Jessica Ravitz takes a compelling look into the problem of opioid addiction. Does the problem live up to the stereotype or is there a very different story?
“They’re not slumped over in alleyways with used needles by their sides. Their dignity, at least from outside appearances, remains intact. They haven’t lost everything while chasing an insatiable high.
They are functioning heroin addicts — people who hold down jobs, pay the bills and fool their families.
For some, addiction is genetic; they’re wired this way. For others, chronic pain and lack of legal opioids landed them here. Or experimentation got them hooked and changed everything.
What addicts have in common, according to experts, is a disease that has more to do with their brains than the substances they use. About 85% of people can take a pain pill, for example, and never crave it again.
This is a story about the others, those traveling the dangerous road…”
Read the original story here: https://www.cnn.com/
2018/02/27/health/functioning-heroin-addicts
/index.html