
There are people obsessed with exercise and eating healthy. This “obsession” has the benefit of being a good activity for the body and mind, without much consequence.
The best thing to do is to try to look further out in time. If this action were continued over and over and over for weeks, months or years, what would be the consequence?
However, these things in themselves are not necessarily bad, as they don’t seem to damage the balance of life on their own.
Heroin on the other hand, has well-documented consequences. It is, without question, physically addictive. Once a person has started using it daily, the body literally experiences nausea, muscle cramping, severe anxiety, flu-like symptoms and other issues as a withdrawal from the drug.
There is also the danger of overdosing, as well as having to “sacrifice anything” to fill the habit. When you use the word “obsession”, there are so many tales of lives and families being devastated from heroin use that it doesn’t need to be restated here.
The best way to evaluate this is to simply follow this path out in time. I’ve personally never known someone who used heroin for a short while as an obsession, yet did not become addicted. In fact, the three most likely scenarios are: death, incarceration or getting sober after going to rehab – and the first two are much more likely. “Just stopping” is extremely unlikely.
I’ll say one last thing about this. Addicts are typically the last ones to realize they are addicted. They usually think they have it under control and have their behavior very rationalized, even when it is absurd.
An addict may think it’s perfectly reasonable to sell their shoes for drugs and may even convince themselves that shoes are not really necessary anyway. This is why interventions sometimes have to be done in an attempt to get the addict to see how their behavior is affecting themselves and their loved ones.
I would strongly encourage you to seek treatment for your “obsession” sooner than later, even if you can’t see it as a problem yet.

Elevate Addiction Services President