Hepatitis C Support Group
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.
This is an offshoot of the stigma thread. It seems that most people posting have shame about iv drug use rather than hcv. Is that true? Is this disease shameful to people who got it from a dentist or blood transfusion or who don't know how? Personally, I think shame is planted in childhood, which is why it's so deep and deadly. But it feeds on things like hvc.The suckiest part for me is that there are times when I would really love support for the hcv but can't even tell people I have it without 'confessing" to a past that's none of their business. "Ex-junkie" is such an ugly label. There's all the shame put on anyone who does that by our society, plus the more internally-based shame of living in a way (due to the illegal status and high price) that was ugly and violent and against much of my beliefs. Hopefully having a discussion about shame will help us release at least some of it. Toward that end, and because I think shame feeds on lies, I want to say that, while I haven't admitted it for years due to internalizing the "bad, terrible" messages I've gotten -- heroin feels really, really good. Shot up, it feels even better. And striving for pleasure and ecstasy shouldn't be seen as shameful.
Just kidding. I think a lot of people think that anyone who shoots dope every day for years and years like I did must have been really screwed up to start with, and probably much more so after all the drugs. Hmm, they may have something there.
Hence my new signature line:
I'm drain bamaged, too many dope.
-- I'm drain bamaged, too many dope.
isn't that the best? Oh, Mr. O - u are 2 much...
"I'm brain damaged, too many dope."
That one will go down in hysterical history
I've never tried heroin but am planning on it in a couple of decades with a member here as we've posted here. I've tried other stuff though fo' sho' and have also often sought out pleasure, ecstasy and hedonism and I found no shame in any of it. Only pleasure and ecstasy. But I'm trying to follow a more enlightened path now after my Leper C. You know, not as much dope and being more careful. I mean, I don't wanna wreck this body, just beat it up a little.