I am Bashing Staff for Missing Threads

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

Originally Posted by Alawen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My current break from opiates is somewhere around 20 years. My two junk buddies are still junkies. One is currently methadone + ativan + weed, another is oxycodone + xanax + weed + booze. I love them both like brothers, but I can't be around them much. We were all pals for years before the drugs.

The methadone guy, I'll call him M, is on disability. He did something awful to both his ankles jumping over a fence. He's rail thin and lives mostly on soda, eats maybe one meal a day. His teeth are a disaster. M has stopped his heart at least twice that I know of with speedballs. He had some weird twitching and tremors thing for a while, but it mostly went away when he switched from klonopin to ativan.

I'll call the oxycodone guy O. All three of us were thin when we were young, but now O is fat. Really fat. He works a little bit, but mostly lives off an even fatter girl who he lives with. He had some sort of seizure and stroke a couple years ago when he was shooting something and now his memory is odd. He remembers old things vividly but has trouble forming new memories. He has a gambling problem to go with his chemical addiction, but never has enough money to indulge it much. Any extra money he gets disappears into drugs and cards, though.

As I've mentioned previously, I was a property manager for about a year in San Francisco. I ran one of the Shelter+Care buildings. All of my 63 residents were formerly homeless, mentally ill, and had some sort of substance addiction. About half had HIV or AIDS. Two addictions were consistently devastating, all the others were manageable. Meth addictions absolutely wreck people. It destroys tissue. I've never seen anyone kick a meth addiction.

The other really vicious addiction is booze. It destroys brain function. Alcoholics suffer by far the worst mood swings and withdrawal symptoms compared to other addicts. Lost brain function never seems to return. On a side note, schizophrenics are really fucked, too. The medications don't seem any better than the illness and symptoms seem to get progressively worse with age.

The most interesting thing I've noticed is that addiction is a true expression of individuality. Nothing anyone else says or does seems to have much impact on who develops a habit, and nothing anyone else says or does seems to have much impact on who kicks a habit. I know an incredible number of functional alcoholics who have jobs and families along with several drinks every day. What I think of as the typical American is addicted to alcohol, caffeine, and sugar, and manages resulting inflammation with over-the-counter pain killers--aspirin or ibuprofen.

my apologies alawen. I did not see this post. Plz forgive my antagonistic attitude past few posts. I thought you were defending the "recreational" use of these drugs. I did not see this post where you explained your experience. Again, sorry.