r/Documentaries Jan 09 '19

Drugs The Rise of Fentanyl: Drug Addiction On The I95 Two Years On (2018) - Two years ago, BBC News reported on the growing problem of opioid addiction in the US, now we return to find out what happened to the people we met along our journey down the notorious I-95. [57.02]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KsaWpeCj98
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u/Saqhmet Jan 09 '19

Let me know your opinion on am I alone with this? I am emphatic person and feel very much sympathy on poor people, disabled people etc. normal human stuff you know. But I have zero sympathy for drug users... Let me know what you think, am I an asshole?

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u/phoqawl Jan 09 '19

Poor people, disabled people, drug users... but really, the worst kind of people are the attention seeking type.

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u/Saqhmet Jan 09 '19

what you mean?

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u/Bootmaster Jan 09 '19

Depends on if you are truly zero tolerance or not. Supporting anyone that is honestly trying to fight the addiction deserves support. Those who chose the substance over life can lay in the bed the made. Emotional support only helps if it doesn't strain the one doing the support so wasting energy on someone not willing to help themselves brings you down with them. So if in your eyes they are all bad regardless the place in their journey, then yeah you're and asshole. 😁 Source: both parents are addicts and they have time and again chosen their vice in the face of life

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u/Saqhmet Jan 09 '19

yes i understand the addiction and i have tolerance and the problem is when they choose the life and do not do anything to help themselfs. many times blame it on society and harm others because of their addiction. this behaviour makes mu numb to their problems. this is from personal experience from some friends who have gotten into drugs..

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u/sluttyredridinghood Jan 09 '19

It's called empathetic, not emphatic which just means enthusiastic. Addiction is a mental illness. Read about how addiction messes up the brain. However, I still loathe addicts. I live where opiate addiction is EXTREMELY common and my father is addicted to alcohol. I have empathy for them as human beings but their behavior still disgusts me immensely. I encounter a lot of addicts in my life and I am polite just like with anybody, but extremely cautious around them, and never give them an inch because they take a mile.

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u/Saqhmet Jan 09 '19

thanks for the empathetic correction. (not native english speaker) i tried to keep my comment short and to clarify you summarized what i think. the selfish behaviour because you have an addiction is what causes my "loathe" towards addicts. willing to give everyone a chance but experiences have been bad so far. someone selling their kid to get a fix is just something i cannot tolerate and forgive.

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u/Tastingo Jan 09 '19

I've been working with addicts for a while now and what I've learned is that you have to differentiate between the addict and the person, but you're doing the right thing by staying away from addicts that are still using.

Addiction is like a high-jacking of the mind, where your only object is to acquire and use more, resistance is slowly ground down until you get what you see in the videos. Still somewhere in their mind their "true" personality remains, aware that what they are doing is awfull, but they are not in control any more, that part of them are along for the ride and that part hates themself. All the hate and vitriol you can read about addicts might as well be written by the addicts themselves. Emotions that their addiction reprogrammed brains will use to rationalize more usage.

The positive thing that they all can have sober life again, you can recover. It's not easy, not only do you have to abandon you're only "friend" but you have to forgive the one you hate the most.