TDS Definitions of the term 'junkie'.

[deldone]

Hi BLers,

Firstly I would like to apologize as this obviously is a vent/rant thread - I am sincerely thankful to the ones that is willing to take their time to read this - I would really appreciate it for anyone to share their thoughts or opinions on this - I really NEED a diff point of view on my situation; greatly appreciated.

I'll just start by saying I am constantly wondering what will cause others/ esp family members to define you as a 'junkie' - is it the frequency of use? the lengths that you will go to score? the amount of $ that your spending on drugs or the lengths that you will go just to keep using 'it'?

To me personally as long as I don't steal from others/ family members, I don't rob others, the money I spend on drugs is through honest work, I don't see my choice of indulging in my DOC once in a while to be a problem. I understand that it is hard for others esp family members to understand if you happen to be taking any drugs at all - regardless if it is a soft or hard drug. But is it too much to ask for if I hope that they can understand that I AM a grown up, and I am fully aware of my own limits in regards to drug use and be reasonably clear to know when I am overboard and when I should slow down?

Now I won't get started as to the reason I started resorting to drugs in the first place - long story short once I get to know what drugs can offer me, I feel contented and satisfied, its like something that fills the void that I have in my life all these years growing up. Although I grew up from a rather strict family, I have the utmost respect for my family members esp my parents - but unfortunately that is not the way they see it.

To this day the way I see myself; I am not addicted to drugs at all. I only take it as a tool to escape all the stresses and BS that I have to go through and at the same time helping me to numb my negative feelings/ emotions from the problems that I am facing. I know this is not a permanent solution, but as for now it still is the only thing that provides me comfort; it is like something that can make my problems vanish instantly - even though it is only for a short time.

To be honest, at times I am very touched by the lengths that my family will go through just to hinder me from scoring the proper stuff - but I hope that they can understand that I am a grown up already and I am responsible for my actions. To the ones that wonder - my family has been getting in touch to all my possible scoring channels, resulting them to either denying to supply me, or to provide me totally inactive substances. Now all this is only pushing me to score something decent no matter what, not only because I want to use them, but to prove that I can still score something off the street. This is probably something my family won't understand - for someone to be completely free from drugs; it is something that MUST come from within that person. 'You can't change someone unless they are willing to change'.

I would like to see how other BLers have to say about my situation - is my family doing the right thing by isolating me from all my friends, (I am lonely all the time because of this) and all possible connections for me to score - OR is it that I am too blind to see what is really happening around me and that I am truly addicted to drugs therefore is finding any excuse to deny it?

 

[Abject]

Personally, I think it's all about the lengths one will go to sustain their addiction, as opposed to their level of addiction itself.
The need for your DOC being tantamount to ethics/taking priority over ones morals/however you want to word it.

Social isolation and loneliness only prevent getting over ones addiction, not to mention they are issues of their own (with the potential to be just as destructive as an addiction)

 

[deldone]

Social isolation and loneliness only prevent getting over ones addiction, not to mention they are issues of their own (with the potential to be just as destructive as an addiction)

I totally understand what your tryin to say because I am the subject of the case to my family the best way for me to kick this 'habit/ addiction' is to isolate me from my old circle of friends, but what they didn't know is that all this only prevent me getting over it, perhaps worsening this issue. I am always alone, either facing my computer or my bed all the time, which I feel like being alive only because of my heart is still beating.

Personally, I think it's all about the lengths one will go to sustain their addiction, as opposed to their level of addiction itself. The need for your DOC being tantamount to ethics/taking priority over ones morals/however you want to word it.

I still don't prefer to term it as 'addiction'. I can honestly say that the furthest I'd go to score is to score on the streets, and that is only the case because all my other possible channels have been turned away by my family. I don't neglect any moral issues like robbing or stealing others if that's what you meant. I know by the amount that I am using or the amount that I will need to be high, there is no way anyone could term this as 'addicted'.

 

[Abject]

Addiction is about the dependency/need for something, not how much of it you need.

I know this is hard, but your family is trying to do what they think is best for you by removing you from that circle of friends.
Tell them you're feeling lonely. Maybe join a footy club or something, if you're interested in making new friends.
I wouldn't worry that you're a "junkie" OP.

 

[deldone]

I wouldn't worry that you're a "junkie" OP.

Thank you.
I believe my family knows that I'm lonely after all this without the need of me telling them.
However, tt is still of great comfort to me that someone like you which has no absolute responsibility to even care about my issue to actually took the time to read my post and to share your thoughts.

Thank you :D

 

[Abject]

I don't think proving you can get drugs will achieve anything, either.
If you feel like you need them, that's one thing, but flaunting them to people who are trying to help won't do you any favours.
You should try to talk to them imo, I know emotions turn otherwise good minds into irrational putty, but you should be trying to work with them (even if only to have them worry less)

I am one of the more callous and apathetic ones who posts in TDS, you'll get much more support from plenty of other people.
All the best.

 

[Space Firebird]

Pardon me if I stray, but I think a being a junkie is a lot like being a prostitute.
In your deluded state, you become willing to give away important bits of your precious self, in order to attain some perceived benefit.
At some point you just give yourself to the drugs, and that's it.
Doesn't mean you can't go back, it just means that you have become a junkie.

Just the same, labels are just words, and I like accuracy in my words.
For this reason I prefer "chronic drug user," it is more accurate, and still implies the undesirable qualities of being one.

 

[Black Rabbit of Inle]

Pardon me if I stray, but I think a being a junkie is a lot like being a prostitute.
In your deluded state, you become willing to give away important bits of your precious self, in order to attain some perceived benefit.

This is a very insulting thing to say to anyone who has been a prostitute.

I thought the term 'junkie' simply came from the fact that heroin was referred to as 'junk' and was used to describe hardcore addicts?

 

[Pagey]

I thought the term 'junkie' simply came from the fact that heroin was referred to as 'junk' and was used to describe hardcore addicts?

I think it's something like that, or I also heard that it was a reference to addicts using pieces of 'junk' to chase it/shoot it.

I dunno, to me a junkie's someone who is ready to do absolutely anything to get drugs and literally lives for their addiction. It doesn't matter what your DOC is - I also hate when people refer to any heroin user as a junkie.

 

[deldone]

Pardon me if I stray, but I think a being a junkie is a lot like being a prostitute.
In your deluded state, you become willing to give away important bits of your precious self, in order to attain some perceived benefit.

I totally disagree with what you have said, IF junkie is what my family/ others chose to term me as. The only thing I am willing to exchange in order to attain some 'perceived benefits' is only in monetary terms. I am a male btw. Even still if I am 'labelled' as a "chronic drug user", it is still visibly clear to me what personal values or dignity means to me being a person.

I am still standing strong by the fact that I choose to resort to drugs is to escape the escape the stress that I have to go through and the ugliness this world has turned into. I would like to quote "A person will not change until the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of change."

 

[deldone]

I dunno, to me a junkie's someone who is ready to do absolutely anything to get drugs and literally lives for their addiction.

Is scoring through randoms on the street a junkie?

 

[shimazu]

I gotcha OP, I feel the same way. I may have done some drugs in my life but I never did anything I would consider morally wrong to get them. I always had a job to pay for my stuff, never stole from anyone (I mean, taking advantage of and stealing are two seperate things in my book. Businesses do the former all the time, and the second tbh but w/e), never was on the floor screaming because I couldnt get my fix.

It all comes down to willpower (which leads to patience) IMO. But some people just want everything now, now, now and that leads to junkies.

 

[spork]

I hate the term and will not use it. It brings about negative stereotypes and stigmas that may hinder a person's recovery if they start identifying themselves as such.

 

[Pagey]

Is scoring through randoms on the street a junkie?

Depends. I've scored on the streets before but I don't consider myself a junkie by any means because I wouldn't do anything for drugs, at all. I wouldn't steal or prostitute myself etc etc.
As I said, for me junkie --> desperation. Someone who's willing to hurt others to get drugs.

 

[Brobi-Wan Kenobi]

When I was using (especially when I was using coke) I was probably in full-on junkie status. My mission in life: get money, then get coke. I pawned off most of the shit that I owned. Stole from family discreetly at first like writing checks out of my mom's business account for a pack of cigarettes plus the maximum cash back amount ($50 at most places). Sometimes I'd write two checks in a row, just drive to a different store. I had an odd upbringing but made it to adulthood with a decent enough moral code. Drug addiction just brings out the worst in anyone. I wasn't myself in those days. I think that's why I enjoyed doing ecstasy more than coke because it didn't bring out those psychotic and addict behaviors like coke did. I wouldn't consider myself a thief and felt guilty when I did it, but it was always one of those "I'll worry about explaining this when someone brings it up." Never stole from friends or strangers but that may be just because it was so easy to get away with at home. I think Cokehead Brobi-Wan would have stolen from his friends without much thought, he just didn't need to.

In my opinion, you're a junkie once the general perception of you is just that of someone who only wants to get high a lot.

 

[FnX]

I don't think there's a universally accepted list of criteria that defines someone as a junkie, it's entirely subjective. Some people will think you are a junkie and despise you if you tell them that you have tried a psychoactive drug for a few times without a doctors prescription. Some people don't consider themselves junkies even when they're totally consumed by drug addiction, cheating, lying, robbing and stealing their way every day to obtain drugs. Usually it's just a derogatory slander word and whenever I hear it from the mouths of certain people, I just write it off as their own ignorance and possibly hypocrisy.

You can try to explain your family, but they might just perceive it as a sign of desperation stemming from a 'junkies' addiction. That or they might actually understand, we here on the internet have really no idea, but if what your family thinks of you is as important as you make it seem, maybe you should respect their wishes and don't use drugs perhaps until you're living on your own/more separate from the family? (I make the assumption you're still living with your parents/family because they have so much influence over your life and the fact that you can't seem to hide your use from them)

 

[neversickanymore]

I reserve the term junkie for ANYONE who uses or used EDIT: needles, more than once (and no i never met anyone who used the needle just once). There are good junkies and bad junkies. At first I thought the term was just about enduring as being called Satan or or a pedophile.. But after navigating the life style for over a decade I no longer associate any guilt, shame, or astigmatism with junkies or our label. Some of the greatest people I have ever met were Junkies. That said some of the dirtiest bastards I ever met were junkies. I guess its like life there are good and bad, just the junkies seem to fall at the extreme end of the spectrum... yeah have met a bunch of junkies that were absolutely amazing (ya and a few of these beat me when they had to, but always made it up sometime and saved me buy coming through big or small when not coming through just wasn't an option), as well as a bunch that I hope are in terrible withdraws rite now, but i didn't met to many ok junkies. I guess a junkie is someone I can look across the room and know that not only do they know exactly what i'm thinking but a good junkie is probably thinking something along those lines... If you don't want to be or are afraid to be called a junkie then don't ever try IV a powerful drug.. yep, i was only going to try it once two.. I mean really how hard is that


Edit: haa, just thought of something.. If i had a little bit of something for every time some base head told me I shouldn't do what i was doing I would would have a lot of something.

 

[mrflowers00]

IMO you're not a junkie unless you use the needle

 

[Sepher]

It's interesting to me that people make these distinctions, like you're only a junky if you IV, or pull shady shit to feed your habit, etc. Quite often IME users will deny that they themselves are junkies because they're not this or not that while engaging in quite similar behaviours to those they would describe as one. My sister would go nuts if I ever used the term smack-head to refer to myself for instance for similar reasons. In her opinion other people were smack-heads, we were heroin addicts. It was important to her that she maintain some kind of seperation from others we mixed with in the scene when in truth we were every bit as much users, abusers, addicts and thieves as they were.

I know the word is typically used in a pejorative sense, and that's why she didn't want it to apply to her / us. She clung to the idea that we were in some way better than other users, in the same way that she felt that being a shoplifter was better than being some other kind of thief. I kind of get that, you can imagine shoplifting is a victimless crime ( no it isn't! ) compared to street robbery or burglary for instance, but I couldn't see the distinction she was making between us and other addicts. We were smack-heads, junkies, whatever you wanna call it. We were heroin addicts. That's the only qualification IMO. The word derives from junk, heroin slang. Someone addicted to junk is by definition a junkie. I never had a problem using the word or applying it to myself

 

[bagochina]

Junky = dope fiend extraordinaire

IV addict that will do anything to get dope and will let nothing stop them. Worst of the worst, IMO.