Thank you for sharing - this is so interesting. I’ve never touched heroin but my partner smoked it a couple of times when he was a teenager - him and his friends nodded off pretty soon and left a pizza to cremate in the oven for hours! I understand that drugs affect people differently though and that tolerance can help you be high functioning on drugs that wipe the floor with more inexperienced users.
Sorry to be a bit obtuse but by ‘PG’ do you mean Paula Yates (as in Paula Geldof)? I didn’t realise her and Bob were co-parenting at that level at that stage. She looks so vacant in photos after Michael died that I can just imagine how she was when you saw her.
I first smoked it, me and my mates at uni while we were studying our BA; and it made us sick and it did make us nod off. It was quite a socialable occasion in a fucked up way, if you can imagine that? The whole process of sharing the foil, taking our time doing it and what not. But the taste was minging, and it made us all sick as fuck. But that was short lived and after smoking it a few times we just stopped and it was not until a few years later i went back to it (following me becoming dependant on prescribed opiates).
But i realised in my previous post, i didnt really answer the question about how it actually feels. So i will try and explain how it felt to me (and it is nothing like what John travolta said in his prep for Pulp Fiction- get drunk on tequilla and take a hot bath).
So when you smoke, you dont get the initial hit, it slowly creeps up on you, and you still feel it but you dont get that first hit that many people enjoy.
When injected, you feel the most amazing rush- you can literally feel it moving up your arm, into your mouth- i always got a taste in my mouth and then bang, that initial hit is like an orgasm. I cant lie about that, i mean there is a reason why its addictive! If it felt horrible people wouldnt do it. Sometimes my voice turned a bit funny, but generally it gave me a bit of energy- i just to describe it as a "little pick me up" and i really did think i was more productive on it. It also made me itchy! My back would need scratching, i never picked at my face although some people do. I think that is common for all opiates and its due to the histamine in them (i dont know the ins and outs of histamines tho).
When you add crack cocaine into it- i either smoked crack on a pipe which is like cocaine but stronger and hits quicker but doesnt last as long. Or you mix it with the heroin and inject it together; now that takes it to a whole new level and i loved it. And crack cocaine is an "upper" while heroin is a downer so mixed together is a very attractive combination for users.
As i said, i have never fit the typical stereotype of an "addict", i never had to do anything desperate or illegal to obtain money, on the outside i seem like a normal working class/middle class professional, and i kept myself to myself. I also never used other drugs such as pregabalin or valium (here a lot of seasoned users have died over the past year and the one thing they all have in common is they used pregabalin alongside heroin and crack to increase the feelings). I also never spent hundreds of pounds each day, in comparison to other users i probably took a very small amount- just enough to make me feel energised but not enough to cause me to nod off straight away. Although i havent used for ages, i still get cravings every now and then; and these can come out of anywhere. For example, i got a new face wash and the smell of it reminded me of the smell of smoking crack! Sometimes you can get a smell, or taste, or even listening to a certain song can make me have a craving; but im strong enough now not to act on it. I do have BPD and Bipolar2 so that complicates things a bit, i will always be impulsive but with therapy and support i am much better and dealing with things now. The truth is, i probably hated myself and thats why i used. I know i believed i was a nicer person, more productive and more energised on it, plus it made me forget my deep rooted internal problems and issues, and numbed the emotional pain. But now im much better at problem solving as i no longer use when i feel things are too much, i now have to face things head on. But that in itself can be quite scary, especially if you are so used to using and suddenly you have to deal with things sober. But i am much better now, and like i said i take my 20ml of methadone and thats all! I dont even drink anymore.
I know he is a bit of a dickhead but i really enjoy listening to Russel Brand talking about his time as a user- his experiences resonate with me.
Also, there is a French-Canadian doctor called Dr Gabor Mate who is my hero. He is the leading academic plus he is an actual medical doctor who works with addiction and recovery. He is always on youtube and is just amazing. He says addiction is caused in part due to unresolved childhood trauma, and that is so true for me!