Have you ever suffered from drug addiction? How did you get out/how are you coping with it?

[RaptorChrist]

I was not expecting to see such harsh, ignorant responses in this thread. Drug addiction is not about being a weak-minded individual. The whole "addictive personality" trait is far from the reality; just about everyone is susceptible to becoming addicted to drugs. The difference is that many people never bother to even try drugs because it's a scary thing to take something that is going to make you "feel" different. Someone approaches you and offers you something you've never taken before... something that you can't comprehend what it's effects might be because you have never experienced it before. It's not something most people would even be remotely interested in, unless maybe the person offering it was a close confidant; someone you could trust.

I'm astonished at some of the posts on this thread. The idea of putting all drug addicts in jail, that makes me sick. Either you must not have put much thought into your comment, or maybe you have been personally affected, and hold a grudge. I can forgive and forget, as I am open-minded enough to understand that there was probably a good reason for you saying something like that.

Anyways, I was the last person I ever expected to become a drug addict. Raised in a normal household, near the top of my class, star of the soccer team, etcetera. I've always been good at everything, or so it seems. I'm only allowing myself to sound so conceited to paint the picture that not everyone who becomes addicted to drugs is the result of a sob story. My life was going great. In fact, I had just made the Dean's List after my first year at university, when (for all intents and purposes) a large bottle of prescription pain killers (10/325 oxycodone, if you must know) fell into my hands. I'd heard of the stuff, but had never tried it before.

After several days of researching the stuff online, I finally decided to try it one night. I can only describe it as the greatest feeling imaginable. It's a pure, natural feeling of happiness, the likes of which the human brain cannot output on it's own. So yeah, if case you were wondering, opiates make you feel absolutely amazing, amazing, wonderful. I cannot recommend it, for reasons that should be quite obvious. Over time, your body will begin to depend on it, and without it, you will feel sick (like the flu, except worse).

This isn't a case of mind over matter. I can very easily not take my medication. Sure, after a week or so, the early withdrawal symptoms subside, but the reason people go back to using again is because they never truly feel normal. It's not the effects of the drug that draw you to using again. This is why opiates are the only drug that an addict can actually go and seek help for, and get a prescription.

Fortunately, the drug that I got addicted to has at least allowed me to live a normal life. I work a full-time job as a web developer, have a healthy daughter, a loving wife, and I don't suffer from any issues with depression. Without the treatment that's available to people like me, I would be doomed, as purchasing opiates on the "street" is not cheap, it's unreliable, inconsistent, and never again.