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By Deiksha Veerapaneni
Imagine being able to not feel pain and instead feel intense relief? That would be pretty addicting, right? For many, that feeling sounds like an escape, a break from suffering. But that powerful sense of relief is exactly what makes opioids so dangerously addictive. These drugs don’t just dull pain, they take over the brain’s reward system, making users crave that feeling over and over again.
Opioids don’t just dull pain. They erase it, until you can’t live without them.
According to the Center for Disease Control, (CDC), approximately 148 people die from opioid overdoses every single day. In 2022, 76% of drug overdose deaths involved opioids. While those numbers have slightly decreased since then, the opioid crisis is far from over. It remains a serious and ongoing problem affecting individuals and families across the country.
These drugs, such as oxycodone or hydrocodone, are often prescribed after surgeries or injuries. At first, they help. But over time, your body builds up a tolerance. You need more to feel the same effect. And that’s where it starts.
In Alameda County, opioid overdoses, especially involving fentanyl, are rising fast. Pills are being bought off the street and sold on social media, many of which are fake. They are laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin. One tiny dose can kill you.
This isn’t just a statistic to me. I have seen addiction first hand in my family. I have seen how it destroys someone’s spirit, how it pulls people into isolation, and how impossible it feels to break free once it starts. Watching someone you love fight something invisible is heartbreaking and hard. It doesn’t matter how young you are or how much you had going for you, addiction can always find a way in.
A lot of people, especially teens, don’t realize how easily one prescription or one pill can lead to something much more dangerous. Understanding how opioids work, and how fentanyl is being mixed into street drugs, isn’t just important – it’s life saving. We need to raise awareness, ask questions, and look out for one another before another life is lost to something that started with the need to feel okay.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
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