by Wayne Clist

Created on: June 18, 2009   Last Updated: June 23, 2009

Addiction itself takes many forms although the most commonly associated with the word itself is substance or drug addiction. Sex addicts, obsessive behaviours, cigarettes, food, coffee, the list goes on and on but the one most freely associated with the word addict is drug and more commonly heroin abuse.

Heroin addiction is terrible to see. To watch someone turn from a normal productive member of society into a barely recognisable, amoral and self destructive puppet is horrendous. For many family members and close friends, it can simply be too much. Heroin is one of the only drugs that causes proper physical addiction and consequently withdrawal symptoms when the body is lacking the drug. In simple, layman's terms, heroin works by attaching itself to chemical receptor cells in the brain and indeed it fits them like a key. Artificial infusion via smoking or injecting the drug means that after a short while, the body no longer produces the chemical naturally. If the drug isn't supplied artificially, this then leads to withdrawal as the body tries to reproduce the missing chemical.

Withdrawal is horrific. Addicts lose control of their bodily functions and whilst bouts of sweating profusely as well as being freezing cold are constant, joint pain, muscle spasms, vomiting and loss of bowel function are common. In the most severe cases of withdrawal hospitalization can occur. Throughout, this is a constant driving need for the drug. Heroin addicts, as you can imagine, will do almost anything to stave away withdrawal, therefore, through fear, prolonging the addiction.

Recovery has various stages. All of them the addict in some way will go through. Most heroin addicts want to stop taking the drug, after a while it simply isn't enjoyable, it becomes a chore and something that needs to be done to remain relatively stable rather than getting high. So, the very first stage is contemplation - this is where the heroin addict will feel that maybe they should be doing something about the problem, usually coinciding with hitting rock bottom, maybe a prison sentence, the death of someone close; there can be any number of reasons.

This brings us onto stage two - admittal of a problem. Many addicts will deny that they have a problem for years, they will see themselves as part time users maybe, social users, medicinal users even. Anything to not actually have to admit that they are addicted to heroin. The admittal stage is a revelation - this is the stage when the addict will

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