About this blog

This blog has in mind help everyone who wants to detox virtually of any kind of addictive drug. There are several kind of drugs often divided into three categories, stimulants, depressants and hallucinogenic. Some of them don’t require any special detox procedure being a mental craving only and is particularly easy to deal with. However, there are cravings and cravings. Cocaine for example, does not cause physical symptoms after  stopping, however the mental cravings can sometimes be very painful in the mind.
Others, aren’t that forgiving. Some of these like opiates, after abrupt cessation comes with withdrawal syndrome, which is the body physical reaction when the drug intake is stopped or reduced abruptly.
In this blog I will try to cover most of the recreational drugs and try to help the user to stop using in the most confortable way possible and give some tips for the rocky road of abstinence that lies ahead (I use the term “rocky” because detoxing the drug is just the first step, some users say that stopping is the easiest part, keeping from using is sometimes more difficult than the detox itself.
I’ll be using a optimistic language and encouraging a healthy life style. Since I’m in favour of harm reduction, I will also include some tips to avoid an unhealthy life style.
Understanding addiction
There are two types of addiction. Mental and physical (dependence). Most recreational drugs are mostly mental. Like weed, stimulants (like cocaine), LSD (which is a hallucinogenic), magic mushrooms, etc… These kind of drugs are particularly forgiving because do not cause almost no physical symptoms after stopping. Other drugs can cause a physical dependence, like opiates (codeine, morphine, heroin, fentanyl, opium itself, etc..), these kind are not that forgiving. There is a difference between addiction and dependence. A person who suffered some sort of trauma and requires medication to help with pain (oxycodone, morphine, vicodin, codeine, etc..) may be physically dependent, however, may not be addicted to the drug.
Addiction is when a user requires a every day or several times a day, intake of the drug , resulting in a change of behaviour that is called “drug seeking”. This behaviour takes most control of the user, literally making him think mostly of how to get the drug. A person who is addicted to a drug, is likely to change his/hers priorities in order to put the drug seeking / administration in first place. This has many reasons, but mostly in order to feel normal or good (in case of physical tolerance / dependence) or just to experience the effects that the drug has given them. This is not restricted to opiates, but also to nicotine and alcohol for example.
Understanding physical dependence
Physical dependence happens when a drug is administrated for an amount of time with a repeated use, that causes the brain and body to adapt the drug presence.   This happens mostly with opiates and benzodiazepines, but also with alcohol and nicotine. Without the presence of the drug, the body will go through withdrawal with manifestation of several symptoms. In other words, it’s hard to continue normal day tasks without the influence of the drug.
Understanding tolerance
When the brain adapts to the presence of a drug, more amounts of the same drug or the same substance is required to have the same effect on brain and body. Examples of drugs that cause dependence are opiates, alcohol and benzodiazepines. The adaptation of the brain to the presence of a drug, makes the brain to create more receptors to that same drug, so the previous drug amounts no longer are able to act the same way.  For example, in opiates, the  receptors responsible are mu µ, delta δ, kappa (k), and nociceptin NOP/OP4, different receptors for different effects. The drug acts upon these receptors causing a deregulation of these receptors.
There are several reasons for a person to get addicted on drugs, some of them are genetic, some start with pleasure seeking, others causes can start with hiding a pain, physical or motional (self administrating). Everyone can be addicted to any drug, no one is weaker or stronger in this matter. Some people are lucky that never tried anything and are happy this way (God bless you), others are not so lucky (but does not mean they aren’t happy) and every addict never started a drug use with the idea in mind of getting addicted, this is a later collateral effect. Even though it’s a choice, no one is weaker.

- - How do you become a junkie? Can't they just use it recreational ? 

"Why can't junkies control themselfs? Can I do opiates on weekends only?"

There are a very small number of people who can, so it's possible, but you almost certainly cannot. 

Do you think people wake up one day and say "I wish I was addicted to heroin," or "man, I want to be a homeless junkie on the street?" No, of course they don't. 

They go to a party, or they hang out with a friend, who looks like they feel really, really, really good when they do heroin, and is willing to share. They try it one time "just to see," and, what a huge surprise, they find out that it feels really, really, really good.

Then they tell themselves that this is a great way to unwind on the weekend, or a special occasion. It feels great, and it's a completely controllable way to kick back. Their friend isn't a homeless junkie. The other people they know who do it seem fine. In fact they all seem like cool, creative, romantic people who are fun to hang out with. And that one girl is hot. Clearly The Man is lying about heroin or, at the very least, this group of people is above all that "junkie" stuff.

(aside: this is how drug education is completely broken in every country. We tell people that all drugs are terrible, and will lead to a broken down shell of a life. People drink some beer, and smoke some pot, and do some mushrooms, and everything is, of course, just fine. Then they completely discount any warnings about hard drugs.)

So now our hero is doing heroin on the weekends, but then there's a weeknight with a party. Then there's another one. Then there's a really bad day at work or school, and a little bump makes it feel better. Then there's a morning when it's hard to get going and there's an unpleasant task to do during the day, and a little something helps to get going. 

Next thing you know the friends aren't so creative and romantic and clever. Now there's a bunch of drama in the group, all of it revolving around sex and drugs. Now there is big talk, and big plans, and big dreams, but mostly there's a lot of buying heroin. There's a lot of long days spent lounging around dreaming about things that will never happen and feeling self-satisfied and high.

Then the job is lost. Then the rent doesn't get paid. Then the valuables get pawned. Then the food goes bad. Then the dealer offers to front you a bag if you put up your tv. You almost pay him back in time but don't quite manage to dig up enough for that AND another bag, so you let the tv go. 

Next thing you know you're fucked and it's all because you thought that you, unlike the thousands and millions of people who came before you, were a special little snowflake and couldn't possibly be a junkie like all those gross, scabby people on Cops. And because when you try it you find that it feels so, so, so good. Better than you could have imagined, and probably better than you can ignore.

This story would be ridiculously funny in its utter predictability if it wasn't so absurdly tragic, and if I didn't have so many friends overdosed, shot, stabbed, imprisoned, and otherwise completely dealt out of life because they thought they could be casual heroin (or coke, or speed) users.
-----