There’s two things I learned from this:
- It is so quick to think that speedballing (or smoking both drugs together) is special because heroin and crack are one hit all together – but even when taken together it’s the crack hitting the brain first.
- The ‘come down’ (after crack use) everyone talks about isn’t a coming DOWN, but going HIGH again in a different way.
Now look at this:
This is an exercise I once did in a therapy session with someone using crack and heroin, let’s call them Pat.
So I asked Pat:
Me: “If you drew your mood on this, how does it change when you smoke crack?”
Pat:”I get high first, it goes like this:
But 10 minutes later it feels something like this:”
Me: Oh, that doesn’t look like a nice way to feel! Is this when you start smoking the heroin?
Pat: Yes, I smoke it to help me to come down.
Me: So does your mood then come down like this?
Pat: Hm… not exactly, actually it goes more like this:
Me: That looks more like another high, don’t you think?
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Felicia Heidebrecht * Psycholoog in Delft, Rotterdam, Schiedam & online @ Lifeinmymind 