August 31st is/was International Overdose Awareness Day

Nikki Sixx had a really good show about it tonight, you can find it on sixxsense.iheartmedia.co...

See if Narcan is available easily in your area

it's fairly easy to use and in some areas, subsidized

THERE IS NO SHAME IN OBTAINING NARCAN. ANYONE WHO TRIES TO SHAME YOU DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT SAVING LIVES

Get a few of them, keep it in your home, your purse or backpack, your car, your job.

As messed up as the opioid sitch is, it's honestly prudent to have it handy even if you personally do not use opioids.

while we're on the harm reduction topic, North American Syringe Exchange Network Directory of Syringe Exch... lists needle exchange programs

I use opiods for chronic pain. when I got my oxycontin filled for the first time, the pharmacist asked if I had Narcan. I said no, so he wrote me a script and filled it then and there. Met carries one doser and so do I because, along with lots of pain problems, I have severe OCD

if you are trans and giving yourself shots, you can take in your old needles for disposal and get new, sterile, safe needles

that means once in a while my brain tells me to do really really stupid shit

often they give out needles with built in filters, so if you have questionable quality product, you have less risk of getting something grody into your boat

*body, not boat.

yeah, even if you take a small amount, Vicodin or smth, a lot of contributing factors can push the plasma levels kind of high

there's no set ceiling for opioids, except "when your respiratory drive fails"

you just stop breathing because your body no longer gives a shit about getting rid of CO2

and it's not easy to predict when or where that point is, especially if you already have a tolerance

ALSO: 775-784-8090 IS A NATIONWIDE, 24/7/365 CRISIS HOTLINE

OR YOU CAN TEXT "Answer" to 839863

also the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

or 1-800-SUICIDE

which gets you a trained crisis counselor

or text "HOME" to 741741 for the crisis text line, which I personally have used twice and it's been super helpful

in addition to being hella discreet, since you don't have to worry about people overhearing you

my background: I've been severely depressed since I was 12, and it took me leaving rough drafts of suicide notes on my mom's pillow to finally get help

idk if anyone else on here knew her, but if you were into the Naruto LJRP scene back in 2005 and on, you might remember Sam. She played Itachi in a bunch of places, usually off her best friend Courtney's Sasuke

She OD'd on I think aspirin, and never woke up. Courtney ended up being her PoA because her family was a mess.

Don't EVER make your best friend choose when to stop life support

I still can't forgive my ex for taking me out of going back to Dallas to say goodbye one last time.

*talking

I also spent something like four years living alone with my mom after my dad told me about her pill problem

She'd come home from work Friday night, go to her room, and would not re-emerge until sometime Sunday

I'd joke about it in chat with my friends, about going into her room and making sure she was still breathing.

it's not a joke. I would walk up quietly and put a few fingers in front of her nose and watch her chest for breathing.

the only reason I didn't take her pulse was because I didn't know how

it's probably extremely lucky that she was caught and fired eventually, because it forced her to admit it was a problem and go to rehab

I'm reasonably certain she'd be dead by now otherwise.

"but what about chronic pain", you ask

dude. I know what you mean. I remember that desperation to make it stop hurting, even a little, even for a while.

I was on tramadol for a long time for my fibromyalgia, and it was the only thing that remotely touched the pain, until someone actually decided to run blood work

I'm pretty certain it's not fibro anymore, but early-onset lupus exacerbated by immense stress and burnout.

Plaquenil has done more for me than tramadol ever could, I'm on Flexeril and medical cannabis for the rest of it, and it's massively improved my quality of life

don't ever give up looking even after you're on pain meds. Medicine is constantly evolving and we are learning tons about everything, really, but including pain management.

besides, opioids make you itchy and if you miss a dose it's horrible. fuck that. you have better things to do than claw at your skin while breathing manually

but until you can find something less dangerous that works for you:

carry Narcan everywhere. program crisis numbers into your speed dial (does that still exist?).

contact lists exist and work just as well

reach out, because I can guarantee you that someone, somewhere, will miss you and be devastated by your death.

I have several crisis lines in mine

even if it's just your favorite waitress somewhere, or the cashier at the grocery store, or your own medical providers

yes, even pharmacy staff. any time I heard a patient had died, it was crushingly sad.

I don't know what else to say, if there's even anything. If someone knows international suicide prevention hotlines, or what harm reduction is like outside of the US, please please add it here, and replurk it.

Anyway I just typed all of that on my phone because it's a public plurk, so show me some appreciation by spreading the word

GREAT FUCKING TIMING one of my childhood internet friends (literally since I was 16) is in the hospital

she's been really depressed and stressed out lately, deleted everything off her Facebook, kept deleting everyone from the chat group

then readding a few hours later

anyway she was team mom p much and we were trying to raise money to help her or buy her something cool

and now she's in the hospital and I'm terrified she OD'd

like, I can provide evidence this is happening, there's no way I would fake this to hammer a point home

good plurk OP, thank you for making it

yw, I hope any part of it, no matter how small, can help someone.

luckily, my mother has a hazardous waste container she got from the drug store that I can put my needles in. she uses diabetic needle pens so.

and before that her meter

(I also recently found out that I could literally pay for my needle scripts because of how cheap it is)

yeah, diabetic needles are marked up hella, but regular IM needles are like a quarter each here

w/r/t sharps containers, you can use a hard plastic bottle

just seal it tightly with tape when you're done with it.