Matt Ganem was first exposed to the prescription painkiller OxyContin when he was 16.
He was at a house party in the Boston area — the kind where kids traditionally first experiment with drinking or marijuana. Ganem didn’t know much about OxyContin, but he gave it a try.
That first pill was the beginning of a five-year struggle with opioid addiction.
Ganem’s story is not uncommon. The United States is in the throes of a nationwide opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 165,000 Americans died of prescription opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2014.
Part of the reason so many users struggle to get clean is that opioid withdrawal can be physically excruciating.
In this video, STAT explores exactly how opioids affect the human body — and why addiction can be so difficult to kick. Ganem, now 31, learned firsthand.
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I was one of those people who did everything right and a year ago during the “epidemic” i was cut with an excuse i missed too many appointments 5 years ago!!! so they got scared and kicked alot of patients but before doing this they pushed the buprenorphine. I tried it and didnt like the wya it made me feel. Anywho I got off cold turkey, but a year and a half later i still feel sick. I been using kratom as it helped me get off but comment because I was one of the people who unjust got kicked. the hormone changes alone are killing me