The U.S. is in the throes of what researchers have deemed a “fourth wave” of the opioid crisis, a phase characterized by overdose deaths caused by the combination of stimulants and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Overdose deaths in the U.S. surpassed 100,000 for the first time in 2021, fueled by the rise of synthetic opioids, which accounted for 75% of those deaths. Once propelled by prescription opioids and then heroin, the decadeslong crisis was overwhelmed by synthetic opioids in the mid-2010s.
Now it has taken on a new challenge: so-called polysubstance overdoses, which include more than one drug.
The proportion of overdoses involving fentanyl and a stimulant — most commonly cocaine and methamphetamine — increased more than fiftyfold from 2010 to 2021, a study published Thursday in the journal Addiction found.
Sorta, but not really. My family was doxxed by some bad people, and that caused my father to run away and back slip into drugs as his paranoid schizophrenia made him think that the death threats he was getting were real (which they were sorta real). We found him after being missing for a week. He was comatose, naked and covered in chemical burns.
After he got out of the hospital, I brought him to another state where I live to try to take care of him. Only he slipped out and found some random person who sold fent spiked meth.
I found him dead on my couch.
The paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he was already gone.
I’m looking into therapy now as I can’t get that image out of my head. Plus all the guilt of him dying in my care.
That’s awful. I hope justice finds its way to the people who drove your father to this.
And I hope you manage to find some peace. Just know that the cruelty inflicted on him wasn’t your fault.
Look into ART, it’s the weirdest treatment I’ve been through, but it really helped the trauma I had when I was a teen.
Also, a couple of things:
You can’t feel guilty. You did everything you could and therapy is definitely a good idea.