Young Addicts - What Made You Start Using?

[LW75]

For anyone who has been addicted or is addicted, you may be able to help others by talking about how old you were when you started, what it was that made you start, and what someone could have done for you that may have prevented you from using.

I know you may have come here for support, but you probably have very useful advice for other young people or for family members. Anyone want to share?

[exjunky]

I started using when I was 18. A friend of mine was deeply addicted and wanted to "recruit" other people into the scene to help him score, help support his habit, etc.

I wanted to try it because I knew that heroin was legendary for making people feel really good, and I wanted to feel really good. The fact that it's so demonized and frowned upon by society made me want to try it even more.

I think I honestly believed there was something sexy about junkies. It was a very special time in my life and I was very impressionable. I wanted to fit into a group and this was a group welcoming me with open arms. Just like a den of vampires ready to have a blood feast.

So I got bit by a vampire, and then I turned into a vampire myself.

The funny thing is this: it wasn't a case of bad or missing drug education. I knew all about heroin before I did it: its history, the enormous addictive qualities, the diseases that junkies catch, the whole ball of wax. And I still did it, thinking "One time won't kill me."

Then I thought "twice won't kill me." Then it was "On the weekends won't kill me." Then before I knew it I needed it to get out of bed in the morning.

In a nutshell, my biggest problem was peer pressure and a teenager's desire to be accepted by his peers.

[LW75]

Thank you. It kind of makes a person think there's almost nothing parents or schools can do to stop a kid from getting addicted.

A lot of people have family members with this addiction who wonder how on Earth it could have been prevented. A lot of parents want to figure out a way to "immunize" their kids against this type of addiction.

I think the people who can obviously shed the most light are the ones who have been there, themselves.

[websurfpro]

I have been addicted when I was 12, not for long because soon my mom found out I was taking speed and LSD and she did not let me go rollerblading anymore. I think you have allready guessed who made me start. The older rollerbladers where takinf the stuff daily and I only nedeed to try it once and was allready addicted, but luckly i had no craving or problems once I stopped.