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.

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, we haven't been able to identify why some people get addicted and others do not. The prevalence in the UK is 6.2 persons per 10k person-years exposed, so that's significant, but it isn't everyone. I've talked about this in other contexts before.

I have personal experience with these drugs since 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.