I mean, if you took someone who was severely addicted to heroin and threw them in to solitary confinement for, say, 180 days. I am talking about those people that can’t go 2-3 days without a “hit”. What would happen to them? Would they be cured after 180 days of solitary? Would they go mad during their time? Would they not be able to survive?
Well, from what I’ve read, withdrawal is like an extremely bad case of the flu, coupled with anxiety/panic attacks. So, it’s possible that the person could become dangerously dehydrated or have heart problems during the course of withdrawal.
After the time you propose, they would probably be past the physical need for the drug, but addiction also involves learning to deal with triggers that cause psychological craving, too. That’s why people often stay in NA or AA programs for many years, if not their entire lives.
Curing somebody of the physical addiction doesn’t address the reason why they “needed” the escape (or release) from reality in the first place. Your proposal, if acted upon, would only make the addict even more annoyed by reality.
Heck, if you locked me up in solitary for 180 days, who knows what I’d do after I got out?
MadHatter, anyone as severely addicted as you propose would not be able to go more than 6 hours or so without a fix. Even with such a severe addiction, 180 days of isolation is not necessary. The physical need will be gone within 4-7 days, but, as the others have mentioned, the mental dependency will still exist. This is the aspect that must be addressed, or else any physical detoxification will be a waste of time.
I have known many addicts of heroin and crack. In each case, they themselves had to come to the realization that they have hit the absolute rock bottom point of their lives, and must want to do something about. And those are the people that didn’t die first. In one case, the only reason the person straightened up was because he fell and broke his hip, and had no choice but to be confined long enough for the physical addiction to wane, and to think long and hard about his life.
As far as your inquiry about what a heroin addict would experience if you confined them, it would be many different things. Profuse sweating, tremors, a lot of vomiting, varying degrees of hallucination, episodes of paranoia, very angry and venomous outbursts directed at you the oppressor, and violent behavior in an attempt to get free. This person would obviously need to be in a room free from any dangerous items, and would need to be kept hydrated and supervised at all times. Don’t even bother offering food the first few days. After all of this, they will likely be free of physical addiction within a week, assumimg they aren’t suffering from any of the other possible problems related to IV heroin use - AIDS, hepatitis, tetanus, or anything caused by common heroin adulterants such as strychnine, arsenic, etc.
However, the person at this point must want to get straight, or else they’ll be right back on the street copping again. A methadone treatment program combined with psychiatric counseling would be the better way to go.
Having worked with exoffenders for 20+ years, have known many heroin addicts. Plus have friends who work in Substance Abuse treatment.
Some one coming off of a heroin addiction needs medical services. Yes, some of the symptoms may be flu like in nature, however, there are some very real physical risks for getting straight without medical assistance. that’s why a hospital setting is often used.
That’s for the physical addiction, which, I agree is pretty much done after about 7 days. However. the rest of the addiction package would be waiting for them at the end of your proposed 180 days. Frankly if your idea worked, the junkies I worked with would have been “done” with heroin after their prison sentence (yea, I know, they can still get drugs in prison, but it’s much more expensive and there’s fewer ways to make illegal $$ there, so many of them had been clean for a significant period of time).
Heroin users very often have multiple addictions and so the withdrawal effects might not be completely predictable.
Unless they chose to kick it then it would be a waste of time and resources.
Some jails in the UK have detox centres where access is very carefully controlled.It is an 8 week course which attempts to address not just the physical aspects but also the psychological ones.Unfortunately there are not enough places available and users are transferred straight back to the jails from whence they come - right into an environment where drugs are available, even if they are usually of far lower quality.
One problem that I have heard quite often is that of shattered sleep patterns, so you find that when undergoing total withdrawal an addict will often smoke cannabis to ease the pain and take sleeping tablets to try and restore some order.There is often a lot of physical pain around the joints, by their descriptions it sounds similar in feeling to bad arthritis.
Many of them have undergone methodone treatment and failed, they often claim that this is as addictive as heroin.
The mind and body are only part of the story as support for spouses and close relatives is vital.Often these people think that supporting a user consists of scoldings and demeaning the addict (bear in mind the social classes and education levels likely to be involved)
I sometimes have a pang of sympathy for them-until I read their records and see the range of offences they have carried out in order to feed their habit, or their even worse offences they do when high on drugs.
In this movie, Leo DiCaprio (as John Carroll) has a pretty good scene where he is locked up by his friend Reggie (Ernie Hudson) as he goes through withdrawl. Not a fun way to spend a Saturday…
Another good example would be Transpotting. At least from what the previous threads said. There was a scene where Ewin MacGregor, playing a heroin junkie, gets locked in his room by his family.