Sorry I just wanted to post my story here... I got carried away... typing.

Watching the show it felt so similar to my own story (posted below) I guess I was wondering if anyone else is watching the show and it feeling close to their own story, watching the doc get hooked and the younger girl.. I think they should of shown more examples of everyday people losing everything to opioids as well... thats what happened. feel free to read my experience below I just got raving on about the last 10 years of my life haha :P

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back in early to late 2000's I was married, 2 kids... I went through a divorce and left with more debt than my Income could handle...As with all things in life we often are kicked while we are down, I was living in a shared house working 2 jobs to service all the debt and child support I had to go to hospital 3 nights in a row for extreme dental pain... turns out I had 4 impacted wisdom teeth coming through that were coming in sideways and cracking the roots of my molar teeth, causing infection and extreme pain. The pain was like nothing I had felt before and I was crying the nights I walked in to the emergency room, unable to see properly.Of course all dental work was not covered by anything, they told me I needed dental surgery and it would cost me $5000 roughly for an anethetist and dental surgeon.I had $15 to my name and after I serviced the debts and child support I had about $20 a week for food to live on.So they sent me home with Oxy's - I had to keep working through the pain so the Oxys were my only choice, often I would be harassed by debt collectors and bill companies so the stress was huge for me to keep working as much as possible to pay off these debts.As you can imagine within a few weeks or month or so I had to double my dose as I built tolerance, within 3 months I can't even remember how many I was taking a day but it was a lot.I was in my late 20s and I had never been addicted to anything, I didn't drink I had no interest in drugs normally... to everyone who knew me I was one of the most boring nerdy type guys around... rather be watching a sci-fi show, reading a book or programming a computer than out partying or being social.

I won't go in to too much detail but that was the beginning of the end for me.. I got the surgery about 6 months later but by then I was taking 100's of mg's a day I went through intense withdrawal after the surgery and I didnt touch the pills again for a year or so but I had to have surgery again for a gallstone and ended up on the pills again post op... but timing was bad with that one.. the mother of my kids took the kids away, wouldnt let me see them as she had re-married and really fucked me over manipulating them...The thing that they don't tell you about how opioids re-wire the brain is that they change the way you cope with things.. they become the perfect fix for emotional pain just like they were for physical pain... I ended up back on them for my depressive lonely state I was in... nothing left to live for after fighting so hard for rights to see my kids and losing... before long I was smoking heroin and other opioids I could get hold of.Opioids took everything from me... I lost partners, my kids, family, friends... and everything that I used to have in the form of reliability, consistency, dependability... I ended up living on the streets - me... I couldnt believe it I had a great life, I had 2 degrees I ran successful businesses, owned houses, travelled the world... All of that... add some pills and a few bad events then fast forward 8 years and I became a homeless street junkie.. with not a soul in the world to give a shit.

I've been on methadone for 2 years now and no longer living on the street.. I'm working again but I will say that my life will never be the same again. I have to live with the consequences that opioids did to me.. most my family will never trust me again no matter how long I dont use drugs for, the perception of who I am has been ruined forever, I'll probably never find a partner again and I have to spend the rest of my life constantly reminded how my life was going one direction and some pills sent it off on a completly different direction.I absolutly hate it when people say that - it would never happen to them... I personally think that if ANYONE were given opioids for long enough and in high enough dosage they would be changed for life. Will power.. personal strength, whatever you want to call it.. has nothing to do with it... I have climbed mount everest along with 4 other mountains in the top 10 highest and hardest mountains in the world and I can tell you right now without a shadow of a doubt that getting to the top of those mountains requires a will power like nothing else... you must control every single step you take, you must draw on everything you have within to continue forward when every cell in your body is telling you to turn back.. to stop.. but you don't - you find that little voice inside and you muster everything you have to keep going.... it's difficult only certain types of people can do it..

But compared to stopping opioids it's a walk in the park... maybe i'm different I don't know but I think the numbers speak for themselves the percentage of people who relapse on opioids is huge.. every study shows that its a lifelong disease.. a change in the reward system of the brain...

Anyway rant over... methadone has allowed me to live some form of a normal life again..