[HN Gopher] My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
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My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
Author : exolymph
Score : 24 points
Date : 2021-10-25 21:48 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mattlakeman.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (mattlakeman.org)
| aazaa wrote:
| > I wish I had a happier note to end this on, but honestly, my
| biggest takeaway from the whole experience is that maybe some
| puzzles just can't be solved. We can try to attribute Jack's
| problems to intrinsic biological/psychological issues (social
| phobia, migraines, etc.) or to environmental causes (super high
| rate of heroin use and OD in the community), but both sides seem
| fundamentally lacking in explanatory power. The vast majority of
| socially anxious people don't resort to heroin, and despite the
| problems of these small towns, they are by no means among the
| worst places to live in America, let alone the world.
|
| Earlier on, the author does speculate about what drove Jack:
|
| > To put it another way, Jack was painfully aware that his future
| options were, "be a complete loser," or "be a complete loser who
| feels really really good for a few hours every day." He chose the
| latter.
|
| What's striking about this is how it's possible to live this way
| without drugs. A brain-numbing job eight hours a day and a life-
| saving hobby for four. A toxic-family life but wonderful
| community.
|
| It almost sounds like Tennis could have been this outlet:
|
| > One time when Jack was in middle school, he walked off the
| tennis court after a well-played match, and his mother asked him
| how he felt. Jack said something like, "when I'm out there, it's
| so nice... it's like the rest of the world goes away and I don't
| have any problems."
| petermcneeley wrote:
| Very well written piece. Makes me wonder if we will soon see a
| similar piece published but s/heroin/videogames.
| ipnon wrote:
| This seems a little insensitive given the original is about a
| friend dying from drug overdose and video games aren't deadly.
| hh3k0 wrote:
| I mean, kids occasionally die from video game marathons.
|
| (And in places where heroin is legal, addicts rarely die from
| overdose.)
|
| That said, death is not all that can ruin a life.
| chaircher wrote:
| "I'm not entirely sure the migraines even existed. On a few
| occasions, Jack admitted to me that he faked being sick to get
| out of school. It's plausible that Jack made them up to get out
| of school or socializing, and his well-meaning but enabling
| parents let him do it."
|
| Oh come on man, occam's razor. Debilitatingly painful and
| difficult to treat medical condition in childhood results in
| social isolation and an opioid addiction. A kid faking being ill
| once doesn't discount an entire life ruining disability.
| coldtea wrote:
| > _Debilitatingly painful and difficult to treat medical
| condition in childhood results in social isolation and an
| opioid addiction_
|
| Occams razor: tons of people have social isolation and/or
| opioid addiction, without "Debilitatingly painful and difficult
| to treat medical condition in childhood" (and the inverse).
|
| And he didn't say "faking being ill once", he said "n a few
| occasions", and those are just the ones he admitted to his
| friend.
| twofornone wrote:
| >Then there were the migraines. Even after he died, I never got a
| straight answer as to the cause or truth of this problem. All I
| know is that he often complained about getting debilitating
| migraines that forced him to stay in the quiet dark of his room,
| sometimes for days straight. Jack's parents took him to doctors
| and specialists trying to get to the bottom of it, he tried
| numerous treatments and medicines, but I don't think the cause
| was ever identified.
|
| Migraines are frustrating because there are a thousand different
| potential causes and no one really understands their physiology.
| Many people don't respond to medications (outside of opioids,
| maybe) and even then, a migraine is far more than just pain; it
| appears to be a general disruption in brain function, possibly
| related to a phenomenon known as cortical spreading depression,
| and is often preceded, accompanied, and followed by vague
| psychological and even gastrointestinal disturbances. What's
| worse, you may be lucky enough to find a medication to mitigate
| the pain, but the psychological disturbances generally persist
| even in the case of a successful abortion. Frequently that means
| cognitive slowness that can last for days.
|
| Likely migraines are actually a manifestation of numerous
| abnormalities which are not always present in all sufferers, and
| I imagine that makes them particularly difficult to research,
| especially with first order statistical correlational analysis.
| Maybe ML will help here with the right data. The only certainty
| is that a better understanding of and cure for migraines would
| bring relief to millions of people who suffer unnecessarily.
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