Heroin Can you OD on heroin and not require treatment?

[bobisnotyourname]

I was just wondering, can you have like a mild OD that doesnt require treatment, or do all ODs require it or what?

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Yes, "overdose" technically means what it sounds like - too big a dose. In practice people mostly use the term solely to mean a potentially life-threatening overdose, which can be confusing. A person could take too much heroin and have a "mild" overdose, meaning that they might have had side effects like vomitting, passing out, whatever, but were not necessarily at an actual risk of dying. However if that happened to me and I was fine I wouldn't say "Man I OD'd last night". Most people consider an "OD" to be when someone has serious respiratory depression and goes unconscious and/or stops breathing. Sometimes a person can have a serious overdose and survive without medical intervention, but obviously if you think someone is "overdosing" you need to get them medical attention right away. Were you looking for info on how to tell the difference between a situation that requires emergency medical attention and one that doesn't?

 

[down508]

yes you can, but the chances of you suffering permanent brain and organ damage are high. some people pass out and wake up 20 minutes later, others never wake up. I feel nervous saying that sometimes people don't require treatment then someone could decide not to call 911 when their friend overdoses because they heard some overdoses aren't life threatening. if someones lips are turning blue or they are cool/cold to the touch the odds of them waking up on their own are slim. if somone od's it is your personal responsibility to make sure they get the help they need to survive. it may not seem like it but if they don't make it, for the rest of your life you will blame yourself. every time you do boring tasks such as mow the lawn or clean the dishes you will remember them. so call 911, don't leave someones life to fate, especially if you wouldn't want them to do that to you.

not to mention if they overdose and die charges could be brought on a whole shit load of people, yourself included. if you copped with them and brought them to your dealer, you and the dealer could face manslaughter charges. so be safe. overdosing on heroin is extremely easy.

 

[bobisnotyourname]

I was just curious, I know very very little about heroin and whenever I hear about heroin ODs It's either death, or treatment. I kind of assumed what swimmingdancer said, but thought id make sure. thanks.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

yes, you can have an overdose that is non-life threatening. I have experienced this myself.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

There are many levels of OD's... which is why it is often such a difficult topic to fully understand. Many people have misconceived notions about overdoses. When it comes to opiate OD's, sometimes they will be moderate enough to the point where you wont even loose consciousness.. you may just get some really nasty side effects like throwing up, sweating, etc.

Another level of OD is when one does pass out for a bit, but comes out of it all on their own. However, there is a fine line between a dose that results in that outcome compared to ones that put you out, where you will not wake up just on your own.

Even further down the later of severity when it comes to opiate overdoses are the ones where you actually need chemical help to come out of it in the form of naloxone. During an OD of this nature, you weren't coming out of it any other way and if nobody would have hit you with narcan, you would have died. Sometimes though, the OD is so severe that the individual requires multiple doses of narcan.

So you see, there is no "one size fits all" OD... they're are varying levels of severity.

 

[tricomb]

Yes you can, overdose doesn't by definition mean you require hospitalization or even treatment. It just means you took too much of a drug, the consequences of doing so can indeed include hospitalization in some cases, but not in all.

A lot of people who's goal is nodding, (which is a semi-conscious state bordering on the brink of overdose) especially those who choose to nod before bed, sometimes they stop breathing for a short time, especially those who've fallen asleep, like when taking a huge dose of opioids, the respiratory depression contributes/induces a sort of sleep apnea and as a result, inconsistent oxygen delivery.

I'm going to close this now because I don't see any further HR discussion, questions been answered.