Editing Blog/2024-08-20/Addiction

Addiction is a strange thing. People talk about addictive things like they're an immutable property of the world. Cigarettes are addictive. Opioids are addictive. But clearly this cannot be that simple.

[https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/opioid-use-disorder#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20American%20Medical,develop%20an%20addiction%20to%20them.&text=People%20misusing%20opioids%20may%20try,it%20is%20more%20easily%20available. The percentage of people who use opioids and just give them up without getting addicted is somewhere between 81% and 97%] according to a source that I couldn't trace down. And ,in fact, [https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/opioid-use-disorder we haven't been able to identify why some people get addicted and others do not]. The [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40122-017-0070-9 prevalence in the UK is 6.2 persons per 10k person-years exposed], so that's significant, but it isn't everyone.

I have personal experience with these drugs since [[Motorcycle Accident|I was in a motorcycle accident]] that left me gravely injured. In the hospital, I was given hydromorphone under the brand name Dilaudid most of the time since I was in terrific pain. While my hand was being operated on, I was given fentanyl. When I was out of the ICU and back home, I was given oxycodone to take home for a month or so. I took it till it was almost done, switching to ibuprofen gradually.

These drugs are incredible, and I am glad they exist since they relieved the pain in a very quick fashion. I also had a slight sense of euphoria and mania. Overall, since I was bedridden this didn't lead to anything.

I also recall when I was younger that I picked up smoking for a bit because my girlfriend at the time was a smoker. Despite smoking for quite a bit, one day I just quit. And with the opioids, I just quit.

These things are supposedly the most addictive things that we've made and yet they are not certain doom since I obviously just quit them despite living in a city where I could go down to the street corner and pick them up.

Normally, I'd consider myself some sort of superhuman for this, but I'm just part of the 81% to 97% here. it's literally normal to not be addicted.

This isn't true for everything, though. I have my own vices. I cannot give up sweet stuff and fried chicken. Or rather, I did once in the past, but I relapse like every drug addict. Many years ago, I even kept some ice cream in the fridge as a challenge to myself. I would often open the fridge to look at it and actively choose to not eat it.

But now, now I am a slave to this stuff. And I feel the cravings rise and dominate. I ''must'' eat fruit. I ''must'' eat sweets. I ''must'' serve this merciless emperor.

We'll see if I ever conquer him.