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In the world we live in, we place stigmas and stereotypes of what people look like and act like according to the drugs they use. Decades ago, before AA, people thought of the alcoholic as the person who was sitting under a bridge with a trench coat on, all his belongings in a shopping cart, sipping wine out of a paper bag. Most of us know now that alcoholics are from all walks of life. From the person who is homeless to the person who has millions of dollars in the bank, alcoholism does not and will not discriminate. We are here to tell you that heroin doesn’t either.
For years at Clearbrook, we have been treating heroin addiction and have seen people from the poor to the rich, people in their 20s and people in their 50s. We have treated Causasian, African American, Latino…individuals from every race, color, and creed that exists! All people are different from each other, but when it comes to heroin addiction they are all the same. Heroin steals the life and very soul from the people who use it. When someone is using heroin, that is ALL they do. It pervades their entire existance. This drug debilitates the person both mentally and physically so that the addict can think of nothing except getting their next “fix.”
Recently at Clearbrook we had a 20 year “kid” that had nothing worthwhile in life interacting with a gentleman who was 50 years old. The only thing that they had in common was that they were both heavily addicted to shooting heroin. Normally these two would not mix in society. The miraculous part of this story is that they both identified to each other how they felt on a daily basis. They were parallel to each other from the second they woke up to the second they fell asleep. The feelings of despair, need, sick, and hopeless were the same in both of them. This is one of, if not the most powerful tool in treating addiction…“one addict helping another.”
If you or someone you love has an addiction to heroin, you need to get help immediately! Statistics don’t lie. People from all walks of life, big cities to small towns, are dying every day. Our Admissions Staff at Clearbrook Manor are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please call us at 1-800-582-6241 before its too late.
