Why can't drug addiction be because you enjoy it?

[diatribe]

^ Some would argue all use is abuse, we are in fact talking about illicit substances.
Anyway "use" and "abuse" are both words everyone defines differently. I say as long as your happy, just fucking go with it. That's what life is about right, the pursuit of happiness?

 

[misterblander]

posted by purple spore:

I just don't buy this... if they really didn't like snorting coke they would simply stop... apparently they like it sooo much that they can't stop anymore (or don't want to stop?). That this might ruin their lives I don't deny, I am just saying they do it because it gives them a pleasurable feeling which they don't want to miss
Enjoying it is a seperate issue when you are addicted. heroin and meth addicts are mostly afraid of being dopesick and depressed after doing it so they do more.

 

[*KANE*]

Many of these posts are from those who never experienced true addiction- I can tell.
I am an addict. Opioids is what got me , and even if I only got the slightest relief I would go the distance to cop. For a while , it was just so I wouldn't get sick because I was on the streets as a result of stealing a LOT of money from friends and loved ones for my addiction.ld
I was homeless , hustling , ripping ppl off. Stealing from any friend who would let me sleep over. Pawning everything of value i could get or had. and I got hustled myself out there. Its the worst thing I have experienced is the agony of being sick , having no way to cop and having no home to go to and walking around in some shitty city , so I may use from time to time but I will never get that bad again...
I still love using and I am at my last chance of becoming a normal citizen. Like said above , I feel empty , tired , overall shitty without the use of some opiate painkiller. I was the same way in highschool with pot only I didn't get physically sick.
Now I am spending a year on the methadone clinic with using here and there but I can't leave the clinic or feel shitty. At the right dose , methadone will fulfill the void (although I am one of few who feels that way) and i can complete a day. It sucks but even if its just not getting sick , i will still do what i have to do to live until i figure out something better. Addiction isn't bullshit, so watch how loosely you say that.
BTW I think my situation really sucks.
[ 22 February 2003: Message edited by: *KANE* ]

 

[randycaver]

it seems to me, that if you're addicted to something, that it wouldn't be too enjoyable. if you're addicted, then you're reliant, and you NEED it. sure, the high may be fantastic, which is why you became addicted to it in the first place.
there are several terms thrown around such as addiction, and dependance, and use and abuse. according to many in the counseling/therapy/psychology community, any use of drugs other than their prescribed reason is abuse. so, basically, we're all abusing drugs.
i believe that a person can use drugs continuously without being addicted, or dependent. but, if you're addicted, then it's probably not an enjoyable state.
Droop, you say you enjoy the euphoria and all that, but would you call yourself an addict? you seem to be a drug abuser, but not addicted. perhaps you're dependent. people often start out being users, and end up dependent or addicted. it's just the way it seems to go..

 

[alostlittlebird]

I don't care if they say we're all abusing drugs. Whose job is it to say what is the proper way to use a substance? I mean, no one should really have the authority to claim something is abuse just because it isn't prescribed. What if someone borrowed one from a friend for legitimate pain? So that's abuse? I'm not trying to put down what you were saying, just kind of stating how I feel. It doesn't seem fair to tell others how to treat their own bodies and minds.

 

[Cimora]

When u _first_ think about getting high as a recovering addict, when the idea first pop tanatisingly into ur mind, do you think about negative consequences of getting high? or is the first thought that pops into the addicts mind, how good he/she remembers it feeling?
Although i agree withdrawl adds a further dimension, makes it harder. However i dont think you can compare withdrawls and addictive power of a drug that easily. Meth for example, is stastically less addictive than ciggerrettes, even thought they prolly have less withdrawls. This may be because of the shortness of the buzz from cigs, or the strong ritualistic element of its use - the point is the drawing power of a drug isnt all about just withdrawls, its also a function of the high, its type, duration, potency and method of delivery. If you doubt that cigs are more addictive than coke or meth, go check out a national drugs database in any country - ull see more addicts per occasional users.