Of course, there is some controversy about this. There are supposed studies that show that many more people are “social users” of opiates (not shooting up heroin, but taking pills) than are opiate addicts. I say supposed because I don’t really trust them, and I suspect that if one is genetically predisposed to become addicted to opiates, “social use” is not really possible. But that’s one of the topics I’m exploring for the book.
My pleasure, we learn from others, hopefully. There is a statement that Dr. Phil says that I believe emphatically. Monsters live in the dark. As long as we as a society are afraid to talk about things like drug addiction, abuse, mental illness, etc, we as a society can not improve as well as if we could.
I hope this thread has opened many peoples eyes to what goes on in the world around them. I am wiser for it and for many, many other posts on this board. I probably would have been aware of my husbands addiction or the possibility if I had known that a guy I worked with who behaviorally, very much resembled my husband, was on methadone. Looking back, there were too many similarities. For a good reason.
I’m pretty open about my life on here and in general. There is very little I’m too embarrassed to discuss, although a few people (autolycus cough) have pushed the edge a bit far.
Here are some tips. The nice lady you work with, who loves to play bingo, may very well be blowing her grocery money on it, or pinching it from the family budget. The out of work husband may be spending all his time searching for drugs instead of jobs (that don’t require drug tests). That friendly neighborhood guy that all the kids hang out at his house? Yeah, he’s a molester. That amazing hardworking family guy that sacrifices everything for his kids? He’s a convicted felon. That doctor with a wonderful bedside manner? Is a raging alcoholic. That lady that is a little too strong, little too loud? Yeah, she fought to be seen and not fucked when she was too young to tie her own shoes.
Ask me how I know. I know them all. I also know that in my desperation to save my husbands life, I would have gladly put his name and face on the front page of every newspaper in the country if it would have helped. I didn’t think for an instant I should “hide it under a bush.”