Dangers of “SpeedBalling” Heroin and Cocaine – And Other Drugs

July 7, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Cocaine / Disease of Addiction / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Epidemic / SpeedBalling / Withdrawal Symptoms

“SpeedBalling” is a term that may be familiar to many drug addicts, especially those who experimented with multiple drugs. And while the term itself may sound like something out of a sports or video game like baseball or even bowling, it actually refers to mixing one drug with another or piggybacking them – typically a depressant and a stimulant. One of the most popular combinations is heroin and cocaine. Many heroin addicts have tried combining cocaine with heroin to get the stimulating “happy” and ecstatic feelings of euphoria associated with cocaine combined with the warming, relaxing feelings of heroin. Traditional SpeedBalling refers to injecting both cocaine and heroin at once but now also refers to snorting them together. And while the ultimate automatic effect is a pleasurable feeling of euphoria with heroin actually making the quick “crash” of cocaine and craving for more easier to bare, the synergistic effect of using both drugs together can also create more …

Codependent Relationships and Drug Addiction, “I’d Die For You”

May 1, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Best Treatment Centers Nationwide / Call to Action / codependency / Depression / Disease of Addiction / Drug Rehab / Enabling an Addict / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Treatment Options / Recommendation / Withdrawal Symptoms

What does it mean to be “codependent” and does it exist in the world of active drug addiction and alcoholism? It’s no secret that many drug and/or heroin addicts don’t like to use alone. In fact, 80% of drug addicts use with a friend or someone they at least consider one. But what happens when an addict/alcoholic gets into a romantic relationship with another addict/alcoholic? These relationships are downright toxic and can become deadly real fast.

It’s a known fact that people are drawn to others they can identify with. Getting involved in a relationship with another individual that uses and is addicted to heroin or other drugs typically creates feelings of identity and significantly reduces feelings of loneliness. They say that misery loves company and this is clearly no different. This “trap” is enticing and alluring because an addicted individual no longer has to feel alone.

Addicted couples share the mutual …

What It’s Like To Be Addicted – A Poem by Chanda Lynn

March 21, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Best Treatment Centers Nationwide / Depression / Disease of Addiction / Drug Rehab / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Treatment Options / Poetry / Recommendation / Signs & Symptoms / Understanding Addiction / Withdrawal Symptoms

Below, Chanda Lynn, Editor of Heroin News and writer/blogger for Kill The Heroin Epidemic Nationwide shares one of her popular poems with this online recovery community.

What It’s Like To be Addicted

It’s like blissfully driving 100 mph but you’re about to hit a tree,

It’s like being imprisoned by the very thing that sets you free,

It’s like trying to fix your problems by creating another one,

It’s like laying naked in a fire pit, thinking you’re basking in the sun.

It’s like being so desperate to escape, but repeating the same cycle,

Only to end up in the same place where you started, spent and tired

It’s like trying to lift an anchor, when you’re miles deep underwater,

It’s like trying to kill a 10 foot gargoyle, with only a flyswatter.

It’s like being a slave to the northern star in the sky,

It’s like being chained to the very wings that give you flight

It’s like spinning around in …

In Memory of Steven Carter – Taken Suddenly by Heroin Addiction

February 27, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Best Treatment Centers Nationwide / Call to Action / Disease of Addiction / Drug Rehab / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Treatment Options / Memorials / Naloxone / Narcan / News / Overdose / Recommendation / Understanding Addiction / Withdrawal Symptoms

This is Steven A. Carter. He would have been 22 years old if he were still with us. There are many tragic stories like his, that so desperately need to be shared in order to understand how to better treat addiction and save lives. Sadly, Steven lost his life to a heroin overdose in 2014. But nobody wants to be remembered for their disease or how they died. Instead, their lives should be celebrated and the person they were in their prime should be remembered and cherished. In this article, Chanda Lynn shares her memory of Steven Carter after interviewing his mother, Sharon. Below is Steven Carter’s story.

Steven loved fitness and going to Virginia Beach on vacation with his family. I remember playing football with him, he was always so athletic and bright. He also happened to run much faster than I ever could. He attended Jamestown Community College doing …

What is Kratom? Can it Help Ease Heroin/Opiate Withdrawals?

February 24, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Best Treatment Centers Nationwide / Disease of Addiction / Drug Rehab / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Epidemic / Heroin Treatment Options / Kratom / Medicine Assisted Treatment (MAT) / Methadone / Nutrition and Diet / Products / Recommendation / Suboxone / Withdrawal Symptoms

Kratom is a highly controversial non-regulated drug that is used for anything from making tea to treating chronic pain. It’s even suggested that it may help and alleviate heroin/opioid withdrawal. But does it really work? Why hasn’t it been approved by the FDA? And why is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) trying to make it illegal in the United States?

What is Kratom?

Kratom is a tree originating from Southeast Asia. It has been used for years for relieving chronic pain, anxiety and as a form of expression from natives of Southeast Asia. It’s leaves can even be chewed or dried, ground and made into a tea. Many people use Kratom in place of their pain medications, anxiety medications and anti-depressants. Kratom contains active alkaloids, like mitragynine which is an opioid agonist that has an affinity for the opioid receptors in the brain – though Kratom itself is not an opioid.

Kratom is part …

Endocarditis – The Silent Killer of Intravenous Heroin Users

February 18, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Best Treatment Centers Nationwide / Drug Rehab / Family & Friends of Heroin Addicts / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Epidemic / Heroin Treatment Options / Protecting Our Children / Recommendation / Signs & Symptoms / Understanding Addiction / Withdrawal Symptoms

When many heroin users and addicts use heroin intravenously, we might think of the common diseases that can be contracted . This includes Hepatitis C and HIV. But have you ever heard of contracting Endocarditis from using heroin intravenously? It can be deadly, and there’s a catch – a heroin addict doesn’t even need to share needles to contract this disease. Moreover, an intravenous heroin user can also contract it from using a brand new needle. So what is endocarditis and why is it so dangerous?

Why is Endocarditis So Dangerous?

Endocarditis is the inflammation of the hearts inner lining caused by bacteria. For instance, if you are reusing the same needle, there is bacteria that grows on the needle. Once the contaminated needle enters a vein, the bacteria goes right into the bloodstream and makes its way to the heart. Another way people contract endocarditis is from bacteria on the skin. Even if you are using a clean …

From Heroin Addiction Hell to Victory in Sobriety: 14 Months Clean and Sober

January 27, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Best Treatment Centers Nationwide / Drug Rehab / Family & Friends of Heroin Addicts / Harm Reduction / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Treatment Options / Medicine Assisted Treatment (MAT) / Methadone / Opioid Addiction / Percocet / Recommendation / Recovery Stories / Understanding Addiction / Withdrawal Symptoms

I didn’t grow up wanting to become a heroin addict. In fact, I was always so against drugs and alcohol. Frankly, they scared me. I still recall and remember the videos from my years in elementary school quite vividly. Screeching tires, horrible car accidents, suspenseful music as scary looking individuals put needles in their arm until their eyes rolled back into their skulls. I remember vowing never to drink or engage in using any drug, let alone heroin.

So why, 30 years later, did I decide to put the dollar bill in my nose and sniff tiny white grains of poison into my bloodstream and brain? Why after decades of standing steadfast against drugs and alcohol did I make a decision that led to the devastating and deadly disease of heroin addiction?

This blog is my personal testimony and story of how I went from an all-star athlete to a heroin user and then from a …

Handing Out Opioid Painkillers Like Candy: How Doctors Create Heroin Addicts

January 18, 2017

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Disease of Addiction / Drug Rehab / Enabling an Addict / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Treatment Options / Recommendation / Withdrawal Symptoms

Many recovering drug, opioid and heroin addicts have started off by using pain medication for some type of injury or surgery etc. which unfortunately led to using heroin and becoming an addict. Many medical doctors lack a real understanding or knowledge of addiction (or they don’t care) and as a result, they irresponsibly prescribe opioid painkillers, even when it’s not necessary. Almost literally, prescription opioid painkillers are being handed out like candy. So why do victims of an injury, surgery or trauma continue using opioids or turn to heroin long after their prescription runs out? Are doctors responsible for creating heroin addicts? And how does a recovering heroin addict deal with serious pain without opiate painkillers?

How Patients on Painkillers Become Opioid and/or Heroin Addicts

In many cases, in particular when a patient prescribed opiates by their doctor possesses a genetic predisposition to the disease of addiction, they become addicted. These patients enjoy the feeling …

Can You Spot a Heroin Addict? Busting Stigma & Stereotypes

December 20, 2016

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Addiction Treatment Center / Addiction Treatment Centers / Addiction Vs. Dependency / Call to Action / Disease of Addiction / Drug Rehab / Family & Friends of Heroin Addicts / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Epidemic / Heroin Treatment Options / NAATC / News / Recommendation / Stigma / What to Expect / Withdrawal Symptoms

I know what you are thinking. Spotting a heroin addict is easy right? You are probably thinking of a poor, skinny, dirty, unhealthy and gangly looking individual who roams the streets of the worst parts of town(s) closest to home, right? And for those with no experience in seeing this, you might decide to Google “heroin addict” to see what comes up. Yup, Google pretty much supports the description of a “heroin addict” that I proposed above. So this must be what a heroin addict looks like right?

Gee thanks Google, I feel very educated now. All you’ve done is support the stereotype and stigma associated with drug addiction and what a heroin addict looks like. My personal favorite is image number 6, showing a girl with an wickedly evil grin holding a syringe as if to say “yeah that’s right bitch, I’m gonna shoot this needle into me and there’s …

I Was a Heroin-Addicted Mom – Cosmopolitan Interviews Crystal Oertle on Podcast

December 8, 2016

Category:Addiction & Recovery General / Call to Action / Celebrities / Family & Friends of Heroin Addicts / Heroin Addiction / Heroin Epidemic / Heroin Treatment Options / Medicine Assisted Treatment (MAT) / News / Politics / Protecting Our Children / Recovery Stories / Suboxone / Withdrawal Symptoms

What was the worst moment or time period of your life? I bet a number of memories are floating by as you try to pinpoint just one. Well if you’ve ever been addicted to heroin, your darkest hour could include withdrawal, being pregnant while using drugs, the day you lost the love of your life, losing a place to live, etc. Crystal Oertle, who is now the Assistant Publisher of Kill the Heroin Epidemic Nationwide and the Founder/Owner of Erase the Shame is no stranger to pain and misfortune.

Recently, Crystal opens up to Cosmopolitan and shares some of her darkest memories and how she’s transformed from a heroin-addicted mom to a powerful public speaker and recovery advocate. You can also read her addiction and recovery story by visiting “Crystal’s Story of Addiction, Recovery and No Shame”

Crystal Oertle Podcast Featured on Cosmo’s Happy Hour

Crystal Oertle was recently featured …

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