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Quick note of clarification, this is purely out of academic interest, absolutely not looking for medical advice of any sort.
This is just something I've been curious about for a while now, and I'd like to understand the physiological or psychological,or if there's a combination of the two, type mechanisms that may be at work in this particular situation.
As some of you know from my posts on here, I am a recovered heroin addict. When I first became physically dependent on the drug, it took at least 3-4 week of continual daily use, before I even began to feel the first signs of withdrawal. From that point on, every time I went through withdrawal (when I was trying to get off the stuff) & then ended up relapsing, it seemed as if the physical dependency took a shorter and shorter time to return. Like in the beginning it was 3-4 weeks of daily use, then it took just a couple of weeks after going through withdrawal, then next time around it was like a week and a half of using every day, before I was already back to physical dependence. It eventually got to the stage where I could go through withdrawal, relapse, and within less than 5 days of using I could already feel the physical symptoms of dependence coming on again.
Is it common for it to progress that way? Why does the rate of onset of physical dependence seem to decrease with every attempt at withdrawal. I mean to me it seems more logical that you go cold turkey, you get the drug out of your system completely, if you relapse then regardless of how many withdrawal attempts you've made, your body should still be set back to zero tolerance, and it should still take the usual 3-4 weeks to get physically hooked again. Except in my experience that's not how it happened, and like I said I'm really curious to learn about/understand the actual mechanisms behind it - physiological or otherwise.
This is just something I've been curious about for a while now, and I'd like to understand the physiological or psychological,or if there's a combination of the two, type mechanisms that may be at work in this particular situation.
As some of you know from my posts on here, I am a recovered heroin addict. When I first became physically dependent on the drug, it took at least 3-4 week of continual daily use, before I even began to feel the first signs of withdrawal. From that point on, every time I went through withdrawal (when I was trying to get off the stuff) & then ended up relapsing, it seemed as if the physical dependency took a shorter and shorter time to return. Like in the beginning it was 3-4 weeks of daily use, then it took just a couple of weeks after going through withdrawal, then next time around it was like a week and a half of using every day, before I was already back to physical dependence. It eventually got to the stage where I could go through withdrawal, relapse, and within less than 5 days of using I could already feel the physical symptoms of dependence coming on again.
Is it common for it to progress that way? Why does the rate of onset of physical dependence seem to decrease with every attempt at withdrawal. I mean to me it seems more logical that you go cold turkey, you get the drug out of your system completely, if you relapse then regardless of how many withdrawal attempts you've made, your body should still be set back to zero tolerance, and it should still take the usual 3-4 weeks to get physically hooked again. Except in my experience that's not how it happened, and like I said I'm really curious to learn about/understand the actual mechanisms behind it - physiological or otherwise.
