In the past few recent years,. I have had a baby, finished school, got my master's degree, and acquired my license as a mental health counselor. Most importantly, I've gotten clean! As none of you may remember I had been horribly addicted to heroin and strong painkillers for nearly 10 years. I was able to successfully able to finally quit after finding out I was pregnant I finally had the motivation, commitment, reason, and drive to not only get clean and stop allowing dope to consume my life. I did so in a somewhat controversial way, I did use methadone. But regardless of that, today I am clean.
I have studied addiction and the substances that contribute to this condition at great length both in my education and also in my field work. I have seen a small degree of physical dependency to opiates occur after using them heavily for only a few weeks. This makes sense to me and I have no doubts about this. My question is, does physical dependency occur faster in addicts who have gotten clean and are then exposed to their addictive substance again more so than the average person without an addiction history? I have had several clients insist that they had withdrawals after using only one use or dose opiates. For example, one woman had been clean for three years. She went into the hospital to deliver her baby. Things didn't go according to plan and she had to have an emergency cesarean section. After waking up when she was still groggy and a bit confused about what was going on she complained of being in pain, the doctor told her he'd take care of this. The next thing she knew she was being given an intravenous dose of hydromorphone (Dilaudid). She claims that after this dose wore off she experienced HORRIBLE withdrawals. Similarly, another woman I worked with went into the hospital for knee surgery after being clean for only one year. She was embarrassed about her history of addiction and thought she could just turn down the narcotics without it being noticed. Her boyfriend who also didn't know about her history complained to her doctor and nurses that she was in too much pain and that they needed to do something about it. The next thing this woman knew a nurse was bringing her in a shot of Dilaudid. She was given this every 4-6 hours for the entire day until she was discharged. She claimed that she too, after a very short period of time on the narcotic opiate painkillers experienced withdrawals.
My issue with this is this, I don't see any logical reason why someone would become physically dependent to a drug faster the second. Or third time they are exposed to it than the first time. I do understand that the mind is very powerful and that these people who think that are going through withdrawal may be going through some sort of psychological symptoms but I just don't believe someone can becom physically dependent on a substance again of any kind after only a day or even two or three. In my learned education and personal experience, addiction and physical dependency are very different things.
Does anyone have any reliable or credible information on why or if addicts become physically dependent faster during the second exposure than the standard time period it took them to become dependent during their first exposure? Are there any studies or research that has been done on this one of you could possibly link me to?
If I am wrong, and addicts for some reason ARE truly able to sometimes become physically dependent to narcotics faster than others, I'd be very interested in knowing why! Any information beyond just opinion or personal experience (which is of course also welcome!) I would especially appreciate!
I do apologize if this question is posted twice or if it should be posted somewhere else! If either is the case, please let me know and I'll fix it!
I have studied addiction and the substances that contribute to this condition at great length both in my education and also in my field work. I have seen a small degree of physical dependency to opiates occur after using them heavily for only a few weeks. This makes sense to me and I have no doubts about this. My question is, does physical dependency occur faster in addicts who have gotten clean and are then exposed to their addictive substance again more so than the average person without an addiction history? I have had several clients insist that they had withdrawals after using only one use or dose opiates. For example, one woman had been clean for three years. She went into the hospital to deliver her baby. Things didn't go according to plan and she had to have an emergency cesarean section. After waking up when she was still groggy and a bit confused about what was going on she complained of being in pain, the doctor told her he'd take care of this. The next thing she knew she was being given an intravenous dose of hydromorphone (Dilaudid). She claims that after this dose wore off she experienced HORRIBLE withdrawals. Similarly, another woman I worked with went into the hospital for knee surgery after being clean for only one year. She was embarrassed about her history of addiction and thought she could just turn down the narcotics without it being noticed. Her boyfriend who also didn't know about her history complained to her doctor and nurses that she was in too much pain and that they needed to do something about it. The next thing this woman knew a nurse was bringing her in a shot of Dilaudid. She was given this every 4-6 hours for the entire day until she was discharged. She claimed that she too, after a very short period of time on the narcotic opiate painkillers experienced withdrawals.
My issue with this is this, I don't see any logical reason why someone would become physically dependent to a drug faster the second. Or third time they are exposed to it than the first time. I do understand that the mind is very powerful and that these people who think that are going through withdrawal may be going through some sort of psychological symptoms but I just don't believe someone can becom physically dependent on a substance again of any kind after only a day or even two or three. In my learned education and personal experience, addiction and physical dependency are very different things.
Does anyone have any reliable or credible information on why or if addicts become physically dependent faster during the second exposure than the standard time period it took them to become dependent during their first exposure? Are there any studies or research that has been done on this one of you could possibly link me to?
If I am wrong, and addicts for some reason ARE truly able to sometimes become physically dependent to narcotics faster than others, I'd be very interested in knowing why! Any information beyond just opinion or personal experience (which is of course also welcome!) I would especially appreciate!
I do apologize if this question is posted twice or if it should be posted somewhere else! If either is the case, please let me know and I'll fix it!
