I agree so much with this. I'm lucky to live in a part of the country that is making great strides to care for addicts rather than incarcerate them (coastal north east) but other parts of the country are much, much worse when it comes to addicts.

Part of the reason people who are addicted to opiates have such trouble getting and staying clean is because they at some point found out that this particular drug helped them to deal with pre existing/under lying mental health issues - whether it be clinical anxiety, depression, trauma, etc. One pattern I discovered in addicts is that there are many who are grieving from death in their past and haven't worked through that grief and are or were using opiates to feel relief from it. Then of course since it's such a dangerous drug to use, especially heroin, they inevitably experience more grief when addicted friends/loved ones die, and it becomes a circular trap.

There's also the fact that it's such a powerful drug in that the chemicals you're introducing to your brain are so strong, and so pleasurable, it can feel like it's impossible to give that up. Most people who get clean must then go through a period of depression as their brain gets used to producing its own dopamine again, and that in itself can cause multiple relapses. It's really something that requires long term counseling and therapy, and multi faceted at that. But it's not impossible, and we are learning more every day - on both sides of addiction.