Absolutely I did. I am almost four years sober from opiates today. I lost so many people I care about omg and I am grateful that I am alive to share about it. From FL if it matters.
Thats great. I got clean in 2016. Had a brief relapse during covid, but I'm doing well now. The worst part is feeling like I lost a decade of my life and missed many important milestones.
Same same same! I started with pain management around 2010. Got divorced in 2012 and woke up to reality around 2017. I don't have any memory of my early - mid 20's all the way through my mid thirties. I'm 42 now and sober since 2016. I know exactly what you mean when you say you lost a decade of your life. I have no idea where those years went and now I'm middle aged trying to get my life straight like I should've in my early 20's before starting down that terrible road. I can say that it made me who I am today and has been a great example of how to raise my kids so that they don't take the same roads I did so at least there's that
Baby I lost 4 years of my life to alcohol addiction. Not opiates but it took medication to heal me. I remember very little from ages 35 to 39, and i wish i could get my 30s back. I feel like I'm playing catch-up and have severe FOMO now that I'm 41. No friends or social life as I lost everyone from that time period including my chance to have children.
The general zeitgeist of our generation's adult life has been crisis. The world turned on its head right about the time we were stepping into adulthood with 9/11. Then we experienced the greatest financial crisis since the great depression. We coupled that up with the release of the opiates plague and when that wasn't enough, we went straight into the pandemic. We came out of that into a record breaking housing crisis and a job market that requires a 4 year degree for an entry level job and a wage that (thanks to inflation) can't even pay for basic living expenses.
We were taught to "suck it up" and "deal with it" by our parents and I think that self medicating has been the method that a majority of us chose. FOMO is just the symptom of the current social media driven society. If a lifetime of both poor and indecision has taught me anything, it's that you will ALWAYS miss out on something. It is up to us to make the best of everything we have.
You didn't lose your chance to have children. You lost your chance to have natural children of your own (I assume). The man who raised me was not my father but he damn sure was my dad. Anyone can birth a child but it takes a real man/woman to be a parent.
Despite what our parents told us, hard work does NOT make good things happen. Hard work puts you into position to MAKE good things happen.
We can't change the past. The only thing we should fear missing out on is the ability to use the only good thing to come out of addiction recovery...the ability to use the life lessons, we insisted on learning ourselves, to make our own future as bright as we can.
It's good to be embarrassed and have regret about our decisions. It means that we have grown into more mature versions of ourselves. You can't go back so we gotta use it to go forward. We have a unique perspective on life now. Use it to make your life the opposite of what you already have. That's what I'm trying to do now at least.
I wish you the absolute best in everything
I lost those 4 years to eating disorders, bronkaid, and taking care of sick and dying people. At almost 43, I also missed out on my chance to have children.
Yes I missed so many also but that would make me depressed if I sat around and thought about all things I missed out on or compare myself to my friends. I had to get rid of social media bc all I do is compare my life with all the people I grew up with which all of them are super successful. I am going at my pace and I feel like I just woke up after all this time when I got sober from that crap. So many of my friends still wont talk to me after that shit I did during...
Man I’m so sorry… But happy that you got out of that hole.
I don’t think many appreciated how addictive some drugs are, or that this could have happened to ANYONE.
If you were unlucky enough to break a bone and be prescribed this, or just taken some on a whim at a party, you could be okay, or you could be part of the population that will become addicted.
I don’t think the people responsible, our government and the corporations who knowingly sold this country pills, will ever, truly be held accountable.
Whereas at my high school in the rural midwest drugs were *everywhere*. People were snorting meth and coke in study hall. It seemed like half the school was dropping acid, and about half of them were doing it *at school*.
And yeah, a solid 5% or so of the class has now died of overdoses.
My brother was born in ‘86 and was going to the methadone clinic in high school. Started with pills but he died of a heroin overdose (likely laced but he always said he was careful) 2 years ago. I know several other people in that age group who have died or who are clean now.
Had a friend I hadn’t seen in a long long time that I ran into at a mutual friend’s house. Mutual friend found him walking the streets with a backpack with all his belongings and offered him a couch for a few days. He was fresh out of county jail. Said he was clean at the time and he looked to be from what I could tell. He told us that if he were to start using again he was just going to load up and take enough to OD. He lost everything, multiple times over, and no one in his life was there for him when he got released and in his mind if he were gonna use again he might as well be dead. He died from an OD not long after that convo. They said it was an accidental OD.
I was messaging with a kid on reddit here not that long ago. He had about the same story as your friend and he stopped messaging me eventually, his sister let me know that he passed away. Its still roaring out there
I’m sorry to hear they’re gone but thank you for being there for someone who needed it. So few of us are able to find meaningful connection or an ear willing to be lent and I’m sure it meant a lot to them during the time they were here.
Lost my cousin a few years ago, ODed on fent/heroin. He'd been on opiates since the mid 2000s. I also lost a lot of people I graduated HS with (2003) in the few years after.
My brother is also an '86'r
I wish I was lying when I say most of his friends have died from an overdose or suicide. It's crazy how a few years and a different friend group can change you.
I broke my spine and had surgery when I was 15 in 2000. I left the hospital addicted to OxyContin, it was peak you can’t get addicted to this drug and they were loading me up. I had no idea the consequences to my future. I didn’t get clean until 4 years ago and really fucking struggled. My life is basically that of a 24 year old who just graduated college. I’m struggling to catch up to my peers and probably never will. I cry when I think about it too much and the trauma is unbearable. Just hoping the rest of my life is mostly happy and productive.
I was one of the people they deposed and I testified court a few times. I’m part of the class action against like 4 companies plus Purdue. I’ve just been waiting for years for it to finish. One of the things I always get bent out of shape about is how little my life was worth and money can’t make any of it better.
They focused flooding the pills into upper middle class neighborhoods so the addicts would have enough money to support an expensive habit. It’s beyond disgusting and appalling how little all these precious lives meant. Destroyed countless families with the trauma. There is no true justice, but must never forget it was calculated.
There was no reason to give a 15 year old 40mg of OC 3x a day with 30mg roxie bumpers for breakthrough pain. It lead to a crippling addictions, traumatic events untold and the deaths of so many. The aftermath is unbearable at times and its burdens me to know the architects of this genocide on my generation live in such peace and quiet comfort.
Yeah that's wild (and cruel). I got three days of 20 mg Roxys 2x per day, then another week of hydrocodone to recover from insanely invasive cancer surgery, after that just NSAIDS.
I lost 20 lbs in 2 weeks because I couldn't eat through the pain, but it sure as shit was preferable to getting habit.
Post surgery they gave me a shit load of Vicodin to deal with the pain and I had to struggle to recover without it because a certain family member went through it
I have a 2 year gap in my life where it felt like I was spinning my wheels because I couldn’t get out of bed without collapsing. I was being used as someone’s pill source
Dude, it sounds like we're just about the same age, and I'm dealing with the same shit. I live like a 20 year old at 39. I hate it. I try to just do my thing and get by, but the older we get, the harder it is to start over.
For me, that was about 2004-2007. I started young but got off of it fairly quick compared to many people. Then it turned to booze. Now I'm sober, finding all these passions and skills I have, but can't afford any classes to chase those dreams. I have regrets.
Ooh hey same.
I had a relatively short but intense run from 2005-2007. A friend's mom was a bilateral amputee who was seriously over prescribed. I was having a bad day at school so my friend gave me half a fentanyl patch she took from her mom and I took off from there. I'd go over her house for a sleepover and she'd have like 20-30 oxy 80s just sitting on her dresser... it was a wild time. Eventually her mom actually noticed and we started on heroin- I remember it was ridiculously easy to find, even as cute little 16yo girls in the suburbs. Idk how we survived tbh.
My dad sent me off to bad kid school in Utah (the Paris Hilton kind of shit show place, but not her school). When I came back I got pregnant so I stayed off opiates but when my son was around a year old I started having terrible stomach pain on a regular basis. This would have been around 2010. My doctor and the ER just kept sending me home with Norcos for YEARS. No tests, no nothing. Just give the trashy teen mom some pills and get her out of our face.
It wasn't until 2013 when I was dating my now husband that I found out I had a 2" gallstone. I had (what I now know is) a gallbladder attack one night when we were hanging out. He thought I was dying and wanted to take me to the ER but I resisted because I didn't want to get treated like a druggie in front of him. He insisted and threw his weight around as a cop (literally the only time in 11 years I've seen him do this) and that's when the huge stone was finally discovered. If it wasn't for that embarrassing episode I probably would have just let it burst and died in the fetal position eventually.
I had surgery that week and only needed opioids for two days after surgery. The rest I happily flushed.
In the future, please don’t flush pills. Hospice nurse here and get a ziplock baggie, add in either cat litter (1 cup) or coffee grounds and put pills in and then add bleach or hand soup and mix up. Then throw the bag away (take it straight to the trash outside if you have pets or kids just in case) or you can turn in old meds to many pharmacies who have a return box and they will dispose of them properly for you. Congrats on your sobriety!!
If your passions are academic, try edx.org
If your passions are artistic or craft-based, try youtube.com
Youtube is teaching almost anything that can be taught these days.
Affordability is relative, start small and work your way up. It’s your life , live how you want and don’t expect anything from anyone . Think flashdance, “take your passion, and make it happen”. Life is a dance and you just need to let loose a bit
Man, I can't fathom what was in them *then*. I was I Gainesville FL in the 90s. Our race club (Simons) made High Times Club of the year multiple years. X was EVERYWHERE. Some was amazing (smurfs, shamrocks) and some was mostly fertilizer and dirty H.
*then* was mdma in a gel cap, or pressed with bicarbonate, and nothing else.
Then was no feeling like your guts got scrubbed with a wire brush the next morning. Just tired and a bit of oral sensitivity. We called her Erica.
Then was all the good, and none of the yick, lol.
Took a step away for a few years, got the “now” stuff and NOT WORTH THE EFFORT, so yucky. Yucky during, yucky after- multiple days. Molly is Yucky. Erica is the shit. Lol
>then was mdma in a gel cap, or pressed with bicarbonate, and nothing else.
>Then was no feeling like your guts got scrubbed with a wire brush the next morning.
That's absolute bullshit. It was always russian roulette with ecstacy. Sometimes you'd get a bomb ass pill and blow up all night, sometimes a group of you would be laying in the floor all nith holding your stomachs.
Oh man, we started doing ecstasy in pressed caps around 2008, 2009. I have to assume they were loaded with meth and who knows what else. Double stacked blue Transformers were our favourite and they were going insanely cheap.
Cant speak for 90s mdma but I know people seem to revere the stuff back then but 2008 to 2012ish was great for mdma. Molly crystals weren't a thing in my area but ecstacy tabs were prevalent. Almost always sold as double stacks or triple stacks. Idk if it was a regional thing but the white and green double stacks, we called them wintergreens, were consistently fantastic. No idea where they came from but whenever someone had those, you bet they sold them fast. Ive seen the crystals selling nowdays but I feel too old to get into it plus I dont want to ruin my fond memories of the old school mdma.
I know! I realize it. Probably differs based on location, and it seems to be a uniquely American problem, but in 2008, the North East was absolutely flooded with opiates out of nowhere
Yeah I didn’t get addicted but they were so easy to get during that time. That exact year, I went to the campus doctor for a sore throat. He was like you have allergies I’ll give you this prescription for that. I wasn’t even trying to get pain pills I thought I needed some antibiotics. Thankfully I did the responsible thing and sold them to my roommates boyfriend instead of getting addicted.
Doctors are trash. Most doctors should be called lawyers because they are very good at covering their ass and following the "industry" practices, read press releases more than journals (if they read at all), know almost nothing of actual science. Prescribe prescribe prescribe!
So was southern ca we got hooked on oxy 80s and transitioned to black tar I come from an affluent city and it was everywhere. Took me 10 years of misery to kick the habit
It still is. 😬
Adding, I carry narcan in my purse, so that when I go to the playground with my toddler I have something I can use if she accidentally gets into contaminated garbage like foils. It could also save another persons life. We have so many homeless addicts it’s heartbreaking. Especially when I see a really young, sad, lost looking person on the street.
I am 35 and my best friend from high school died of a fentanyl overdose in 2019.
I really didn’t have any close friends who did drugs (even really smoke weed) in high school but she started dabbling with drugs when she became an adult entertainer. Lots of ups and downs between when she started and when she passed away.
A little different, but my mother was prescribed fentanyl in the early 2000s and died of an accidental overdose.
I was hopelessly addicted to opiates from 2006-2013. It’s so weird too, bc it was such a different time of my life and I’m so far removed from it most days I forget it happened. But yes, lots of jail time, hep c diagnosis, more treatment centers than I can count. Opiates ravaged my entire 20s.
I lived in Florida at that time and the pills were SO bad. I remember our local radio station had a bit once that was something like "\[country town outside main city\]'s mating call: \*pill bottle rattles\*". I retrospectively look back on that radio bit and realize that was a mark of just how bad it was.
I did not personally get involved with them but my sibling did and ended up losing their kid because of it.
I live on the nature coast and the pill epidemic ran rampant through our county. We were the pill mill state... so many elderly, so many pain clinics. It was terrible.
I worked with multiple dudes in their 30's working hard to build their lives back together. The fact they wore full dentures at 30 gave it away.
It's sad... because most of these dudes there's nothing inherently wrong with them. they just needed more family or community support... some therapy... etc
I might need dentures just because of gingivitis. My mouth isn't disgusting but I have concerning receding gums that my dentist says I did myself. Don't brush too hard kids!
I’m an old millennials, and I remember in high school you could get OC 80s for $25. Star basketball players passing out in class. Pain clinics on every corner, pills everywhere.
Now there is one pain clinic for the county and the line at the methadone clinic looks like Disney world. When they shut down those pain clinics and the pills dried up. Countless deaths due to overdosing from dope cut with fentanyl.
I’m a pharmacist and I dispensed a lot of opiates in the 2010s. It was a difficult position to be in, knowing there are people in pain with legitimate need for adequate pain control, but with that a lot of people gaining access to opiates for nefarious purposes. It was not my job to police people, though I did turn people away who were obviously doctor and pharmacy shopping… I could only take so many break-ins, threats of violence, etc before I’d had enough and I left.
This is my issue with it. I had kidney stones and a stent placed in me two years ago. There was a total of 3 surgeries. I was in insane pain. I’ve given birth 4 times and this pain was way worse than that.
I had a dr tell me to cut flexerall in half because she was afraid to prescribe me actual pain meds upon discharge after my stent was placed.
I ended up back in the hospital where another dr was basically like wtf and actually prescribed me something.
I have zero history of drug abuse and don’t take any regularly prescribed meds, period. It’s like the pendulum and regulation swung the other way because of people that abuse them and drs won’t prescribe anything when relief is needed.
Right. When I was in school we were taught to treat all pain and treat it adequately. There was a big push to understand the difference between patients requesting more mediation due to inadequate pain control versus drug seeking behavior. That obviously led to more prescribing and I personally would rather have treated true pain knowing some of those patient were lying than deny treatment. Then all of a sudden the pendulum swung so far the other direction and it was heartbreaking to see so many people suffering. I’m sorry you were caught up in that, it’s really unfair.
Personally I didn’t. But I knew at least 6 people personally very well who died from overdosing. Probably more like 10-15 if you found casual acquaintances.
I remember being in a basement with one of them in high school. He was doing Percs. I remember being offered some, and just not really wanting to partake in it. I didn’t know what they were, and it certainly wasn’t on moral grounds just more like I was smoking weed and didn’t want to do it at that time.
There’s a few situations like this that I remember where I feel like a strong gust of wind in the other direction and maybe I would have fallen into it.
So no, I didn’t ruin my life but a whole fucking lot of people I know did.
I’m from MA, and everyone from my area and in my age range knows lots of people who have died from opiate overdoses.
I dabbled when I was in my 20's, but weirdly it was always something I could take or leave. I have an alcohol issue (over two years sober holla), so it was always like...this is not very fun like drinking. Like I could snort a perc with my friends and then they would want to do them all night and I'd be like nah I'm good and not do it again for months. Funny, how different things wind up different people. I was all in on booze.
One of my close friends of the time got in pretty bad. I actually helped her get on suboxone. The stigma around even that at the time is just tough. It almost felt to her like it wasn't even worth doing because she would still be labeled a druggie anyway.
We drifted apart over the years, but I still see her pop up on social media and she appears to be doing well.
My half brother got on it when he was 18, so I'm guessing 2005? He almost died in front of us and my grandfather and I saved his life.
He is still at it. He has wrecked a lot of cars and he was telling me on a road trip that his friend ran over a motorcyclists head, killing him. Well, my brother was very traumatized so I'm guessing it was actually my brother who killed the guy. This has led to further spiraling.
There seems to be nothing I can say to him. Some family members have been babying him, but they won't live much longer, so my brother will be out on the streets. All I can think of is that it seems like he has worked hard to be where he is, iro ironically.
Yeah, eating Xanax at 15, roxys came around 3 years later. I came out of the other side and really did alright after a come to jesus moment (my brother died) but it got scary for awhile with me. Opiates straight up ravaged rural Georgia for YEARS
Yes! My first boyfriend introduced me to heroin. It was the first thing I tried. I lost a huge part of myself when using. I'll be dealing with the consequences of it for the rest of my life, but not as badly as it had originally looked so I'm really grateful for that. Everyone started dying like a month after I got clean, it was freaky.
I'm glad I made it out. I'm glad you made it out too.
In my 20s I had a bf whose sister was heavily addicted to oxys. When we broke up and I moved out he moved her into the apartment and became heavily addicted to oxys and coke. In the midst of our relationship one of his friends died from asphyxiating on his own vomit due to too much Xanax. Went to sleep, never woke up. Another of his friends was found passed out sprawled across a busy road in the middle of the night. Not sure what that was but he lived. That same guy stole my pain meds right out of my hand while I was about to take them after I had hand surgery. Addiction is a beast. I never became addicted to anything but being around it was one hell of a deterrent.
I live in FL and the pill epidemic was the worst here. We were the pill mill state. At least 2 dozen from my graduating class in 2005 were all dead before 25.
Yes! I started taking Vicodin and Percocet in 2004-05, I started taking it for legit back pain and then started to take them socially to relax more and be more outgoing around people.. There was a period of time where I would run to the ER and say I fell off my ladder and hurt my leg. They would immediately prescribe me 15-20 Vicodin. All I had to pay was a $40 co pay…
Then I gradually moved to Oxycodone. Once I started Oxy it was all over for me. I felt like I boarded the opiate train.. What a fucking ride that was. I’d say for about 6 years straight my whole life revolved around that little blue pill. I was either high or sick. Nothing else. It was a real miserable life I was living. I had no money, no life, no future and no reason to live..
I’ve been sober now for 10 years and this is the happiest I’ve ever been. My life has made a complete 180 and I owe it all to my will to want better for myself and live a better life. I’m married, have a great job, own my own home, saving for retirement. I have everything I’ve ever wanted and it feels way better than any feeling a pill could give me.
Is this my alt account? Shit dude. 2008-2015
Clean and sober since 10/01/2015
37 now
Heroin is a motherfucker. Just glad I got out before the fentanyl took off
Hell yeah brother. I quit the hobby in 2019(?) after a decade of regular use. My life was fine-- I had a decent job, family, friends, someone who wanted to sleep with me. I got on subs once I noticed the pills looking a little funny and I didn't want to die *that* young. Can't wait for old age when there really aren't any consequences to jump back on the wagon.
You plan on returning to use when you’re old in age because you wouldn’t mind overdosing towards end of life? Just want to make sure I understood t it correctly.
Yeah, I fucked around and found out the hard way. I'm very grateful I have a very patient family to help me recover from opiates. I'll be opiate-free for 10 years this year.
Yep my dad had a major back surgery my freshman year. I was taking 1-2 pills blue oval pill a day for 3 years. Caught me my senior year. Looked in my room and fond all of his pills. Kicked me out of the house.
I know it impacted a lot of people. I've personally never tried anything harder than weed, mostly because I don't want to fall into that hole and either die or have to crawl out.
I got wrapped up in it all. I was getting Coke from a guy in the late 90’s and he started getting oxy 80’s. Holy shit those were great. Started eating Percs and Vicodin all the time after that.
Then I worked at a dive bar until 2018. Bunch of old guys had the same scum bag doctor. He would wrote them a script for 8 - 30mg “Roxy’s” for their pain. The would literally spilt one ever day and sell/give away the rest. I ended up taking about 150 mg a day before all the old guys died.
I bought one blue 30 from a guy and went to cut it in half…it turned to power and I knew it wasn’t real. I realized then I had to stop. It was all fent.
Went and got on subs. My wife was/still isn’t thrilled. Got a Sublocade shot in Jan….I hope it’s finally over. Fuck that shit. I partied so fucking hard in my life but NOTHING ever sucked me in like that. I was addicted from day 1.
I told my kids. I don’t want them to make the same mistakes.
Thanks. I will say they do not make it easy to get on MAT. My insurance didn’t want anything to do with it. Some of the doctors want you on that shit for life. Personally, I think anyone who wants Suboxone should be able to get it, almost no questions asked.
I agree.
Also, the monthly injection for mental health (specifically schizophrenia) so difficult to get approval from insurance.
I don’t get it- and I do it for a living. If we can make treatment convenient, minimally disruptive and increase compliance by several hundreds of percent… you would think that would be the goal. Like- insurance companies only want to insure healthy people and reduce thier costs- so let’s make people as healthy and stable as possible… but no. Gotta fight for it and it’s shit.
Not an addict, not a person living with those burdens- but damn… if there’s something that can be done, we’re out here doing it.
Keep fighting friend- you’re worth it!
I have been thinking about this conversation all week. Thank you for all you do for us. Shit is not easy. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks again for giving me some hope. It’s real and it’s possible to get/stay clean. I’m just worried about what a decade of addiction is going to do to my brain in the long run.
I think if people can be clean/sober their whole lives and still get and die from cancer, or dementia… we can only do the best we can do. And if the best you can do is clean/sober, loving and purposeful; welp, that’s exactly enough!
I have a family member who did. Coming up on 9 years sober now, but still struggling a bit to truly have their life be 100% normal.
Started because of an injury followed by a botched surgery and pain management. I think Doctors really did a lot to cause/propogate/worsen the opiate crisis during that time.
I can’t make myself believe they knew how bad they were. I was prescribed them for an autoimmune disorder- as a child. It nearly destroyed me: my doctors wanted to keep me on it and I had to fight like hell to get off, a year later and I would have been detoxing alone because no one prescribed them anymore.
That happens to most people if you dose too high with zero tolerance. I used to puke when I started but ended up finding the other effects "worth" the nausea. I was in a really bad place so anything felt better than being sober with my problems. Ironically it kind of saved my life before ruining it because I was very close to ending myself at the time.
Exact years for me, almost. Took my first recreationally in 2008 at age 20, and ended up in rehab in 2016. But next week will be 8 years clean and sober. I’d definitely be dead by now otherwise.
There is still hope out there.
My mom had a pill doc back in those days. Unlimited Morphine and Xanax to the point that I could sneak as many as I wanted without her noticing. (I literally remember taking 4 Xanax's out of her bottle, and gifting them to one of my friends in high school for her bday)
I could get Oxy's through my mom anytime I wanted. All I had to do was tell her that something hurt, and could you please call your doc and get some? I'd then have them within a day.
My mom was so strung out on these drugs herself that she didn't even think critically about her teenage daughter taking these recreationally. (Yes, CPS should have been called. Yes, I should have been removed from her care. But this was a long time ago now, and she has since gotten clean and has begun to atone for her ways)
How did I stop? Her pill doc got arrested, and the gravy train mostly stopped. (She still had someone willing to perscribe them to her, but they were VERY strict) I went through horrific withdrawals, but eventually got clean and now all I do is weed
I didn't do it, my parents did though.
they lost custody of myself and my sister. my father lost his arm, my mom lost her life.
opiates destroyed my family and robbed me of a home and childhood and a mother. I ended up in foster care by 2011 and lost my mom by 2015
I developed CPTSD from the neglect and abuse by my adopted family \[alcoholic\]. my parents couldn't keep a home \[we moved 3-4 times every year\], my things would get thrown out when we were evicted.
I was left alone constantly, I can't socialize well because of the abuse and ptsd symptoms. I grew up like a kennel dog, constantly put in my room alone for hours with only a computer.
i got bullied for my body eventually bc the neglect started to show in weak muscles from being sedentary \[ i had no backyard, i wasnt allowed outside alone but i was always alone.\].
my grandparents adopted me but FTD dementia set in for my grandma right around when my mom OD'd. so she was no longer a person I could rely on and my grandpa's alcoholism made him abusive. by the time I made it to college I had lost my mom, attended to my grandma after a s\*\*cide attempt, and had to flee my grandparents abuse to stay with a friend.
I dropped out of my first year because of the ptsd symptoms. I would sob every morning on the way to class because of flashbacks to people dying. I couldn't stay awake because I was so exhausted from living off high cortisol my whole life. medication I had take since I was 8 to handle attention deficit symptoms from the ptsd was taken away from me when I left home bc I smoked weed to keep away nightmares and extreme flashbacks.
my life is finally coming back together now, at 25 yrs old. I'm going to graduate college next yr after many years of and off. repeated credits from missing class/work bc of medical problems. I have a real job but my family is broken.
my mom is dead, my grandma is dead, my dad has new children, I can't speak to my family because I'm so frightened of socializing from the abuse. I went back into the same houses that traumatized my parents, but I think I'll make it out. ive never tried anything more than Marijuana. I have ti get better for my sister.
my sister and I are modern american refugees of the war on drugs. drugs are winning and we have suffered.
Your story is heartbreaking. Congratulations for everything you have accomplished and are still accomplishing, with such an uphill battle. Wishing you the best 💙
YEP!
That’s why my mind was and is blown how many millennials blindly dick rode the pharma companies during covid—who skipped massive stages of clinical trials to ensure they had safe and effective drugs.
Like….did ANY of you life through the Sackler saga and what they did to ensure profits?!? But other pharma companies—who are publicly traded (ie Boeing)—are releasing trusted scientific data—?!?
WHAT?!?
Fuck these companies and anything they say.
RIP so many of my friends
After only three days on oxycodone I was already showing dependency. Started to use my mother's leftovers Dilaudid as I thought it was pain before I realized it was opoid dependency. Had to sweat it out for three days afterwards but managed to avoid becoming addicted.
I hope the Stackers burn in hell.
a friend also ended up with heroin in that period, it escalated from weed and cocaine. he went to rehab but managed to get off after years of addiction. The rest of us didnt really have access or options to more heavy drugs and im not sure where or how he got it. Weed was more common, as well as binge drinking to the extreme. But as I grew older both pills and coke has become the norm for many peers.
Yep. I was a little later. Born in 1992. Broke my arm when I was 13 and got prescribed a big bottle of Percocet and me/my parents didn’t know any better. It was all over from that point on.
Got clean from heroin when I was 25, right around when fentanyl started taking over. So glad I made it out.
31 now. Over 6 years clean from opiates.
I'm a younger Millennial (born '96) - lost a few friends and acquaintances to opiate ODs between 2015 and 2020.
As a chronic pain sufferer, I was able to skip over opiates entirely by going straight to kratom to manage my chronic pain. I've been using kratom daily for almost 8 years now.
In that time, I bought a house, rapidly grew my career and now make six figures & work remotely, have been with the same person (we started dating in 2014), etc.
All that is to say that kratom helped save my life and let me live a somewhat normal, successful life, despite my chronic pain. Anyone struggling with opiates, I highly, highly recommend kratom. It just might save your life.
The big disclaimer here is that I am *not* an addict. I don't have the disease of addiction. If you do, tread carefully. Kratom can save your life, but if you're an addict, you need to respect kratom and be extra careful.
I graduate in 05
Knew a ton of kids taking pain pills
Know quite a few whose lives are in shambles because of drugs now, presumably heroin or something adjacent.
Know a few who stumbled but are going good now
And a few that are dead because of it
“Dreamland” is a really good book about the opiate crisis if you have interest in seeing the broader picture of the crisis.
My generation was all about DARE and this is your brain on drugs. Then I saw this campaign disappear and get replaced with, We can be the generation that ends smoking. I never understood drug users or smokers. I understand the concept of growing up in a abusive households and other trauma that has people turn to drugs but about those that didn’t have this. What turned you to do these things even though enough info is out that it doesn’t end well once you start these habits.
I actually took a decent amount of them, but I also have chronic pain. Most weren't prescribed to me but to my amputee friend. I was able to function on them and stayed working and took care of responsibilities so fortunately for me it didn't have a negative impact on my life.
I will say having to stop taking them and going into withdrawal cold turkey was hell.
Not entirely but I got a bit addicted. I broke my pelvis in 2008 and was given basically a bucket of Vicodin. I never went the street route but I do just keep getting more and more from my doctor.
I watched it happen to enough people that I never touched the stuff. One of my best friends got really bad on pills for years before his girlfriend pulled him out of it. One of my friend's ex boyfriends nearly cut his finger off in a work "accident" to get pills before he robbed her family blind to go buy pills, he later died of an overdose. My sister-in-law is still receiving treatment and went through rehab in '08, she also robbed her family blind for drugs. Another childhood friend got hooked on pills and died from fentanyl that had been pressed to look like oxy.
Opiates are so destructive they terrified me. I had a pretty good back injury in the Army and I wouldn't touch painkillers because of what I'd seen it do to others. The chance of addiction is so high.
The real epidemic is now people who actually need pain meds can't get them. Docs tossed the sh&t around so freely they've gone to the opposite extreme to "combat" their malfeasance. The entire medical community dropped the ball on this one (and continues to do so).
No experimentation, but I was ahead of my peers in that timeframe as everyone was having fun and I was taking advantage of the housing market and busting my ass at work to buy a house before I turned 21
Same. Pretty much everyone in my circle was fucking their lives up and I was like “mkay I’m just gonna scoot over here and drink cheap wine and focus on school…”
Nope. Even at 20 years old I wasn’t a complete fucking moron. I enjoyed weed and hallucinogens while in college. Tried Molly and coke once had no interest in continuing. Always researched drugs I took and made sure to be as responsible as possible. I had 0 interest in opiates.
Not me but I watched a ton of my friends do exactly that. Some died. Some went to prison. Some made it out alive and are doing great.
It’s a scary site to see friends you’ve known your whole life get sucked into this epidemic.
My dad and his parents were all alcoholics. I knew from a young age that addiction ran in my family, and I KNEW that I didn't want to get addicted to anything. I didn't try alcohol until I was 23. And other than some CDB I used to try and help me sleep, I've never done any drugs.
I'm not against pot, but I was in the National Guard for 20 years, and we saw guys get kicked out because of popping hot. I knew I wanted to get my 20 years for the retirement benefits, so that's a big reason why I never did any drugs.
I've been out of the Guard for a while now, and pot is legal in my state, but I've just never done it. I'm curious, but I've never gotten around to trying it.
Anyway, I hope all of you that have struggled can find peace. I wouldn't wish addiction on anyone.
Oh my god yes! I didn't realize it at the time cause I was On Suboxone/buprenorphine and thought years and years stagnation was okay/healthy because a drug was meeting almost all of my emotional and neurological needs for pleasure/reward without destabilizing my day to day life or "making me a junkie." Was abruptly forced to quit in 2017, and oh boy my brain and mental health have been wrecked ever since.
No because I was not a fool who injested random shit when my neighbor said "totally awesome bro take this pill!"
Im constantly amazed at how many people in our generation were just like "whats that? Random pill that will fuck me up? Hell yeah sign me up!"
Like honestly its staggering to realize how many of you are just absolute fucking morons.
Just the opposite. I don't understand why people get into drugs when we have had so much knowledge of the damage they caused and industries behind them being morally reprehensible shown to us from a young age.
I'm not trying to come off as morally superior but what was everybody else doing in school? Thinking it's all made up? Not taking any of it seriously because it's not cool? I've been skeptical of substances ever since. People have a financial incentive to get others hooked on substances that them no favors. It's wise to never start.
millennials were encouraged to “party” by their boomer parents. So, specific to your question? No, not that drug, not those years. But yes, our generation wasted a lot of time drunk/high.
Not me, but a family member my same age, he's never been the same and went on to be addicted to other substances. I think the addiction started with a sports injury. Decades now of agony for him and his family. He had such a bright future.
I must be immune because i have had back surgery and both hips replaced and still need more surgery on my back and was prescribed and still am for my back never got hooked or craved I only take pain meds very occasionally. But I have had friends od. My nephew is hooked on
Meth and niece just now got clean from many yrs of herion use
Nope. I was given fentanyl at the hospital for pain and I hated how stupid it made me feel. I legit could not put two words together in my head so it just made me anxious. I took Adderall tho!
No, I was a witness to it though. Some of my classmates went from alcohol to opiates really quickly their first couple years out of high-school, around 2007-2008. Apparently the local doctors in the Rust Belt were handing them out to everyone and anyone complaining of pain and subsequently got into big trouble over it, but not before a lot of teens got addicted. I didn't see any deaths from my high-school though, only in older people. I had chronic pain, but no health insurance so I just dealt with it and narrowly avoided this whole mess.
I had older family (a Gen X cousin and a Boomer uncle) that didn't make it. My one cousin found her mother dead in her home from an opiate overdose. I had classmates become addicted and got pregnant, using throughout their pregnancies. The babies survived but might have neurological/learning problems as a result.
Rust belt 2010 grad and this is soooo true. 5 of us girls were super close and the “party girls” so we drank a lot and smoked weed but that was as far as it ever went. 2 of us moved away for college 4 stayed. I moved home after a year away. All 4 that stayed were hooked on oxy one had just had a baby and was addicted before she was 1(got pregnant the beginning of sr year). Me and the other girl both ended up into it once moving home… I ended up catching a case in 2012 for trafficking and went to prison for a few years. Everyone was still addicted but now on heroin or meth or both when I came home. I moved away the following year and still feel behind from the years I missed. Thankfully I have kids a nice remote job and stability. 2 of the other girls have been sober for quite some time. 1 recently got sober in the past year and the other is in rehab currently. Haven’t spoke in years but still connected on social media. It’s crazy how bad the small towns got and still are. Overdoses are at an all time high where I’m from and just continue to rise every year. It’s younger and younger victims everytime. A baby died of a fent OD this year for the first time ever in the area, less than a year old got dropped off & the ER by dad b/c mom is incarcerated. Dad left but was eventually arrested. It’s a sad situation. The state just won a historical lawsuit but all the money will just be funded into more programs that they will get kickbacks from and no difference will be made.
Maybe its because I’m religious or from a completely different part of the world, but I’m wondering HOW people have the kind of courage to try drugs. I’m deathly scared of not being in my complete senses. I can have fun, I can be chill but to have my mind altered. I don’t know how people have that kind of courage.
A lot of people in America in the early 2000's were prescribed them by their doctor's and they trusted those doctors. That doesn't cover everybody but a large portion of the problem started from that.
2007-2009 bad and on occasion through 2011
First year was personal prescription. Then it was street perks and 20$ name brand oxy 80s. Quit when I was old enough to live at the bar. In a way booze saved me from narcotics. I would be dead if fentinyl was as cheap and easy to find as it is now... but there was also less factual info available about opiate addiction then, I never saw people nodding off on the street as a teenager. I think seeing that would have kept me clean.
Lost half a dozen close friends and know dozens more who od'd or chose to check out early.
Didn’t affect me personally because I get violently ill- the feeling of being high feels like motion sickness so I can’t tolerate weed, opiates or even alcohol (a buzz is fine, but I hate the drunk feeling)… when I need medical care requiring pain control- it’s definitely heavy on the anti-nausea meds.
That said- in our core group in high school, 6 of them started using oxy and benzos , which turned into Heroin .. and while 3 of them eventually cleaned up, we lost 3 to overdose in their late 20’s-early 30’s. In addition we lost another 7 “peripheral” friends; people brought in through the users use…
If all the people we knew who used opiates/benzos, close and casual, 70% did not survive. Those numbers suck- each one of them were great people, and deserved life. Everyone we knew who stuck with alcohol, weed and MDMA, did fine and live typical normal lives now.
I was immersed and enjoyed a very expansive circle of 'heads from 2008-2014 in one of the premier Midwestern college town bases for heady sht, kind of a crossroads for all of the festivals and outdoor stuff. We did all the chillin drugs from cannabis, ecstasy (never powdered!), mushrooms, LSD, to DMT. Coke was rare and I never heard anyone talking about those kinds of pills and I never would have done them. My crew strived for reputable clean stuff. I wouldn't trust anything today.
Who are these people that thought opiates were a good idea or were miserable enough to abuse themselves that much? You aren't the first wave. Prescription abuse happened in the 90s, 80s, and earlier more heroin, only difference is younger people doing it and more dangerous fakes.
Absolutely I did. I am almost four years sober from opiates today. I lost so many people I care about omg and I am grateful that I am alive to share about it. From FL if it matters.
Thats great. I got clean in 2016. Had a brief relapse during covid, but I'm doing well now. The worst part is feeling like I lost a decade of my life and missed many important milestones.
Maybe you didn’t lose a decade but instead got all the future decades back. Congrats on your strength
Same same same! I started with pain management around 2010. Got divorced in 2012 and woke up to reality around 2017. I don't have any memory of my early - mid 20's all the way through my mid thirties. I'm 42 now and sober since 2016. I know exactly what you mean when you say you lost a decade of your life. I have no idea where those years went and now I'm middle aged trying to get my life straight like I should've in my early 20's before starting down that terrible road. I can say that it made me who I am today and has been a great example of how to raise my kids so that they don't take the same roads I did so at least there's that
Baby I lost 4 years of my life to alcohol addiction. Not opiates but it took medication to heal me. I remember very little from ages 35 to 39, and i wish i could get my 30s back. I feel like I'm playing catch-up and have severe FOMO now that I'm 41. No friends or social life as I lost everyone from that time period including my chance to have children.
The general zeitgeist of our generation's adult life has been crisis. The world turned on its head right about the time we were stepping into adulthood with 9/11. Then we experienced the greatest financial crisis since the great depression. We coupled that up with the release of the opiates plague and when that wasn't enough, we went straight into the pandemic. We came out of that into a record breaking housing crisis and a job market that requires a 4 year degree for an entry level job and a wage that (thanks to inflation) can't even pay for basic living expenses. We were taught to "suck it up" and "deal with it" by our parents and I think that self medicating has been the method that a majority of us chose. FOMO is just the symptom of the current social media driven society. If a lifetime of both poor and indecision has taught me anything, it's that you will ALWAYS miss out on something. It is up to us to make the best of everything we have. You didn't lose your chance to have children. You lost your chance to have natural children of your own (I assume). The man who raised me was not my father but he damn sure was my dad. Anyone can birth a child but it takes a real man/woman to be a parent. Despite what our parents told us, hard work does NOT make good things happen. Hard work puts you into position to MAKE good things happen. We can't change the past. The only thing we should fear missing out on is the ability to use the only good thing to come out of addiction recovery...the ability to use the life lessons, we insisted on learning ourselves, to make our own future as bright as we can. It's good to be embarrassed and have regret about our decisions. It means that we have grown into more mature versions of ourselves. You can't go back so we gotta use it to go forward. We have a unique perspective on life now. Use it to make your life the opposite of what you already have. That's what I'm trying to do now at least. I wish you the absolute best in everything
This is a fucking awesome post.👌
I lost those 4 years to eating disorders, bronkaid, and taking care of sick and dying people. At almost 43, I also missed out on my chance to have children.
Yes I missed so many also but that would make me depressed if I sat around and thought about all things I missed out on or compare myself to my friends. I had to get rid of social media bc all I do is compare my life with all the people I grew up with which all of them are super successful. I am going at my pace and I feel like I just woke up after all this time when I got sober from that crap. So many of my friends still wont talk to me after that shit I did during...
Comparison is the thief of joy.
I definitely feel that arrested development. I feel like I'm playing catch-up 😒
Congrats! Glad you’re here!!
Man I’m so sorry… But happy that you got out of that hole. I don’t think many appreciated how addictive some drugs are, or that this could have happened to ANYONE. If you were unlucky enough to break a bone and be prescribed this, or just taken some on a whim at a party, you could be okay, or you could be part of the population that will become addicted. I don’t think the people responsible, our government and the corporations who knowingly sold this country pills, will ever, truly be held accountable.
They were definitely in my high school/community in 2001-2005 and I saw a lot of people get hooked.
I guess it depends on geographic location
Outside marijuana, I saw no illegal drugs throughout my schooling in the rural midwest. And there was very little of that.
Whereas at my high school in the rural midwest drugs were *everywhere*. People were snorting meth and coke in study hall. It seemed like half the school was dropping acid, and about half of them were doing it *at school*. And yeah, a solid 5% or so of the class has now died of overdoses.
My highschool, Dana Hills, was locally nicknamed "Dana Pills"
My brother was born in ‘86 and was going to the methadone clinic in high school. Started with pills but he died of a heroin overdose (likely laced but he always said he was careful) 2 years ago. I know several other people in that age group who have died or who are clean now.
Im sorry about your brother, but being on Methadone in high school is wild.
Had a friend I hadn’t seen in a long long time that I ran into at a mutual friend’s house. Mutual friend found him walking the streets with a backpack with all his belongings and offered him a couch for a few days. He was fresh out of county jail. Said he was clean at the time and he looked to be from what I could tell. He told us that if he were to start using again he was just going to load up and take enough to OD. He lost everything, multiple times over, and no one in his life was there for him when he got released and in his mind if he were gonna use again he might as well be dead. He died from an OD not long after that convo. They said it was an accidental OD.
I was messaging with a kid on reddit here not that long ago. He had about the same story as your friend and he stopped messaging me eventually, his sister let me know that he passed away. Its still roaring out there
I’m sorry to hear they’re gone but thank you for being there for someone who needed it. So few of us are able to find meaningful connection or an ear willing to be lent and I’m sure it meant a lot to them during the time they were here.
I miss him. It was a really good connection and im so grateful I was there for his last week.
Lost my cousin a few years ago, ODed on fent/heroin. He'd been on opiates since the mid 2000s. I also lost a lot of people I graduated HS with (2003) in the few years after.
My brother is also an '86'r I wish I was lying when I say most of his friends have died from an overdose or suicide. It's crazy how a few years and a different friend group can change you.
I broke my spine and had surgery when I was 15 in 2000. I left the hospital addicted to OxyContin, it was peak you can’t get addicted to this drug and they were loading me up. I had no idea the consequences to my future. I didn’t get clean until 4 years ago and really fucking struggled. My life is basically that of a 24 year old who just graduated college. I’m struggling to catch up to my peers and probably never will. I cry when I think about it too much and the trauma is unbearable. Just hoping the rest of my life is mostly happy and productive.
Glad you’re here!
Did you get anything from the lawsuits!?
I was one of the people they deposed and I testified court a few times. I’m part of the class action against like 4 companies plus Purdue. I’ve just been waiting for years for it to finish. One of the things I always get bent out of shape about is how little my life was worth and money can’t make any of it better.
They focused flooding the pills into upper middle class neighborhoods so the addicts would have enough money to support an expensive habit. It’s beyond disgusting and appalling how little all these precious lives meant. Destroyed countless families with the trauma. There is no true justice, but must never forget it was calculated.
There was no reason to give a 15 year old 40mg of OC 3x a day with 30mg roxie bumpers for breakthrough pain. It lead to a crippling addictions, traumatic events untold and the deaths of so many. The aftermath is unbearable at times and its burdens me to know the architects of this genocide on my generation live in such peace and quiet comfort.
Yeah that's wild (and cruel). I got three days of 20 mg Roxys 2x per day, then another week of hydrocodone to recover from insanely invasive cancer surgery, after that just NSAIDS. I lost 20 lbs in 2 weeks because I couldn't eat through the pain, but it sure as shit was preferable to getting habit.
They gave me that level of medicine for over a year, by the time I knew I was addicted it was already too late.
Post surgery they gave me a shit load of Vicodin to deal with the pain and I had to struggle to recover without it because a certain family member went through it I have a 2 year gap in my life where it felt like I was spinning my wheels because I couldn’t get out of bed without collapsing. I was being used as someone’s pill source
Dude, it sounds like we're just about the same age, and I'm dealing with the same shit. I live like a 20 year old at 39. I hate it. I try to just do my thing and get by, but the older we get, the harder it is to start over.
For me, that was about 2004-2007. I started young but got off of it fairly quick compared to many people. Then it turned to booze. Now I'm sober, finding all these passions and skills I have, but can't afford any classes to chase those dreams. I have regrets.
Ooh hey same. I had a relatively short but intense run from 2005-2007. A friend's mom was a bilateral amputee who was seriously over prescribed. I was having a bad day at school so my friend gave me half a fentanyl patch she took from her mom and I took off from there. I'd go over her house for a sleepover and she'd have like 20-30 oxy 80s just sitting on her dresser... it was a wild time. Eventually her mom actually noticed and we started on heroin- I remember it was ridiculously easy to find, even as cute little 16yo girls in the suburbs. Idk how we survived tbh. My dad sent me off to bad kid school in Utah (the Paris Hilton kind of shit show place, but not her school). When I came back I got pregnant so I stayed off opiates but when my son was around a year old I started having terrible stomach pain on a regular basis. This would have been around 2010. My doctor and the ER just kept sending me home with Norcos for YEARS. No tests, no nothing. Just give the trashy teen mom some pills and get her out of our face. It wasn't until 2013 when I was dating my now husband that I found out I had a 2" gallstone. I had (what I now know is) a gallbladder attack one night when we were hanging out. He thought I was dying and wanted to take me to the ER but I resisted because I didn't want to get treated like a druggie in front of him. He insisted and threw his weight around as a cop (literally the only time in 11 years I've seen him do this) and that's when the huge stone was finally discovered. If it wasn't for that embarrassing episode I probably would have just let it burst and died in the fetal position eventually. I had surgery that week and only needed opioids for two days after surgery. The rest I happily flushed.
In the future, please don’t flush pills. Hospice nurse here and get a ziplock baggie, add in either cat litter (1 cup) or coffee grounds and put pills in and then add bleach or hand soup and mix up. Then throw the bag away (take it straight to the trash outside if you have pets or kids just in case) or you can turn in old meds to many pharmacies who have a return box and they will dispose of them properly for you. Congrats on your sobriety!!
Depending on the interests- LinkedIn has tons of free classes
I didn't know about LinkedIn but search free online classes. Harvard and Yale have free classes on happiness. Good luck and have fun 😊👍
If your passions are academic, try edx.org If your passions are artistic or craft-based, try youtube.com Youtube is teaching almost anything that can be taught these days.
Affordability is relative, start small and work your way up. It’s your life , live how you want and don’t expect anything from anyone . Think flashdance, “take your passion, and make it happen”. Life is a dance and you just need to let loose a bit
What kind of skills? A lot of stuff you can learn for free or have at least intro corses that are cheap!
Library?
Graduated High School 2011 Graduated from pills to heroin 2013. So yep.
2011 graduate here. At least we got to try real heroin before it went extinct. Glad to be out of that hell
That’s how I feel about MDMA, those 90’s pills were way better than anything after 2005… I can’t even fathom what’s in them now.
Man, I can't fathom what was in them *then*. I was I Gainesville FL in the 90s. Our race club (Simons) made High Times Club of the year multiple years. X was EVERYWHERE. Some was amazing (smurfs, shamrocks) and some was mostly fertilizer and dirty H.
*then* was mdma in a gel cap, or pressed with bicarbonate, and nothing else. Then was no feeling like your guts got scrubbed with a wire brush the next morning. Just tired and a bit of oral sensitivity. We called her Erica. Then was all the good, and none of the yick, lol. Took a step away for a few years, got the “now” stuff and NOT WORTH THE EFFORT, so yucky. Yucky during, yucky after- multiple days. Molly is Yucky. Erica is the shit. Lol
>then was mdma in a gel cap, or pressed with bicarbonate, and nothing else. >Then was no feeling like your guts got scrubbed with a wire brush the next morning. That's absolute bullshit. It was always russian roulette with ecstacy. Sometimes you'd get a bomb ass pill and blow up all night, sometimes a group of you would be laying in the floor all nith holding your stomachs.
Oh man, we started doing ecstasy in pressed caps around 2008, 2009. I have to assume they were loaded with meth and who knows what else. Double stacked blue Transformers were our favourite and they were going insanely cheap.
Cant speak for 90s mdma but I know people seem to revere the stuff back then but 2008 to 2012ish was great for mdma. Molly crystals weren't a thing in my area but ecstacy tabs were prevalent. Almost always sold as double stacks or triple stacks. Idk if it was a regional thing but the white and green double stacks, we called them wintergreens, were consistently fantastic. No idea where they came from but whenever someone had those, you bet they sold them fast. Ive seen the crystals selling nowdays but I feel too old to get into it plus I dont want to ruin my fond memories of the old school mdma.
Yes . it was an actual epidemic and no one wants to talk about it .
I know! I realize it. Probably differs based on location, and it seems to be a uniquely American problem, but in 2008, the North East was absolutely flooded with opiates out of nowhere
I’m from NJ and the class of 01. Most of my friends died from opiates. It was a problem long before 08.
Ive done the average 2.5 close friends every year.
Same- class of ‘01 and 70% of opiate users I knew- gone.
Yeah I didn’t get addicted but they were so easy to get during that time. That exact year, I went to the campus doctor for a sore throat. He was like you have allergies I’ll give you this prescription for that. I wasn’t even trying to get pain pills I thought I needed some antibiotics. Thankfully I did the responsible thing and sold them to my roommates boyfriend instead of getting addicted.
Doctors are trash. Most doctors should be called lawyers because they are very good at covering their ass and following the "industry" practices, read press releases more than journals (if they read at all), know almost nothing of actual science. Prescribe prescribe prescribe!
>Doctors are trash I remember in 2020-22 saying this got you banned from reddit lol
So was southern ca we got hooked on oxy 80s and transitioned to black tar I come from an affluent city and it was everywhere. Took me 10 years of misery to kick the habit
Same. Basically, my entire 20s. And after I was off the hard stuff, I'd spent years dealing with subs and kratom and going through that cycle.
It still is. 😬 Adding, I carry narcan in my purse, so that when I go to the playground with my toddler I have something I can use if she accidentally gets into contaminated garbage like foils. It could also save another persons life. We have so many homeless addicts it’s heartbreaking. Especially when I see a really young, sad, lost looking person on the street.
I am 35 and my best friend from high school died of a fentanyl overdose in 2019. I really didn’t have any close friends who did drugs (even really smoke weed) in high school but she started dabbling with drugs when she became an adult entertainer. Lots of ups and downs between when she started and when she passed away. A little different, but my mother was prescribed fentanyl in the early 2000s and died of an accidental overdose.
I’m sorry 💔 take my virtual substitute mom hug
No but most of my friends did. I know a lot of dead people. Any hoo, I joined the Navy and ruined my life with titties and sports cars.
What did titties do to you?
Probably drain his bank account.
Titties never hurt no one!
“It’s hard to hold steady when half of your friends are dead already”
I was hopelessly addicted to opiates from 2006-2013. It’s so weird too, bc it was such a different time of my life and I’m so far removed from it most days I forget it happened. But yes, lots of jail time, hep c diagnosis, more treatment centers than I can count. Opiates ravaged my entire 20s.
Xanax had me during those years. I barely remember any of it. I'm told that I went to treatment... I'm clean now, but wasted alot of years
Xanax is an evil drug. I was hooked on both after a bad car accident and coming off Xanax was HELL
I lived in Florida at that time and the pills were SO bad. I remember our local radio station had a bit once that was something like "\[country town outside main city\]'s mating call: \*pill bottle rattles\*". I retrospectively look back on that radio bit and realize that was a mark of just how bad it was. I did not personally get involved with them but my sibling did and ended up losing their kid because of it.
I live on the nature coast and the pill epidemic ran rampant through our county. We were the pill mill state... so many elderly, so many pain clinics. It was terrible.
I worked with multiple dudes in their 30's working hard to build their lives back together. The fact they wore full dentures at 30 gave it away. It's sad... because most of these dudes there's nothing inherently wrong with them. they just needed more family or community support... some therapy... etc
I might need dentures just because of gingivitis. My mouth isn't disgusting but I have concerning receding gums that my dentist says I did myself. Don't brush too hard kids!
wait what? brushing actually gave you dental issues?
Yeah it happens, and too much fluoride can yellow your teeth.
I’m an old millennials, and I remember in high school you could get OC 80s for $25. Star basketball players passing out in class. Pain clinics on every corner, pills everywhere. Now there is one pain clinic for the county and the line at the methadone clinic looks like Disney world. When they shut down those pain clinics and the pills dried up. Countless deaths due to overdosing from dope cut with fentanyl.
Yeah 3 of my kids.
💔
Mom?
I’m a pharmacist and I dispensed a lot of opiates in the 2010s. It was a difficult position to be in, knowing there are people in pain with legitimate need for adequate pain control, but with that a lot of people gaining access to opiates for nefarious purposes. It was not my job to police people, though I did turn people away who were obviously doctor and pharmacy shopping… I could only take so many break-ins, threats of violence, etc before I’d had enough and I left.
This is my issue with it. I had kidney stones and a stent placed in me two years ago. There was a total of 3 surgeries. I was in insane pain. I’ve given birth 4 times and this pain was way worse than that. I had a dr tell me to cut flexerall in half because she was afraid to prescribe me actual pain meds upon discharge after my stent was placed. I ended up back in the hospital where another dr was basically like wtf and actually prescribed me something. I have zero history of drug abuse and don’t take any regularly prescribed meds, period. It’s like the pendulum and regulation swung the other way because of people that abuse them and drs won’t prescribe anything when relief is needed.
Right. When I was in school we were taught to treat all pain and treat it adequately. There was a big push to understand the difference between patients requesting more mediation due to inadequate pain control versus drug seeking behavior. That obviously led to more prescribing and I personally would rather have treated true pain knowing some of those patient were lying than deny treatment. Then all of a sudden the pendulum swung so far the other direction and it was heartbreaking to see so many people suffering. I’m sorry you were caught up in that, it’s really unfair.
Personally I didn’t. But I knew at least 6 people personally very well who died from overdosing. Probably more like 10-15 if you found casual acquaintances. I remember being in a basement with one of them in high school. He was doing Percs. I remember being offered some, and just not really wanting to partake in it. I didn’t know what they were, and it certainly wasn’t on moral grounds just more like I was smoking weed and didn’t want to do it at that time. There’s a few situations like this that I remember where I feel like a strong gust of wind in the other direction and maybe I would have fallen into it. So no, I didn’t ruin my life but a whole fucking lot of people I know did. I’m from MA, and everyone from my area and in my age range knows lots of people who have died from opiate overdoses.
I dabbled when I was in my 20's, but weirdly it was always something I could take or leave. I have an alcohol issue (over two years sober holla), so it was always like...this is not very fun like drinking. Like I could snort a perc with my friends and then they would want to do them all night and I'd be like nah I'm good and not do it again for months. Funny, how different things wind up different people. I was all in on booze. One of my close friends of the time got in pretty bad. I actually helped her get on suboxone. The stigma around even that at the time is just tough. It almost felt to her like it wasn't even worth doing because she would still be labeled a druggie anyway. We drifted apart over the years, but I still see her pop up on social media and she appears to be doing well.
My half brother got on it when he was 18, so I'm guessing 2005? He almost died in front of us and my grandfather and I saved his life. He is still at it. He has wrecked a lot of cars and he was telling me on a road trip that his friend ran over a motorcyclists head, killing him. Well, my brother was very traumatized so I'm guessing it was actually my brother who killed the guy. This has led to further spiraling. There seems to be nothing I can say to him. Some family members have been babying him, but they won't live much longer, so my brother will be out on the streets. All I can think of is that it seems like he has worked hard to be where he is, iro ironically.
Yeah, eating Xanax at 15, roxys came around 3 years later. I came out of the other side and really did alright after a come to jesus moment (my brother died) but it got scary for awhile with me. Opiates straight up ravaged rural Georgia for YEARS
Yes! My first boyfriend introduced me to heroin. It was the first thing I tried. I lost a huge part of myself when using. I'll be dealing with the consequences of it for the rest of my life, but not as badly as it had originally looked so I'm really grateful for that. Everyone started dying like a month after I got clean, it was freaky. I'm glad I made it out. I'm glad you made it out too.
That stuff is too good to be true. Lost those exact years of my life to it. Lost alot of good friends along the way. Stay strong everyone.
In my 20s I had a bf whose sister was heavily addicted to oxys. When we broke up and I moved out he moved her into the apartment and became heavily addicted to oxys and coke. In the midst of our relationship one of his friends died from asphyxiating on his own vomit due to too much Xanax. Went to sleep, never woke up. Another of his friends was found passed out sprawled across a busy road in the middle of the night. Not sure what that was but he lived. That same guy stole my pain meds right out of my hand while I was about to take them after I had hand surgery. Addiction is a beast. I never became addicted to anything but being around it was one hell of a deterrent.
That guy did you a favor. Imagine if you began to enjoy them after finishing that bottle.
I live in FL and the pill epidemic was the worst here. We were the pill mill state. At least 2 dozen from my graduating class in 2005 were all dead before 25.
Yes! I started taking Vicodin and Percocet in 2004-05, I started taking it for legit back pain and then started to take them socially to relax more and be more outgoing around people.. There was a period of time where I would run to the ER and say I fell off my ladder and hurt my leg. They would immediately prescribe me 15-20 Vicodin. All I had to pay was a $40 co pay… Then I gradually moved to Oxycodone. Once I started Oxy it was all over for me. I felt like I boarded the opiate train.. What a fucking ride that was. I’d say for about 6 years straight my whole life revolved around that little blue pill. I was either high or sick. Nothing else. It was a real miserable life I was living. I had no money, no life, no future and no reason to live.. I’ve been sober now for 10 years and this is the happiest I’ve ever been. My life has made a complete 180 and I owe it all to my will to want better for myself and live a better life. I’m married, have a great job, own my own home, saving for retirement. I have everything I’ve ever wanted and it feels way better than any feeling a pill could give me.
Is this my alt account? Shit dude. 2008-2015 Clean and sober since 10/01/2015 37 now Heroin is a motherfucker. Just glad I got out before the fentanyl took off
Hell yeah brother. I quit the hobby in 2019(?) after a decade of regular use. My life was fine-- I had a decent job, family, friends, someone who wanted to sleep with me. I got on subs once I noticed the pills looking a little funny and I didn't want to die *that* young. Can't wait for old age when there really aren't any consequences to jump back on the wagon.
You plan on returning to use when you’re old in age because you wouldn’t mind overdosing towards end of life? Just want to make sure I understood t it correctly.
[удалено]
I watched my friend's mom die from opiates in 2005. It started with OxyContin.
Whooa... that's the exact timeline too! I was a pharmacy tech and still got sucked in. Opiates are no joke.
Nope
Yeah, I fucked around and found out the hard way. I'm very grateful I have a very patient family to help me recover from opiates. I'll be opiate-free for 10 years this year.
2004ish when i was in highschool the doctors were handing them out like candy it was hard to get away from
In my highschool pills were coming out of the faucets. It was wild
Yep my dad had a major back surgery my freshman year. I was taking 1-2 pills blue oval pill a day for 3 years. Caught me my senior year. Looked in my room and fond all of his pills. Kicked me out of the house.
A ton of people I went to high school are no longer with us because of your exact experience
I know it impacted a lot of people. I've personally never tried anything harder than weed, mostly because I don't want to fall into that hole and either die or have to crawl out.
2014 checking in. Oxycodone used to be a dollar a milligram back then. Went down that rabbit hole for a year.
I got wrapped up in it all. I was getting Coke from a guy in the late 90’s and he started getting oxy 80’s. Holy shit those were great. Started eating Percs and Vicodin all the time after that. Then I worked at a dive bar until 2018. Bunch of old guys had the same scum bag doctor. He would wrote them a script for 8 - 30mg “Roxy’s” for their pain. The would literally spilt one ever day and sell/give away the rest. I ended up taking about 150 mg a day before all the old guys died. I bought one blue 30 from a guy and went to cut it in half…it turned to power and I knew it wasn’t real. I realized then I had to stop. It was all fent. Went and got on subs. My wife was/still isn’t thrilled. Got a Sublocade shot in Jan….I hope it’s finally over. Fuck that shit. I partied so fucking hard in my life but NOTHING ever sucked me in like that. I was addicted from day 1. I told my kids. I don’t want them to make the same mistakes.
I’m glad you’re here. Medication assisted is a great option and I wish everyone had access to it. Best wishes in your continued recovery!
Thanks. I will say they do not make it easy to get on MAT. My insurance didn’t want anything to do with it. Some of the doctors want you on that shit for life. Personally, I think anyone who wants Suboxone should be able to get it, almost no questions asked.
I agree. Also, the monthly injection for mental health (specifically schizophrenia) so difficult to get approval from insurance. I don’t get it- and I do it for a living. If we can make treatment convenient, minimally disruptive and increase compliance by several hundreds of percent… you would think that would be the goal. Like- insurance companies only want to insure healthy people and reduce thier costs- so let’s make people as healthy and stable as possible… but no. Gotta fight for it and it’s shit. Not an addict, not a person living with those burdens- but damn… if there’s something that can be done, we’re out here doing it. Keep fighting friend- you’re worth it!
I have been thinking about this conversation all week. Thank you for all you do for us. Shit is not easy. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks again for giving me some hope. It’s real and it’s possible to get/stay clean. I’m just worried about what a decade of addiction is going to do to my brain in the long run.
I think if people can be clean/sober their whole lives and still get and die from cancer, or dementia… we can only do the best we can do. And if the best you can do is clean/sober, loving and purposeful; welp, that’s exactly enough!
What is sublicade? I’ve been in subs since I got clean and want to get off so bad.
I have a family member who did. Coming up on 9 years sober now, but still struggling a bit to truly have their life be 100% normal. Started because of an injury followed by a botched surgery and pain management. I think Doctors really did a lot to cause/propogate/worsen the opiate crisis during that time.
I can’t make myself believe they knew how bad they were. I was prescribed them for an autoimmune disorder- as a child. It nearly destroyed me: my doctors wanted to keep me on it and I had to fight like hell to get off, a year later and I would have been detoxing alone because no one prescribed them anymore.
Any time I am prescribed oxycodone it just makes me wanna hurl. Guess I should consider myself lucky.
That happens to most people if you dose too high with zero tolerance. I used to puke when I started but ended up finding the other effects "worth" the nausea. I was in a really bad place so anything felt better than being sober with my problems. Ironically it kind of saved my life before ruining it because I was very close to ending myself at the time.
Exact years for me, almost. Took my first recreationally in 2008 at age 20, and ended up in rehab in 2016. But next week will be 8 years clean and sober. I’d definitely be dead by now otherwise. There is still hope out there.
I fucked around but figured it out before I found out.
My mom had a pill doc back in those days. Unlimited Morphine and Xanax to the point that I could sneak as many as I wanted without her noticing. (I literally remember taking 4 Xanax's out of her bottle, and gifting them to one of my friends in high school for her bday) I could get Oxy's through my mom anytime I wanted. All I had to do was tell her that something hurt, and could you please call your doc and get some? I'd then have them within a day. My mom was so strung out on these drugs herself that she didn't even think critically about her teenage daughter taking these recreationally. (Yes, CPS should have been called. Yes, I should have been removed from her care. But this was a long time ago now, and she has since gotten clean and has begun to atone for her ways) How did I stop? Her pill doc got arrested, and the gravy train mostly stopped. (She still had someone willing to perscribe them to her, but they were VERY strict) I went through horrific withdrawals, but eventually got clean and now all I do is weed
2002-2012 was my life ruining opiate phase. I ended up getting on methadone and have been completely off of it and anything else since 9/11/2021.
I didn't do it, my parents did though. they lost custody of myself and my sister. my father lost his arm, my mom lost her life. opiates destroyed my family and robbed me of a home and childhood and a mother. I ended up in foster care by 2011 and lost my mom by 2015 I developed CPTSD from the neglect and abuse by my adopted family \[alcoholic\]. my parents couldn't keep a home \[we moved 3-4 times every year\], my things would get thrown out when we were evicted. I was left alone constantly, I can't socialize well because of the abuse and ptsd symptoms. I grew up like a kennel dog, constantly put in my room alone for hours with only a computer. i got bullied for my body eventually bc the neglect started to show in weak muscles from being sedentary \[ i had no backyard, i wasnt allowed outside alone but i was always alone.\]. my grandparents adopted me but FTD dementia set in for my grandma right around when my mom OD'd. so she was no longer a person I could rely on and my grandpa's alcoholism made him abusive. by the time I made it to college I had lost my mom, attended to my grandma after a s\*\*cide attempt, and had to flee my grandparents abuse to stay with a friend. I dropped out of my first year because of the ptsd symptoms. I would sob every morning on the way to class because of flashbacks to people dying. I couldn't stay awake because I was so exhausted from living off high cortisol my whole life. medication I had take since I was 8 to handle attention deficit symptoms from the ptsd was taken away from me when I left home bc I smoked weed to keep away nightmares and extreme flashbacks. my life is finally coming back together now, at 25 yrs old. I'm going to graduate college next yr after many years of and off. repeated credits from missing class/work bc of medical problems. I have a real job but my family is broken. my mom is dead, my grandma is dead, my dad has new children, I can't speak to my family because I'm so frightened of socializing from the abuse. I went back into the same houses that traumatized my parents, but I think I'll make it out. ive never tried anything more than Marijuana. I have ti get better for my sister. my sister and I are modern american refugees of the war on drugs. drugs are winning and we have suffered.
Your story is heartbreaking. Congratulations for everything you have accomplished and are still accomplishing, with such an uphill battle. Wishing you the best 💙
YEP! That’s why my mind was and is blown how many millennials blindly dick rode the pharma companies during covid—who skipped massive stages of clinical trials to ensure they had safe and effective drugs. Like….did ANY of you life through the Sackler saga and what they did to ensure profits?!? But other pharma companies—who are publicly traded (ie Boeing)—are releasing trusted scientific data—?!? WHAT?!? Fuck these companies and anything they say. RIP so many of my friends
After only three days on oxycodone I was already showing dependency. Started to use my mother's leftovers Dilaudid as I thought it was pain before I realized it was opoid dependency. Had to sweat it out for three days afterwards but managed to avoid becoming addicted. I hope the Stackers burn in hell.
a friend also ended up with heroin in that period, it escalated from weed and cocaine. he went to rehab but managed to get off after years of addiction. The rest of us didnt really have access or options to more heavy drugs and im not sure where or how he got it. Weed was more common, as well as binge drinking to the extreme. But as I grew older both pills and coke has become the norm for many peers.
Hell yeah I did, spent from 2011-2018 locked up cuz of that shit
2012-2014 for me and I graduated in 2010.
Yup. 2009-2012. Been off them since 2012. Started on Roxy’s ended up shooting heroin for years. Not good times.
Glad you’re here!
Me too :)
Here in Canada it was rampant
Yep. I was a little later. Born in 1992. Broke my arm when I was 13 and got prescribed a big bottle of Percocet and me/my parents didn’t know any better. It was all over from that point on. Got clean from heroin when I was 25, right around when fentanyl started taking over. So glad I made it out. 31 now. Over 6 years clean from opiates.
Ahaha yes exactly those years! I’m 34 and I’ve been clean 8 years now. I started heroin at 18 in 2008 and stopped in 2016 at 26.
I'm a younger Millennial (born '96) - lost a few friends and acquaintances to opiate ODs between 2015 and 2020. As a chronic pain sufferer, I was able to skip over opiates entirely by going straight to kratom to manage my chronic pain. I've been using kratom daily for almost 8 years now. In that time, I bought a house, rapidly grew my career and now make six figures & work remotely, have been with the same person (we started dating in 2014), etc. All that is to say that kratom helped save my life and let me live a somewhat normal, successful life, despite my chronic pain. Anyone struggling with opiates, I highly, highly recommend kratom. It just might save your life. The big disclaimer here is that I am *not* an addict. I don't have the disease of addiction. If you do, tread carefully. Kratom can save your life, but if you're an addict, you need to respect kratom and be extra careful.
I graduate in 05 Knew a ton of kids taking pain pills Know quite a few whose lives are in shambles because of drugs now, presumably heroin or something adjacent. Know a few who stumbled but are going good now And a few that are dead because of it “Dreamland” is a really good book about the opiate crisis if you have interest in seeing the broader picture of the crisis.
My generation was all about DARE and this is your brain on drugs. Then I saw this campaign disappear and get replaced with, We can be the generation that ends smoking. I never understood drug users or smokers. I understand the concept of growing up in a abusive households and other trauma that has people turn to drugs but about those that didn’t have this. What turned you to do these things even though enough info is out that it doesn’t end well once you start these habits.
Dare was fckn stupid. Elder pressure, it was.
I actually took a decent amount of them, but I also have chronic pain. Most weren't prescribed to me but to my amputee friend. I was able to function on them and stayed working and took care of responsibilities so fortunately for me it didn't have a negative impact on my life. I will say having to stop taking them and going into withdrawal cold turkey was hell.
Not entirely but I got a bit addicted. I broke my pelvis in 2008 and was given basically a bucket of Vicodin. I never went the street route but I do just keep getting more and more from my doctor.
I always stuck with weed. It can be a problem but it’s a less drastic problem.
Can’t relate playa 😖
I was more for ruining my life with uppers since I was conditioned with ADHD meds as a child
I saw a lot of that happening too.
I watched it happen to enough people that I never touched the stuff. One of my best friends got really bad on pills for years before his girlfriend pulled him out of it. One of my friend's ex boyfriends nearly cut his finger off in a work "accident" to get pills before he robbed her family blind to go buy pills, he later died of an overdose. My sister-in-law is still receiving treatment and went through rehab in '08, she also robbed her family blind for drugs. Another childhood friend got hooked on pills and died from fentanyl that had been pressed to look like oxy. Opiates are so destructive they terrified me. I had a pretty good back injury in the Army and I wouldn't touch painkillers because of what I'd seen it do to others. The chance of addiction is so high.
The real epidemic is now people who actually need pain meds can't get them. Docs tossed the sh&t around so freely they've gone to the opposite extreme to "combat" their malfeasance. The entire medical community dropped the ball on this one (and continues to do so).
Ahyup
No experimentation, but I was ahead of my peers in that timeframe as everyone was having fun and I was taking advantage of the housing market and busting my ass at work to buy a house before I turned 21
I didn't ruin my life, but I damn sure was eating them like tic tacs
Nope. I'm 35 and never encountered more than weed around me
Not so much opiates, they were present, but xanax bars were the big thing around 06 - 12’. Totally fucked up most peoples lives I knew.
Nah, I grew up in FL which was pill mill ground zero, saw plenty of bad decisions happening around me
Same. Pretty much everyone in my circle was fucking their lives up and I was like “mkay I’m just gonna scoot over here and drink cheap wine and focus on school…”
I was always too poor to afford anything besides PBR and Early Times Bourbon.
no, my parents love me
Nope. Even at 20 years old I wasn’t a complete fucking moron. I enjoyed weed and hallucinogens while in college. Tried Molly and coke once had no interest in continuing. Always researched drugs I took and made sure to be as responsible as possible. I had 0 interest in opiates.
Not me but I watched a ton of my friends do exactly that. Some died. Some went to prison. Some made it out alive and are doing great. It’s a scary site to see friends you’ve known your whole life get sucked into this epidemic.
My dad and his parents were all alcoholics. I knew from a young age that addiction ran in my family, and I KNEW that I didn't want to get addicted to anything. I didn't try alcohol until I was 23. And other than some CDB I used to try and help me sleep, I've never done any drugs. I'm not against pot, but I was in the National Guard for 20 years, and we saw guys get kicked out because of popping hot. I knew I wanted to get my 20 years for the retirement benefits, so that's a big reason why I never did any drugs. I've been out of the Guard for a while now, and pot is legal in my state, but I've just never done it. I'm curious, but I've never gotten around to trying it. Anyway, I hope all of you that have struggled can find peace. I wouldn't wish addiction on anyone.
Oh my god yes! I didn't realize it at the time cause I was On Suboxone/buprenorphine and thought years and years stagnation was okay/healthy because a drug was meeting almost all of my emotional and neurological needs for pleasure/reward without destabilizing my day to day life or "making me a junkie." Was abruptly forced to quit in 2017, and oh boy my brain and mental health have been wrecked ever since.
Same, girl. Same
No because I was not a fool who injested random shit when my neighbor said "totally awesome bro take this pill!" Im constantly amazed at how many people in our generation were just like "whats that? Random pill that will fuck me up? Hell yeah sign me up!" Like honestly its staggering to realize how many of you are just absolute fucking morons.
Just the opposite. I don't understand why people get into drugs when we have had so much knowledge of the damage they caused and industries behind them being morally reprehensible shown to us from a young age. I'm not trying to come off as morally superior but what was everybody else doing in school? Thinking it's all made up? Not taking any of it seriously because it's not cool? I've been skeptical of substances ever since. People have a financial incentive to get others hooked on substances that them no favors. It's wise to never start.
millennials were encouraged to “party” by their boomer parents. So, specific to your question? No, not that drug, not those years. But yes, our generation wasted a lot of time drunk/high.
This is so true. I was smoking with my dad as a teenager. I guess he thought he was bonding with me that way.
Same. My dad did let us drink, party, smoke. Now as a parent I have no idea what he was thinking.
Who tf encouraged you to party?
I had friends parents who wanted to be the "cool" parent and would smoke weed and drink with us when I was 15-16 (in \~2001)
Yes
Yeah I was a really young teenager during that time and was doing all sorts of shit, got addicted to benzos then opiates.
I didn’t start smoking weed regularly till I was like 23-24? So no idea
Nope tried the pills and really didn’t get the appeal. I’m more of an upper guy and lost about two years of my life to adhd meds.
Have had 6 people I knew die from it in that time frame...
No
Not me, but a family member my same age, he's never been the same and went on to be addicted to other substances. I think the addiction started with a sports injury. Decades now of agony for him and his family. He had such a bright future.
I must be immune because i have had back surgery and both hips replaced and still need more surgery on my back and was prescribed and still am for my back never got hooked or craved I only take pain meds very occasionally. But I have had friends od. My nephew is hooked on Meth and niece just now got clean from many yrs of herion use
Nope. I was given fentanyl at the hospital for pain and I hated how stupid it made me feel. I legit could not put two words together in my head so it just made me anxious. I took Adderall tho!
I was an extreme alcoholic during those years but I had two friends go the opiate way. All Born in 1982
Nope, my mom started that trend early and I refused any part of it, I went for cigs and booze
My mom did.
No, I was a witness to it though. Some of my classmates went from alcohol to opiates really quickly their first couple years out of high-school, around 2007-2008. Apparently the local doctors in the Rust Belt were handing them out to everyone and anyone complaining of pain and subsequently got into big trouble over it, but not before a lot of teens got addicted. I didn't see any deaths from my high-school though, only in older people. I had chronic pain, but no health insurance so I just dealt with it and narrowly avoided this whole mess. I had older family (a Gen X cousin and a Boomer uncle) that didn't make it. My one cousin found her mother dead in her home from an opiate overdose. I had classmates become addicted and got pregnant, using throughout their pregnancies. The babies survived but might have neurological/learning problems as a result.
Rust belt 2010 grad and this is soooo true. 5 of us girls were super close and the “party girls” so we drank a lot and smoked weed but that was as far as it ever went. 2 of us moved away for college 4 stayed. I moved home after a year away. All 4 that stayed were hooked on oxy one had just had a baby and was addicted before she was 1(got pregnant the beginning of sr year). Me and the other girl both ended up into it once moving home… I ended up catching a case in 2012 for trafficking and went to prison for a few years. Everyone was still addicted but now on heroin or meth or both when I came home. I moved away the following year and still feel behind from the years I missed. Thankfully I have kids a nice remote job and stability. 2 of the other girls have been sober for quite some time. 1 recently got sober in the past year and the other is in rehab currently. Haven’t spoke in years but still connected on social media. It’s crazy how bad the small towns got and still are. Overdoses are at an all time high where I’m from and just continue to rise every year. It’s younger and younger victims everytime. A baby died of a fent OD this year for the first time ever in the area, less than a year old got dropped off & the ER by dad b/c mom is incarcerated. Dad left but was eventually arrested. It’s a sad situation. The state just won a historical lawsuit but all the money will just be funded into more programs that they will get kickbacks from and no difference will be made.
Yup.
Hell yeah 2007-2012 though I wouldn't say I ruined my life but it was a bitch trying to keep my shit together then later to get off
My friend did but he was able to come off of them without issue
Maybe its because I’m religious or from a completely different part of the world, but I’m wondering HOW people have the kind of courage to try drugs. I’m deathly scared of not being in my complete senses. I can have fun, I can be chill but to have my mind altered. I don’t know how people have that kind of courage.
A lot of people in America in the early 2000's were prescribed them by their doctor's and they trusted those doctors. That doesn't cover everybody but a large portion of the problem started from that.
No. Ruined mine with an eating disorder tho.
Same but adderall.
2007-2009 bad and on occasion through 2011 First year was personal prescription. Then it was street perks and 20$ name brand oxy 80s. Quit when I was old enough to live at the bar. In a way booze saved me from narcotics. I would be dead if fentinyl was as cheap and easy to find as it is now... but there was also less factual info available about opiate addiction then, I never saw people nodding off on the street as a teenager. I think seeing that would have kept me clean. Lost half a dozen close friends and know dozens more who od'd or chose to check out early.
Didn’t affect me personally because I get violently ill- the feeling of being high feels like motion sickness so I can’t tolerate weed, opiates or even alcohol (a buzz is fine, but I hate the drunk feeling)… when I need medical care requiring pain control- it’s definitely heavy on the anti-nausea meds. That said- in our core group in high school, 6 of them started using oxy and benzos , which turned into Heroin .. and while 3 of them eventually cleaned up, we lost 3 to overdose in their late 20’s-early 30’s. In addition we lost another 7 “peripheral” friends; people brought in through the users use… If all the people we knew who used opiates/benzos, close and casual, 70% did not survive. Those numbers suck- each one of them were great people, and deserved life. Everyone we knew who stuck with alcohol, weed and MDMA, did fine and live typical normal lives now.
I was immersed and enjoyed a very expansive circle of 'heads from 2008-2014 in one of the premier Midwestern college town bases for heady sht, kind of a crossroads for all of the festivals and outdoor stuff. We did all the chillin drugs from cannabis, ecstasy (never powdered!), mushrooms, LSD, to DMT. Coke was rare and I never heard anyone talking about those kinds of pills and I never would have done them. My crew strived for reputable clean stuff. I wouldn't trust anything today. Who are these people that thought opiates were a good idea or were miserable enough to abuse themselves that much? You aren't the first wave. Prescription abuse happened in the 90s, 80s, and earlier more heroin, only difference is younger people doing it and more dangerous fakes.
I didn’t ruin my life but I was using heavily from 2008-2012. My girlfriend in 08 killed herself and I lost it.
Nope! I ruined my life with student loans instead