by: Debbie Wicker

Dear Valerie,

Heroin addiction is a devastating disease of the brain. It often starts when we take a few pain pills to relieve pain (either physical or mental) and we feel wonderful. Then, our brain begins to change and we need more and more pills to get the same “good” feeling and if we don’t have them we feel awful! This is the beginning of opiate addiction.

Once we start buying pills on the street… we begin running out of money. Then at some point we begin doing something we NEVER thought we would do. We try heroin, and it is the best high we’ve ever had. In a very short time, we’re hooked and all of the sudden heroin is controlling our life.

Help for heroin addiction means that we get ALL of the support necessary to allow us to stop using and to get back to the way we where before we became opiate addicted.

The best thing for us to do, to get the help we need, is to go to a doctor and get support for the withdrawal process. Many addiction doctors will give us Suboxone for a short time to help minimize our very negative withdrawal symptoms.

But medical support during withdrawal is only a small part of what we need to end our dependence on heroin. We need to IMMEDIATELY begin attending AA or NA meetings and working the 12 step program DAILY!

The 12 step meetings give us confidential access to others who have been where we’re at. They can help us learn how to regain our lives and reconnect with our higher-power. The 12 steps teach how to work through the cravings and pain of ending our addiction and replace it with a life welled lived free from heroin dependence.

Good luck, there is hope and you can learn to get free from your addiction if you’re willing to work the steps,

Debbie