I’m curious, is anyone here addicted to drugs?

I’m surprised this thread hasn’t popped up yet but it’s been on my mind. A lot.<br><br>I had a friend who started experimenting with ketamine, progressed to taking it every weekend, and then it was 3 times a week, and then it was every single night. I once saw him take 3 grams. He went from being really bubbly to being an extremely irritable person. He started to develop auditory and visual hallucinations. He then jumped from ketamine to heroin. Had a severe mental breakdown, started to develop more severe hallucinations that really scared him. I’m really worried about this dude but it’s not my responsibility.<br><br>I started developing a drinking problem but thanks to lockdown I was able to kick the habit. It felt good to reset, and I was able to analyze my drinking and realize that I was bored and lonely. But now with this friend I realize that I don’t know HOW to quit. This dude is now on heroin and started to develop physical symptoms. How can I help him? If you guys are addicted to a drug, how do you cope? Do you need to go to a rehab? Can you quit on your own? I’m genuinely curious.<br><br>With how hard it is to get mental health help, it’s no wonder people end up developing drug addictions. I’m not going to preach how to quit, but what I want to know is - do you want to quit? Do you still enjoy taking drugs, or are you just taking it because you need to function? Do you have any coping mechanisms? Do you feel like you can quit on your own, or do you need outside help? I’m genuinely concerned and I want to know if I need to stage an intervention or not.<br><br>Edit: Typos, and some extra info! There’s definitely a difference between addiction and abuse. Abuse is when you just abuse a drug until you damage yourself, whereas addiction is when you NEED the drug to function. The definitions were murky to me so I didn’t know how to approach it, but there’s definitely a difference between the two. I’m not really sure what the next step is. I just want to help this person and I don’t know how.