Painkillers, Heroin, Addiction, and Overdose

Is it Possible to Find Stable Recovery?

Did you see our recent blog post about injuries and the painkillers prescribed during healing leading to addiction? Did you wonder if it ever really happens this way?

You may be certain that it does. Today, we found yet another article about a young man who got started taking painkillers after sports injuries in high school. In March 2015, he died of a heroin overdose at 23. There are so many of these stories that it becomes clear beyond any possibility of doubt that this is a common path to addiction and even to overdose.

The young man was named Cody Hider and he was from Spencer, Massachusetts. The news article about his death states, “His parents believe Cody’s heroin addiction started shortly before college after he took painkillers for a multitude of sports-related injuries.”

Here are some other stories that were too easy to find:

Joe A. in New York tore a ligament in high school and began taking Vicodin. That led to a heroin addiction that lasted until he was 21 when he finally got the help he needed to get sober.

Graham D. was also a lacrosse player in high school in New Jersey. He injured himself during a game when he was a senior and was given Percocet. He kept taking the pills so he could continue to play. In 2011, he switched over to heroin. He had been injecting heroin for two years when he was arrested along with 89 others in a sweep of heroin users and dealers.

Chris J. and T.were friends and Ohio college football players. Chris, a quarterback, began using OxyContin for a shoulder injury. Tyler needed surgery to repair a shoulder injury after a heavy season of tackling opposing teams. He left the surgery with a prescription for 60 Percocet. Despite both going to rehab, they both began using heroin and died of overdoses in 2011.

RJ H. from Scottsdale, Arizona, started taking painkillers after a sports injury at 16. He found that it took less heroin to produce a high. He overdosed on heroin five times in four months but survived. As of January 2015, he was staying sober by living in a halfway house in Phoenix.

This list could go on. There are too many of these stories. There are also women who become addicted to painkillers and heroin but four times as many males go down this road as women. It is more common for women to begin using pills and heroin with a boyfriend or husband.

But sometimes, you find a story with a happier ending.

Brandon was also a young athlete, a competitive bicyclist. He tore ligaments in a knee in his teens and began taking painkillers. He kept getting injured and kept taking painkillers. He noticed he felt better when he was taking them. He switched to heroin when he was a senior in high school. For the next few years, his entire focus was on getting the drugs he needed to prevent withdrawal. Even going to rehab multiple times didn’t touch his addiction. The day came when he realized he needed to get clean for good. He and his family found the Narconon program on the internet. But even after he arrived, he questioned whether or not he really wanted to get sober. When he heard the other students talking about how much better they felt, he began to think he could succeed too. “I started having a natural happy feeling — I hadn’t felt that in so long,” he said.

As he completed the program, he said that he began to let go of old resentments about events that had happened years before. In fact, he said that he began to grow up on this program. Since he had started using drugs so young, he’d never had a chance to mature.

After he graduated from this program, Brandon said, “I’m glad I did this program. With my experience in rehabs, I don’t think people could find a better place to be.”

News Article: Football could not save Chris Jacquemain and Tyler Campbell from painkiller addiction

News Article: First responders, hospitals on front lines of Arizona’s heroin crisis