Many people believe that if you try heroin, then you are on the path to ruin. They consider that addiction to heroin is inevitable, and the route to being drug-free again is extremely difficult, if not impossible. In fact, the vast majority of people who try heroin do not become addicted to the drug [1].
Many people, including treatment professionals, believe that it is essential that a person who becomes addicted to heroin has treatment to recover. However, research by Patrick Biernacki, conducted in the US in the mid-1980s, and others has revealed that many people recover from heroin addiction without treatment. In this and the following three blog posts, I describe Biernacki’s research and consider the characteristics of this recovery process. We need to learn from this research to help other people overcome heroin addiction.
