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Social Worker Gives Incredible Description Of How You Become Addicted To Heroin

Social Worker Gives Incredible Description Of How You Become Addicted To Heroin

If you've ever wondered why it's so addictive then you have to read this!

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Heroin is a fucking awful drug. You just need to look at any public health campaign showing before and after image of people who become addicted to it to see the horrific affects it can have.

Not only does it fuck up your insides, but it turns your brain to mush and makes it incredibly difficult to get clean.

Social worker Sarah Boumphrey has given a very honest and detailed description of how the drug works and why it's so hard to quit.

Sarah has seen the brutal reality of how heroin affects people in different ways. Her friend posted her account on Reddit.

"I've held weeping parents on the day they permanently lost custody of their children due to their inability to get clean, and I've held weeping children on the anniversary of their parent's heroin death.

Russel Brand has frequently spoken up about the harmful effects of the drug. Credit: PA Images

"I've read the results of random drug tests which, based on the heroin metabolite present, indicated that the parent tested had used heroin within 6 to 25 minutes of coming to visit their children at a supervised children's services visit."

You might see an addict on the street and think to yourself, 'why can't you just stop using and get clean'?

Well it's nowhere near as easy as that sounds, and here's why.

You get emotions from a variety of chemicals or neurotransmitters and how they interact with receptors they bind to in your nervous system. That happy feeling when you score a goal, get a promotion, get married or have sex is a result of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.

Sarah says: "During those happy moments, a certain number of dopamine and opioid receptors are unlocked, but not all of them.

"Imagine what you would feel like if 10 times the receptors were unlocked during those moments. It would be intense, right? Well, heroin unlocks about ten times the dopamine you would feel naturally."

Credit: PA Images

Heroin will force open your happy hormone receptors by breaking down into two chemicals called morphine and 6MAM (6-Monoacetylmorphine). When your body tries to say you've had enough happiness, these two chemicals tell your brain to fuck off and you keep pumping out the good vibes.

Unfortunately - if you pump out too much dopamine then your brain stem gets so overloaded and you forget to breath, which is what happens when you overdose.

The problem with heroin, and most drugs, is that through repeated use, your body fails to respond to the chemicals. You end up needing more and more to get the same high. Sarah says this is when things can get particularly bad.

"if you stop using heroin, your dopamine and opioid receptors will still be worn down and unable to respond adequately to normal levels of dopamine for a long, long time. In other words, you will be incapable of feeling genuinely happy for a long, long time. It may be years before your receptors and natural brain chemicals can interact normally."

It's not like a bad hangover, which lasts for two days and makes you feel mildly sick and tired, this sort of feeling can last for years.

Heroin packages seized by authorities. Credit: PA Images

Sarah also points out that heroin attracts people who have a lot of stress in their lives such as struggling to pay bills, an abusive partner or problems at work.

"Then someone tells you they have something that will make you feel really good. You haven't felt good in ages. You don't even remember what it feels like. And they're right, you will feel good for a while.

"For someone who's had very little happiness in his or her life, or has lost the ability to feel happiness naturally for whatever reason, this feels transformative, and you never want to go back to life as it was, because life was terrible. And, because of the hideous effects of tolerance, withdrawal, and brain changes, you may not be physiologically CAPABLE of stopping."

It's a harrowing description of how one of the most addictive drugs on the planet can take hold inside someone's brain.

A former addict posted photos to Facebook to reveal the dramatic transformation she went through after quitting heroin, meth and pain medication.

Dejah Hall, had been addicted to the drug since she was 17, but stopped after chatting with her dying granddad. Here are the results:

addict
addict

Before. Credit: Facebook/Dejah Hall

addict
addict

After. Credit: Facebook/Dejah Hall

She said: "The top left is me in full blown addiction, I was a terrible iv user and like most, progressively got worse."

Speaking to the Daily Mail, she elaborated: "I was partying with a friend and I took a pill for the first time and due to stress and issues at home it just went downhill from there.

"I was taking up to six prescription pills at a time every single day before I reached a point at 20 years old where I wanted to get off them."

Escalating with her drug use, she was initially attending a methadone clinic but missed a few days after the death of a friend's mother, which meant she was thrown out and failed when trying to go cold turkey.

By the end of 2012, she was on meth and heroin, but it was visiting her dying grandfather that gave her the proverbial kick up the backside.

"He sat there in his wheelchair and he told me that I was hurting him", she said.

addict
addict

Credit: Facebook/Dejah Hall

"I was just disgusted with the person I was and I broke down. I prayed and told God 'look I don't know if you're real but I really need you to save me right now'."

She is now on her way to becoming a minister and says she is in a great place in her life.

"I don't crave those drugs anymore. I don't hang with those people anymore - people on those drugs don't care. You don't care who you hurt."

If you are struggling with addiction in the UK, you can always talk to FRANK.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Heroin

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