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

[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.