Symptoms of Heroin Use

[CASEY]

I need help knowing what I am looking at. My son uses heroin. His behavior faciliates between bouts of crying, feeling abandonded, hopeless, depressed and periods of apparent well-being where he is calm, psychologically present, reasonable. He attributes his despair to clinical depression which he has. I am sure the drugs are contributing. I am not sure if the periods of calm are immediatley following injection and the despair is withdrawal or coming down. When I confront him, I want to know what I am talking about. I support his recovery 100% but don't know how to bring it about. thanks, Casey

[nokufa]

Can thee be ahelps for this

[nokufa]

My son he has take heroin; cocaine and get clean go back again ; clean he is back to it he is loosing weight and choughing.after every meal toilet again always

[CatRawks]

Cancer is a disease, drug use/addiction is a choice. No matter what other factors may be going on, you make a choice to do drugs, you don't wake up and say "Cancer would be awesome today, let's go get some of that!"

[lee297]

I totally agree with you, My son has been on heroin,and meth. He claims he is no longer shooting,but of course im not sure of that.. He has lost everything.. He is so depressed it scares me to death. I wish he had someone who has been through the same situation that could talk to him.. I feel that he is right on the edge of wanting to get clean,He sits and cries saying he doesn't want to live this way anymore.but I don't think he knows how to go about getting the help..He doesn't have insurance so its hard to find a rehab that he can go to. Would it be possible for you to talk to him, i could give you his name and maybe friend him on face book. This sight says not to put your full name,ect.. if you decide to talk with him how can i get the info to you..

[AGirlNamedHope]

I know this is hard for you... I'm going through almost the same exact thing...
Present him with the drug test... Tell him that you love him, and you want to trust him whole-heartedly, but with what's happened in the past, this is for your peace of mind, and he's gonna have to deal with it.
Tell him, if he isn't going to fail the drug test, he has no reason to be upset and he should respect the fact that you have reasons to worry about what's going on. If he passes, GREAT. Then your worries were just little ghosts haunting your mind. If not, it was his little ghosts tapping you on the shoulder.

Also... Don't think you're stupid... You're not. You're in love with the man not addicted to the drugs. You want him to be that man, not the addict. With love comes trust. You just have to know that YOU come first. You can't make him stop if he has relapsed. You have to worry about yourself, because it is a lot of stress and that's not good for you.

[shortie25]

My husband is a heroin addict and been on a methodone script for over 3 years and keeps blipping and hiding his methodone he breaks my trust all the time and blames me for him using his calm one minute and really horrible the next and I'm pregnant with his second child and miscarried in January he makes me feel like I'm going mad and crazy please I need some advice

[shortie25]

My husband is a heroin addict and been on a methodone script for over 3 years and keeps blipping and hiding his methodone he breaks my trust all the time and blames me for him using his calm one minute and really horrible the next and I'm pregnant with his second child and miscarried in January he makes me feel like I'm going mad and crazy please I need some advice

[SappersLeadTheWay]

I work in a drug and alcohol rehab center for felons. Asking if the symptoms will be as bad is like asking if drowning in a pint of water is different then drowning in a gallon of water. Heroin was and still is considered the worlds most dangerous drug, simply because of how addicting it can be. If your doing small doses then your body may not have built up a large dependency on it and the withdraw MAY BE less severe, but with draw period is hell. I have seen guys come in and they had been on a very low dose of dope for a long time and the withdraw was still just as bad. But i have also seen people on low dose tolerance and the withdraw was bad but not as bad. Being a nurse you should already know prolly but H is the only drug, i believe, that withdraws will not kill you. You may wish to die but u wont. if you are really that worried and want to try to minimize your withdraw symptoms i recomend not going cold turkey but slow ease off it. Instead of doing "x" amount every day cut it in half, then once ur comfortable do it once a day, then once every other day, then once every three days etc etc...My ex had a problem with H and this is how she cleaned up and is now one of the happiest people ive ever meet. Well i hope this advice helps and best of luck to you. And about the love of your life....well not to talk Sh*t about someone i dont know but the fact that he let you try H and allowed you to become addicted doesnt sound much like love to me, just my oppinion.

[jenjenhere]

Years ago I was in a relationship with a drug abuser, I broke it off because I couldn't take the turmoil. Now, I would tell someone to break it off because the user needs to completely focus on their recovery above anything else.

[ilovemykids04]

I was seeing this lovely lad for 7months 3months go he went really distant,its a long distance relationship,last week he blanked my calls and txt's and told me not 2 contact him again so I left it afew days then asked him if there was somone eles! He replyed saying he's a bag head and bin in and out of jail for years up until 3yrs ago wen he started his own bussiness,but its became a problem again and he's tryin 2 sort his life out! He said he don't inject it he smocks it and hates it! I don't no what 2 do I have txtd him and wrote 2 him but he's ignoreing all my contact! Do I leave hin for a while or keep tryin 2 contact him?

[hmf099]

Hi Don. This thread is 10 years old and full of dozens of peoples stories, so you probably won't get any response. Go to the top of this page, and click the green button that says "Ask a question" and follow the directions and ask your question that way. It will start a new thread for you and people will comment.

[don624]

how long after hypodermic needle use can the wound be black and blue- is this a sign of recent use?
Don

[all_that_jazzz]

hi all,
i have come on this site seeking some advice and answers from anyone who might be able to help. I dont really know where to start. First of all i am 21 years old and have been with my boyfriend for 5 years. He is 22 and has been smoking heroin for the past 3 and a half years. In june 2010 he got off the heroin cold turkey and got a naltrexone iplant which was supposed to last 6 months. Towards the 4th month the naltrexone was wearing off and he had started using regularly again. He refuses to go to rehab and insists that if he was able to quit cold turkey on his own once before he is capable of getting clean on his own again.

As people here have mentioned many times before i know that its up to him to decide to get clean and that all i can do is be supportive etc.. Its just that i feel i'm getting sucked into his world. He is the first and only boyfriend i've ever had, we started dating when we were 16 and 17 and i love him more than i can describe in words. However right now i just feel so defeated and dont know what to do. Before we met i was completely anti-drugs, only drank alcohol occassionally and never even tried smoking a cigarette even though everyone in school was doing it.  I have never been the type to fall into peer pressure. but i remember one night about 2 years ago i was watching him burn the heroin onto the foil and my curiosity got the better of me. i asked to try it, he let me, i was nervous, it tasted like **** but i liked the calm feeling it gave me. Long story short, gradually i started smoking it more and more regularly with him. I was always careful to leave at least 2 days gap between each use so that i wouldn't get hooked. But recently i've been feeling a lot of stress and have smoked H everyday for the past month. i am now feeling the withdrawal symptoms like i've never felt before. i'm only on my first day of withdrawals so i guess i just wanted to ask if anyone has any advice on how to get through the hanging out. i am just scared of how i will feel tomorrow. By the way i am a nurse at quite a big hospital here in Melbourne so i have seen many drug addicts come in and experiencing withdrawals while in hospital. But my dose is really small. i usually only have half a point. so i guess my next question is will my withdrawals be less severe?

[IBKleen]

Hi alygurl,

this post was started some 9 years ago and is quite lengthy. It would be best if you create a new post so we can get to know you and help you if we can. Go to the top of this page and hit the green Post A Question button. Follow the instructions. You can copy & paste what you have here.

Hope to see you in the forum and if you need help, let someone know.

[alygurl68]

My boyfriend is a recovering heroin
addict and has been out of rehab for about 2 years. 2 months ago we got in a fight and I couldn't get ahold of him and he said he wanted to be alone..so I just figured he needed space. Then next day I catch him snorting something in the bathroom and he says that he went and got it the previous day when we got in the fight cuz he was upset. He promised me hed never do it again and I believed him until the past week when he lied to me about his whereabouts. I mentioned this to one of our friends and she has a feeling he's using again. Apparently all of our friends have thought this for acouple months. He's been completely withdrawn and has been keeping his distance and everyone said that this is exactly what happened the last time, which I wasn't around when he used before so I didn't know the signs. I looked in his tissue the other day and saw white stuff, I tasted the back of the toilet seat at my house tasted like drugs, did the same at his parents house and it tasted the same, then went and did it at the business he owns and it tasted the same. Is that enough to be sure that he's doing drugs..I have all these ppl telling me things and then I want to believe him so bad at the ssame time.

[pittsburghgirl557]

I have been married to my husband for thirty years. Most of those thirty years he has been addicted to one drug or another.  I stuck by him because I truly love him and he does have good qualities.  Until recently I did not realize the price I would pay.  Both of my daughters have never used drugs.  I explained to them drug use can be hereditary therefore they should stay away from since their father has struggled with drug addiction for years.  Now they have both married men with drug addictions.  Every day I wake up I have to take responsibility for making them think it's ok to have a drug addict in there lives.  Now iam helping one daughter  get out of a marriage to a drug addict.  The first question I asked her was do you want to live my life?  It's a tough road to live with an addict.  I found myself taking on the responsibility of keeping him clean which never works.  You cannot be with them 24 hours a day.  If they don't want to be sobber they wont.  Also my husband actually cried when he found out what she was going through he also feels responsible for letting them both think this was the normal family dinamics!  The only advice I can give all of you, if married to an addict realize that only 1 in 200 fully recover, not great odds.....If you stay you will continue to live life on a rollercoaster.  You have to make the best decision for you. But no, I have given up so many things in life to care for my husband.  In hindsight i would have walked away and made him accept responsibility for his addiction and separated my children from the craziness.  Watching them suffer from the affects as they got older was not worth it at all.  For all of you with an addict in your life please attend meetings, see a counseler, someone you can talk to that is not emotionally envolved in the situation.  Read up on their drug of choice and no everything you can about it.  They are amazing at covering up there drug use and if you want to confront them you better no everthing about the drug they use because you are up against an expert.   YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE THIS LIFE BECAUSE THEY CHOOSE TOO!  If you cannot afford to leave them start getting a plan, go to college, get a job.  Make a deadline for when you will finally leave.  And stick too it.  PLEASE, don't life my life!

[chasethemonsoon]

My partner of 53 years old has a life long habit of drugs. I met him 5 years ago and he had been clean for 2 years then but drinking very very heavily. For 2 years I think he was cleanwhile we ere together  but I dont know for sure. I tried to help him when he went back on heroin but in the end I kicked him out and he went back to his home country eventually. He really reached rock bottom there, loosing 20 kilos in weight and having a stroke when he tried to come clean. He got accepted on  a detox programme for 18months but now he is back on heroin again not finishing the course.I feel like everyone else on here. I am destroyed for him, for me, and the future we had planned together. I really hoped that he would manage to stay clean. His health is at risk. he could die. He is running for dealers to get free gear. he could die that way too. His health was very bad last week. Maybe because he had smoked too much heroin, but now he says he is trying to cut down. My question is do these people ever loose their love for heroin? Are we wasting our time waiting?

[IBKleen]

Jayla, welcome to the forum. Please read the post right above yours. If you need assistance just ask and someone will guide you. Hope to see you in your own post.

[jayla740]

I have been married to my husband for almost a year now. I knew about his past heroin addiction form day one, because he threw his whole past out there. He had been clean for almost 2 years and was anti-drugs, drinking, and smoking. Which suited me just fine! Things were amazing. I joined the Air Force and he drove to Texas 6 times in 4 months to see me. I finally got stationed out in Dayton Ohio...heroin capital of Ohio. I didn't even think that him relapsing was possible because of his convictions against it. I was wrong and on our 3rd day living here I suspected. He was throwing up, nodding off, couldn't even walk that's how high he got the 3rd night and I thought he was just real sick, though part of me already knew. He finally admitted to me on the 5th day that he had been getting high. Well, we've been here 4 whole months now. I've made over $26,000 since I joined in September and I have $5.61 in my checking account right now. I am over $20,000 in debt because he used all my credit cards to buy gift cards to sell for dope. He pawned his $1,800 guitar I bought for him, my laptop, his Ipod, and God knows what else. He went to detox and was clean for about 4 weeks and today I got that feeling again. I came home for lunch and he was getting out of the shower. But he was supposed to have went to a job interview before that. Who showers after the interview?! Then he kept mentioning how bad his stomach hurt, and after he dried off he kept pouring sweat. His face was flushed, he told me he ate a bowl of cereal but there wasn't any dish in the sink (and no he didn't do the dish, because mine from the morning were still in there), and he wouldn't look at me straight in the face. I asked him flat out and he freaked out and said that if I kept thinking he was high he might as well go out and get high. Then he calmed down and apologized for yelling. Oh and did I mention that our computer "broke" today? So he took it to get fixed and it should be done in 5 days...I bet if I call the pawn shop downtown I'll find it there with a loan taken out on it. It's so frustrating to want to believe in someone so bad but to know that they are flat out lying to your face. I'm not stupid...I know what to look for and he knows that I know. It is such a terrible feeling you get in your gut when you suspect they're getting high and lying to you. I already found him dead once. I heard him fall in the bathroom and I had to break the door to get in and by the time I did he was blue..not breathing with no pulse on the floor. I had to give him CPR till the ambulance came. They said if it had taken me any longer then he wouldn't have made it. You would think that would be enough of an eye-opener to someone. I realize withdrawl is terrible...but suck it up. You're not just ruining your life when you do this ****...you're taking down everyone you love as well. I have nothing to show for my hard work everyday other than a huge debt I'll never see the end of it feels like, a family who is angry with me for being so stupid, and what feels like a loveless relationship. I feel like I'm dead inside because there is just nothing left to give anymore. There is no pity, no more anger, and it feels like no love. I feel cold, emotionless, and bitter. I rarely smile, I can't remember the last time I laughed and meant it..I've just had enough but at the same time I love him too much to give up. I'm still holding on to some shred of hope that slips further away each day...maybe I'm just as stupid as my family thinks. Any words of hope, encouragement, or anything would be really helpful from anyone
-Jayla

[IBKleen]

Hi Brown,

First, this post is over 9 years old. So that it doesn't get lost you would be best served to start your own post. Go to the top of this page and hit the green post a question button. Follow the instructions. You can copy and paste what is here. If you need help, give a yell.

I want to talk with you but like I said I am afraid this will get lost.

I was going to head to bed to watch some tv but will wait for you. Again, if you need help just ask.

[brown914]

Please someone help me I have a boyfriend that i feel has relaps and is on Heroin.  We have been together for 8mths and when I met him a guy friend of mines told me he was a nice guy but he was an Heroin addict. I asked him in the beginning of our relationship was he on Heroin.  And he told me no.  He use to use it and I believed him, because he could have lied and said my friend is lieing on him. I respected his honesty and still gave him a chance believing that he was clean.  Lately I have been noticeing changes with him.  He has started lieing to me.  He has and part time job that pays him under the table.  Every friday he tells me his boss has not paid him his money or he only gave him half of his pay check. he's not paying his half of the bills.  He  sneaks off with my car and stay gone for hours.  He's been cranky lately always tring to hurt my feelings. He stays sick with flu like symtoms.  My cousin told me that a friend of hers that he gets the Heroin from says he back on it.  I approaached him about the situation and he lied and said he's not.  He said he was popping perks to help him deal with the withdraws.  I really didn't like that idea either because that means he has two habits to deal with.  My car broke down and he couldn't get it fix but he drives it everyday and drives the gas out of it and don't have the money to replace it. So I took the car from him and wont allow him to drive it anymore. He was really angrey with me called me all types of names and treaten to move back home and break up with me. At that moment I really didn't care.  He took my car one day that I gave him permission to use it and my daughter and I saw him with a car full of the guys he use to get high with. I called him on the cell phone and asked him where was he at, he lied to me and told me he was sitting in front of his friend house. I was angry because if he lie about something as small as that, then he will lie about anything.  My children they are grown and teenagers and live at home with me.  And they have been noticing the pattern and brought it to my attention. And I feel so imbarrassed because my children are saying he's not right for me.  And they don't like him anymore. I tried to talk to him about the situation but he tells me that my children are just grown and needs to stay out grown people business.  That made me really mad because I feel he's tring to place the blame on them. I feel as if he pulling my family apart please someone please help me.  I don't want to turn my back on him but my children and I shouldn't have to go through this.  I am beginnig to feel imbarrassed around my children, family, and friends.  Because of his Heroin addiction.  I want to leave him but I feel sorry for him. What do I do?

[karen8755]

I do not know the age of your son.  I have just gotten my 21 year old son out of an inpatient program.  He is on Natraxone and is awaiting to get into a half way house.  Your son must want to get help  .  You need to talk to some one to help you with an intervention NOW.   One night awoke out of a deep sleep and checked on my son.  He was in the bathroom in full respiratory and cardiac arrest.  The needle of heroin on the floor.  I did CPR and brought him back life , this experience motivated him to get help.  You son is not ok, he will die, or end up in prison.  ACT NOW, he does not need to hit rock bottom to get help.  Talk to an interventionalist.  This is serious.  I feel your pain, we parents need to stick together for our children.
K

[jadedziac]

i believe i am asking the same. I am at a loss myself, i don't know what to do either.,,,
honestly I believe in our hearts it says to stay and help and get him through recovery but our head is telling us that it really doesnt matter at all because they arnt going to stop and they are so not good for our families or ourselves. The problem is, which do we listen to? our head or our hearts? I understand you love him , I love mine so much too. I am 34 years old and never was close to anyone like i am him so it is so hard. i dont know what to tell you to do, i know something has to give wheather its him or i.

[jadedziac]

the only problem with him taking the drug test is that its a lose/lose situation, if i ask him to  he will only be extremely mad at me and say i dont trust him and in the end i feel like a big retard who made an accusation or he takes the test and he fails and then i believe i am finished with it all or he passes and he will just throw it in my face. I havnt been to an alanon meeting, i dont even think there is one in this town. Am i wrong for saying that if he does fail the test that i am finished with it all? His mother told me "what if he had cancer" and if he did then by all means i would be by his side. But cancer isnt heroin. I have 4 children and he has 5. None of our children are a product of us. I have 2 that live at home and he has 2 at home.Heroin would cost me my childrens home, stability, and even their lives. Cancer wont.