"The Percocet dulled his foot pain and also his anxiety. Rideout was used to alcohol and cocaine, but this was different. He felt happy, confident and optimistic. He returned to the podiatrist for more pills. Then more. Soon he was altering the prescriptions manually, changing a seven into a two and adding a zero, before targeting smaller pharmacies that wouldn't run verification checks."
"Within a week he was suffering extreme withdrawal: depression, delirium from days of lost sleep, overwhelming flu-like symptoms. He called his younger brother and asked him to FedEx a batch of a new drug he had read about called OxyContin, which, depending on the dose, can contain a significantly higher amount of oxycodone per pill than Percocet."
"I wasn't even happiest when I took the drugs, says Rideout. I was happiest knowing that they were coming. I'd gotten myself hooked on a drug that had no high. They kill joy, too. Not just joy and happiness but any sense of pleasure, any sense of comp"
Ken Rideout's opioid addiction began in 1998 when a podiatrist prescribed Percocet for ankle pain. The drug provided relief not only from physical pain but also from his underlying anxiety and impostor syndrome. Initially using alcohol and cocaine, Rideout found opioids uniquely appealing, creating a sense of happiness and confidence. His use escalated to prescription fraud, forging prescriptions at pharmacies. Moving to London for work offered a fresh start, but severe withdrawal symptoms within a week drove him to obtain OxyContin, a more potent opioid. Despite attempts at recovery through Narcotics Anonymous and Subutex treatment, Rideout repeatedly relapsed, discovering that opioids ultimately eliminated pleasure and joy rather than providing lasting relief.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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