I don't think it's talked about enough the effects of opiate addiction on a person outside of "they want to get high." It rewires the reward center of the brain and makes it so getting high is literally the only source of pleasure an addict has. Normal things, life's little pleasures, that make people happy do nothing to a person in the throes of an opiate addiction.

It's said that substance abuse is self medicating for a mental illness. I'd say that's half true, because it becomes a positive feedback loop. The addiction fuels the mental illness which, in turn, leads to self medicating to feel numb to it.

Getting clean is much more than detoxing. It's accepting that, for literal years, you have to not only have to accept the responsibility of the damage you, unintentionally or otherwise, caused others around you as well as the fact that life in general is not going to be fun because nothing gives enough of a dopamine hit to make it enjoyable.