What Heroin Addiction Tells Us About Changing Bad Habits
Heroin addiction is a difficult subject for me for personal reasons...in fact, I am currently on state probation for possession of it in 4 years ago.<p>I become addicted to numb the pain of my mother's passing and my 13 year marriage ending, although there is, of course, no excuse.<p>It started with prescribed Oxycontin and progressed from there. "Why buy overpriced synthetic molecules designed not to really get you high when you can get the natural ones cheaper and feel better?" I can still remember my engineering-mind thinking.<p>I have been off it now for about 3 years after getting clean, literally, on a cell floor in a county jail...cold turkey...the first time I ever successfully kicked it. After that, I checked myself into a South Florida inpatient rehab (called the Hanley Center...please, do yourself a favor and give them a call if you need help), and with the help of some amazing people, got better.<p>I'm convinced the only reason I finally kicked was simply because there was no other option; jails have pretty much no supply of heroin.  To this day I thank the stars for that county jail...it saved my life.<p>The best way to summarize the experience was with a "joke" (it was no joke BTW) I came up with to try to explain how I felt near the end...<p><i>What's the best thing about heroin?</i> After you do it, you don't feel anything.<p><i>What's the worse thing about heroin?</i> After you do it, you don't feel anything.