Kooshdakhaa
Gold Member
Taking opiates daily for any significant amount of time will cause a physical dependence.
"Addiction" is more of a mental thing than a physical thing, and not really possible to diagnose over the internet.
Actually..................addiction is more of a physical response than it is a mental one.
Ever hear of the DT's? Its a physical response that alcoholics have when they are no longer allowed to drink. Not only can it make them very ill, but it can also cause death, which is why sometimes alcoholics are allowed to be weaned off it.
Never heard of a mental addiction (like shopping, gambling or co-dependency) ever causing someone to almost die.
Crack cocaine has no physical withdrawal symptoms, yet there's no doubt it's an "addiction".
I'm very familiar with the DTs, as well as other forms of physical withdrawal - I spent 2 or 3 years as a certified addictions counselor at an in-patient detox facility - but that physical withdrawal exists in addition to the mental addiction.
The physical detox part of getting clean is the easiest part.
Yeah, it's just like quitting cigarettes. Everyone seems to be pushing nicotine gum and nictotine patches, but actually the nicotine addiction is the easiest part to kick. There are three hooks in addiction to cigarettes...the nicotine addiction, the habit and the psychological addiction. The actual habit and the psychological addiction are by far the hardest to overcome.
It may be pretty much the same for all addictions.
That's also why I quit smoking without nicotine patches or gum. And I'm very glad I did because I know people who quit smoking years ago but they're still chewing on that nicotine gum. : ( Silly.