Are prescription opiates really the lead cause of heroin addiction?

[MDPV_Psychosis]

I got my opioid wings from a hydrocodone prescription I received after a pretty brutal accident involving my freestyle bike and an unusually slick surface.

I was quickly abusing and was very quick to accept myself as addicted.

I progressed up the painkiller ladder over the years. I tried to score some heroin at the height of my use but luckily it was some bogus shit that was in no way active. I got on Suboxone and eventually got clean for a few years.

So for me painkillers would have lead to heroin but the randomness of the universe got in the way. I only decided to quit after my failed attempt to get heroin because pills weren't cutting it for me anymore and I gave up looking for heroin after being screwed. Getting clean seemed like the thing to do; had I actually gotten heroin that day... I doubt I would have gotten clean.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I was introduced to poppies and pills in the same time frame so not sure what came first.

I never got strung out on either until I got bad injuries. For me like I said before it was the pressures of modern life that got a needle in my arm and I think oxy didn't impress me at all but heroin did.

I had already tried heroin at a very young age and felt there was too much vomitus and feces involved to be interested but opium which was the first opiate I really enjoyed I started first.

Then I sniffed oxy recreationally and after skateboard slams and eventually did either to get pumped up for skate stuff like a few video shots I did for my shop as well as the occasional competition.

I did the skateboarding a bit more dangerous for free stuff, props, and pussy long story short but none of those are where I got hurt but I did get hurt skateboarding.

When I felt pressure in school because I had difficulty writing and typing for years opiates powered me through. I didn't want to lose the work, time and moneyI invested each semester or my girlfriend.

So I wanted to succeed and even though I needed surgery and still do I was unable to get it. I rehabilitated my injuries myself but I didn't want to put my life on hold.

When it comes down to it I was in massive pain and still rather ambitious and not much has changed as I still want to finish university as I am so close to a dual major.

Using opiates didn't get me through school much further but I was in massive pain so I don't know if more would jave worked.

I do think the tight controls on opiates felt like a burden and at times absolutely drove me to use illicit drugs because once you start with chronic pain management you are physically addicted and I had no desire to miss class because my doctor took a payoff from a pharm rep to switch me to different medicines so I did what it took to not owe money for a pell grant by leaving a semester unfinished.

It's not fair to expect people to put their life on hold and the restrictions, corruption, prohibition and war on drugs caused those inconviences.

No one wants to get dopesick by their doctors hands and lose their job or a semester at school and that is what would have happened if I hadn't used heroin.

Heroin I found easier to stop using then some pain pills. Oxymorphone I found very addictive and not very helpful but every pain clinic was pushing it so many people myseld included traded it for cocaine and heroin which was less addictive and ironically also more functional.

Regardless I started using opium in my early college years just because it made me feel better and I lived in a slum and had little money. It got me through the day.

So I dunno where it started because I was already into opium and oxycodone in high school once again trying to get into college so it was always the pressure to succeed in life and the inevitable dependence that comes along with using those drugs.

this sounds exactly like my life. chronic pain from skateboarding back injury. what an idiot i was to skate, ruined my life.

anyways it never ends. spending thousands and thousands a year on pain meds just to be able to keep working your job, i've been with some good PM docs but the hassle of dealing with their shit and pharmacists its just almost worth it to pay out the ass for illegal drugs.

 

[JessFR]

I don't have a physical pain problem and have never been prescribed painkillers, my heroin addiction started illegitimately right from the start. I did start with pills before heroin but neither were sourced legit.

I think the cause of heroin addiction, as in addiction not just dependence, is almost always to medicate pain. Physical or psychological. In heroin epidemics many get hooked and dependent for other reasons, but in the long term, I think the ones who continually fail to get clean, are almost all self medicating some form of pain. The ones who arent will usually get clean in my experience. Almost all heroin addicts I know are medicating long term psychological pain. This goes even more so for females.

Obviously and especially when heroin is widely available there will people who become dependent and struggle to stop. But I think most who just can't seem to stop can't because life clean hurts too much.

Something to note is I live in Sydney, and meth is the big thing here. Heroin users aren't nearly as common and in my experience most are leftovers from when heroin was much more widely available in the 90s and still haven't quit. There are others like me who are heroin addicts who started in their teens and 20s in the last 20 years, but I'm one of only a couple heroin addicts I know who are still in their 20s now. Most I know are mid 30s and 40s and started in the 90s and never quit. Theres also less of a over prescription problem here, and heroin is very taboo. So among other young adult heroin addicts like me, we all decided to use it anyway despite the stigma. I wouldn't be surprised if many like me were so damaged and depressed they didn't care what happened to them and were looking for an escape.


But this is just conjecture from my experiences where I live.