Infant
Heroin withdrawal is a painful, gut-wrenching process. ‘Addicts
violently fear the sickness,’ writes Natalie Quick in the Western
Washington University student magazine Klipsun. ‘When
they’ve developed a habit for the drug and quit using, their bodies
cramp, sweat and shake viciously and they vomit continuously almost
as soon as their high wears off.
The sickness becomes infinitely more difficult to bear when the
addiction is not your own, but your baby’s — an agonizing burden
that you caused. Quick interviewed Angela and Kevin, a pair of
recovering heroin-users whose baby was born addicted to the
drug.
‘The day Aleister was born was supposed to be the happiest day of
our lives,’ Angela says. ‘But I just kept thinking, ‘Oh my god,
we’re killing our child.”
Angela had tried to kick her habit, but once she got pregnant she
discovered that quitting was not an option. ‘If I would have just
stopped using at any point in my pregnancy, I would have lost
Aleister. If a mother uses frequently while pregnant, her baby will
be addicted. If (she) stops, then the baby will start withdrawing
and possibly die.’ — Leif UtneGo there>>
