The Power of Addiction

Angela had a rocky relationship with her mother, so she spent as much time as she could out of the house with her friends. When she was seventeen, she started skipping school and experimenting with drugs. Her mother didn't realize anything was wrong until she got a call from Angela's school counselor. Angela was failing most of her classes.

Angela's mother confronted her, but she denied that she had a problem. A few weeks later, Angela's mother discovered that there was money and jewelry missing from her room. Again, she tried to talk to her daughter. Angela screamed at her and stormed out of the house. She didn't come back.

Angela moved in with some friends, and she dropped out of school. She had used heroin in the past, and now she developed a full-blown addiction. Heroin became the only thing she cared about. In the winter, an overdose sent her to the emergency room. There, she learned that she was eligible for a residential treatment program in her community. Desperate, Angela decided to try it.

At first, she felt sick and miserable. Staff members were constantly lecturing her and dictating how she had to spend every minute of her time. She initially felt too ashamed to talk about her experiences, but she slowly opened up to the other recovering teens in the program. Angela began thinking about the future again. Her advocate at the program helped her to find an apartment and a job, and she continued outpatient treatment while attending night classes. A year later, Angela was still free of heroin.

Many new heroin users think that they can manage their heroin use without becoming addicted to the drug. They will use it only every so often, maybe on weekends or at parties. They don't realize that a pattern of heroin use typically increases as the body develops a tolerance to heroin. This means that the user requires bigger doses of the drug to achieve the desired effect. Eventually, regular drug use becomes a more and more important part of the user's life. As the user starts taking heroin with increasing frequency, eventually he or she will begin to crave more of the drug as soon as a dose begins to wear off. Instead of being a source of pleasure, the drug becomes a necessity to stave off the pains of heroin withdrawal.