope is even just A LITTLE good, and off small amounts, he will hit the floor in the hardest nod, which you cannot wake him out of. Just yesterday, my friend sent me a picture message of him laying on the floor with his head by the toilet, and arm over the seat GONE off a small, small pinch of a dose of heroin, maybe fentanyl-based dope. Who know. Just the other night I found him under his bed in the same condition. If we are getting high with him we have to basicly BABYSIT the guy to make sure he don't hurt himself. When he finally comes to after a shot, he always is taking heavy deep breaths, is very incoherent, and is just hard to communicate with, and just basicly acts like an idiot.

Now I have known alcoholics, insomniacs, and have seen people get really lit of dope, including myself, had close call ODs, and very hard nods, but never off small amounts like that and not EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's like this dude permanently has 0 tolerance built up to it. Me and my friend are just puzzled and baffled by this.

I am really very interested in any feedback and insight on this, so I can figure out how to help, suggest help, or get help for this guy. He REALLY needs it. He is a good guy in general around this stuff, but I just don't get it. Especially how he just goes on with the complete lack of sleep. Makes no sense. Thanks people.

Oh yeah, me and my friend asked him about how he goes on without the sleep, and he says he has nightmares, and every time he falls asleep he jolts awake in a panic attack. I mean, this happens to me too, but eventually I get to sleep and will stay asleep. He also says he is depressed because of this girl he used to mess with had been. Treating him like shit.

do you think the alcohol he drinks could be responsible for his super hard nodding?

You're sure he isn't using methamphetamine or some kind of speed along with the alcohol? It would explain the long periods without sleep, ability to constantly drink and not be passed out drunk, and the hallucinations (speed and lack of sleep either combined or alone can cause hallucinations)


If not, the lack of sleep itself can cause the hallucinations. And maybe the alcohol combined with dope causes that reaction, though it's very odd. Maybe some really " fried" receptors??

I've seen that where everyone else uses and is fine, but you have that one guy doing the standing nod completely incoherent. So.... Not sure. But my first reaction is " meth/speed" just cause it would account for 90% of what you describe

The insomnia might be a side-effect of the prozac (along with some of the other traits you describe). Then again, such traits may be the reason he's on prozac. If someone was crashing at my house several nights a week, shooting up heroin while monitoring my living habits though, I probably wouldn't be getting much sleep either.

crzydiamond said:

You're sure he isn't using methamphetamine or some kind of speed along with the alcohol? It would explain the long periods without sleep, ability to constantly drink and not be passed out drunk, and the hallucinations (speed and lack of sleep either combined or alone can cause hallucinations)


If not, the lack of sleep itself can cause the hallucinations. And maybe the alcohol combined with dope causes that reaction, though it's very odd. Maybe some really " fried" receptors??

I've seen that where everyone else uses and is fine, but you have that one guy doing the standing nod completely incoherent. So.... Not sure. But my first reaction is " meth/speed" just cause it would account for 90% of what you describe

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Yeah 100% positive it isn't speed/meth , I am pretty much his connection to any drugs out there. And yeah, that standing nod is what he does, and then it's like TIMBERRRRR....and he goes down. Hopefully no table in the way, or he is doing a face plant thru it.

Kaden_Nite said:

The insomnia might be a side-effect of the prozac (along with some of the other traits you describe). Then again, such traits may be the reason he's on prozac. If someone was crashing at my house several nights a week, shooting up heroin while monitoring my living habits though, I probably wouldn't be getting much sleep either.

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I would say it could be a side effect of Prozac, but he hasn't taken it in quite a while, and I just have been living here, we cannot help but notice what is going on. We just worried about his well-being.

nau5ea said:

do you think the alcohol he drinks could be responsible for his super hard nodding?

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Yeah it could be... And I have explained that it could be a deadly combination to him, but it has no effect.

You should check out Sober Living, I'm sure the can help you help him

This sounds like the end stages of a serious addiction. Alcoholism can have the effect of rapidly dropping drug tolerances. Beyond what you would expect just from the combination with alcohol alone. If he is not sleeping, and also not taking stimulants, and also exhibiting excessive intoxication response, and also drinking daily. He is almost certainly experiencing some very significant vitamin deficiencies and alcohol dependence. Rehab is his best bet. A good friend of mine looked very similar to this the weeks before his death at the young age of 19.

Get a free narcan kit at your doctors office or get one from a friend. Keep it around for emergencies especially if you have an active IV opiate addict living on your property. I knew a few heroin addicts who used to get completely immobilized by using small amounts of H. I found these individuals were more likely to overdose.

I don't doubt the OP's account, but I can't fathom - or perhaps better stated - understand how this person is awake most of the time without using stimulants. For HRs sake, can someone explain, without speculation, on the possible mechanisms by which such a person wouldn't sleep? Certainly the deep dope nods don't help mitigate sleep deprivation, correct? That's been my existence. Thanks.

It's the booze causing the hard nod. Don't hang with him like that unless you want a lasting memory of the police in your house and a bunch of emts taking him out in a body bag. I always wonder what the girl feels like that found my brother dead and made that phone call. not good. The drugs are clearly adding to existing psychological problems. Don't be part of that and try to get him to get help before it's too late.

Ok OP's question is, how come someone can nob off like that off a small opiate dose. Brother, if he's shooting meth for weeks, and he finally is in the comedown, he can easely OD on opioids...in fact he can even od on his natural opioids produced to counteract all that stimulation.

I was once living in a house with flatmates/friends who liked their booze and weekend pills. I was more into the tranquility of weed and treated mdma as more of an entheogen, but whatever, each to their own. It was okay for a while, until that immediate group started factoring in more and more friends of friends, then friends of friends of people who vaguely knew someone who lived on the block and the weekends were stretching from Thursday afternoon into the early hours of Monday morning and speed and coke were becoming more common. Eventually the house -my home- had just become a pub with no bouncers, my flatmates were too drunk and irrational to communicate with regarding the problem, my fledgling use of benzos and opiates was becoming more and more a way of retreating into the only place of tranquility I had left on earth: my bedroom.

The vibe of the house was becoming more and more disturbing; fights, break-ups, drugfucked randoms with 'do you know I am' attitudes acting like they owned the place. My insomnia, which had just been a thing that I had just gotten used to since my troubled ritalin-hazed school days, was causing to me to be late for work and anxious about even leaving the house because I really didn't know what kind of shit I'd be coming home to. I casually started factoring meth into the equation to balance out the lack of sleep and also, to be honest, because I knew there was less chance of people fucking with me when it was common knowledge that I was potentially on ice.

The worst part about all of this, by far the most stressful thing about any of it was the hypocritical talk and judgemental whispers I would hear through the walls regarding "what's to be done about that troubled guy?". These were the people binging yayo off my kitchen table for so many hours that I couldn't even sit down to eat dinner, the people who would sporadically show up in large groups, looking to 'party' at 3am on a Tuesday morning just as I was just drifting off to sleep for the first time in days.

My point, if I have one, is that this was the third house that I'd moved to (I was still only 18-19) where such bullshit had escalated to a degree of me not feeling comfortable in my own home. I just figured this is what being out in the world was like, people even told me when I'd voice my concerns that it was something that I just had to get used to.

Perhaps, OP, you should worry about your own heroin use rather than the alcohol use of someone who was decent enough to welcome you into their home. Maybe, rather than posting a page of intrusive realisations about them to an internet forum, you should put as much effort into focusing on yourself. I notice a lot of people shift focus off their own situation because it's easier to solve the problems in other peoples' live than it is your own because you're somewhat depersonalised from the situation.

Just a thought.

Edit: Really not trying to be critical by the way, you're worried about your friend, understandable. It's just that I'd be mortified if someone posted all of that stuff about me and I probably wouldn't listen to someone who was using hard drugs dispensing advice regarding my hard drug use. Maybe it's just something he's going through for the time being and it'll pass, maybe it would help him decide to change if the circumstances around him, including his friends and living environment were to change in a positive way.

When alcoholism got bad enough for me, I was afraid of falling asleep because I actually woke up having seizures before (as well as absolutely terrifying nightmares) shaking, general dysphoria, hallucinations, etc...

It's one of the absurd horrors of being an alcoholic. At one point, you have to basically "outrun" the withdrawals, and it becomes impossible after a time. 6 or 7 hours of sleep is just way too long as when you wake up, your system is already freaking out.

Anyways, just mentioning that because it's my experience, and sounds a bit like what your friend is doing, possibly. Can't say for sure of course.

at the rate your friend is going i give him <9 months

bobby1978 said:

When alcoholism got bad enough for me, I was afraid of falling asleep because I actually woke up having seizures before (as well as absolutely terrifying nightmares) shaking, general dysphoria, hallucinations, etc...

It's one of the absurd horrors of being an alcoholic. At one point, you have to basically "outrun" the withdrawals, and it becomes impossible after a time. 6 or 7 hours of sleep is just way too long as when you wake up, your system is already freaking out.

Anyways, just mentioning that because it's my experience, and sounds a bit like what your friend is doing, possibly. Can't say for sure of course.

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Thanks. This is very similar to what is going on with the dude. I never got heavy enough into alcoholism for this to occur to me, but i now actually realize that this is quite common in alcoholism.

trumpet153 said:

This sounds like the end stages of a serious addiction. Alcoholism can have the effect of rapidly dropping drug tolerances. Beyond what you would expect just from the combination with alcohol alone. If he is not sleeping, and also not taking stimulants, and also exhibiting excessive intoxication response, and also drinking daily. He is almost certainly experiencing some very significant vitamin deficiencies and alcohol dependence. Rehab is his best bet. A good friend of mine looked very similar to this the weeks before his death at the young age of 19.

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Ya i have suggested detox for him, cuAlcohol WD can axtually kill. He has been doing a bit better lately tho

Kaden_Nite said:

I was once living in a house with flatmates/friends who liked their booze and weekend pills. I was more into the tranquility of weed and treated mdma as more of an entheogen, but whatever, each to their own. It was okay for a while, until that immediate group started factoring in more and more friends of friends, then friends of friends of people who vaguely knew someone who lived on the block and the weekends were stretching from Thursday afternoon into the early hours of Monday morning and speed and coke were becoming more common. Eventually the house -my home- had just become a pub with no bouncers, my flatmates were too drunk and irrational to communicate with regarding the problem, my fledgling use of benzos and opiates was becoming more and more a way of retreating into the only place of tranquility I had left on earth: my bedroom.

The vibe of the house was becoming more and more disturbing; fights, break-ups, drugfucked randoms with 'do you know I am' attitudes acting like they owned the place. My insomnia, which had just been a thing that I had just gotten used to since my troubled ritalin-hazed school days, was causing to me to be late for work and anxious about even leaving the house because I really didn't know what kind of shit I'd be coming home to. I casually started factoring meth into the equation to balance out the lack of sleep and also, to be honest, because I knew there was less chance of people fucking with me when it was common knowledge that I was potentially on ice.

The worst part about all of this, by far the most stressful thing about any of it was the hypocritical talk and judgemental whispers I would hear through the walls regarding "what's to be done about that troubled guy?". These were the people binging yayo off my kitchen table for so many hours that I couldn't even sit down to eat dinner, the people who would sporadically show up in large groups, looking to 'party' at 3am on a Tuesday morning just as I was just drifting off to sleep for the first time in days.

My point, if I have one, is that this was the third house that I'd moved to (I was still only 18-19) where such bullshit had escalated to a degree of me not feeling comfortable in my own home. I just figured this is what being out in the world was like, people even told me when I'd voice my concerns that it was something that I just had to get used to.

Perhaps, OP, you should worry about your own heroin use rather than the alcohol use of someone who was decent enough to welcome you into their home. Maybe, rather than posting a page of intrusive realisations about them to an internet forum, you should put as much effort into focusing on yourself. I notice a lot of people shift focus off their own situation because it's easier to solve the problems in other peoples' live than it is your own because you're somewhat depersonalised from the situation.

Just a thought.

Edit: Really not trying to be critical by the way, you're worried about your friend, understandable. It's just that I'd be mortified if someone posted all of that stuff about me and I probably wouldn't listen to someone who was using hard drugs dispensing advice regarding my hard drug use. Maybe it's just something he's going through for the time being and it'll pass, maybe it would help him decide to change if the circumstances around him, including his friends and living environment were to change in a positive way.

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Yeah i am definitely not the person to ne shifting focus onto other peoples situations, i definitely have my own demons that demand my attention for sure, no doubt.

Dont think i am going behind his back and posting this shit on the internet about him. Before i made this thread we have pointed this out to him.

Its just me and the other guy that stay here havent really encountered anyone like this before, and i was just seeking suggestions on what could be causing it, and maybe if he really needs help. I know i do.... im just as fucked up as the next person is.