When someone has an addiction, particularly to something as dangerous and deadly as heroin, people around them often wonder how it got started. What are the initial warning signs of something like heroin addiction? While no two situations may be the same, there are often some similarities in how heroin addiction begins.
Of the people who try the heroin, almost one in four will become addicted. Heroin use has a high likelihood of addiction associated with it.
Another study that examined young people who used injectable heroin showed that 86 percent used opioid pain relievers in an abusive way before using heroin. This represents a very different picture from what was seen decades ago.
For example, in the 1960s heroin addicts primarily started with heroin use itself. In the 2000s, 75 percent of people who said they used heroin also reported their first experience with an opioid was by a prescription drug. Eighty percent of heroin users in a national-level study of heroin data said they used prescription opioids before using heroin.
Some of the most commonly prescribed and abused prescription opioids include Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin. Drugs like heroin are classified as opioids, so if someone abuses them and becomes dependent and then addicted, they may switch to heroin because it’s cheaper and a more readily available alternative.
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Speak to an Intake Coordinator now.352.771.2700Heroin, like prescription opioids, binds to specific receptors in the brain. When this happens, it triggers the release of a naturally occurring chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is naturally released when people do things they enjoy, but the amount of dopamine released with heroin is up to 10 times as much as what can occur naturally.
When the brain releases dopamine, its response is to continue to seek out the activity that produced it. As an example, if someone tastes chocolate for the first time, their brain is likely to release dopamine. Because the dopamine was released, a memory is formed to know that may cause someone to want to eat chocolate again.
It’s the same concept with heroin but in a much more amplified way. This is an example of how heroin addiction starts and why heroin is so addictive. Once someone uses a drug like heroin, the chemical functionality of the brain is altered. Dependence can develop when someone builds a tolerance to heroin and they need to take larger doses of the drug to get the same effects. The body becomes used to the presence of heroin, and without it, someone may start to feel abnormal or experience withdrawal symptoms.