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Joshua Lyon was no stranger to substance abuse. By the time he was seventeen, he had already found sanctuary in pot, cocaine, Ecstasy, and mushrooms--just to name a few. Ten years later, on assignment for Jane magazine, he found himself with a two-inch-thick bottle of Vicodin in his hands and only one decision to make: dispose of the bottle or give in to his curiosity. He chose the latter. In a matter of weeks he'd found his perfect drug.
In the early half of this decade, purchasing painkillers without a doctor was as easy as going online and checking the spam filter in your inbox. The accessibility of these drugs--paired with a false perception of their safety--contributed to their epidemic-like spread throughout America's twenty-something youth, a group dubbed Generation Rx. Pill Head is Joshua Lyon's harrowing and bold account of this generation, and it's also a memoir about his own struggle to recover from his addiction to painkillers. The story of so many who have shared this experience--from discovery to addiction to rehabilitation--Pill Head follows the lives of several young people much like Joshua and dares to blow open the cultural phenomena of America's newest pill-popping generation.
Marrying the journalist's eye with the addict's mind, Joshua takes readers through the shocking and often painful profiles of recreational users and suffering addicts as they fight to recover. Pill Headis not only a memoir of descent, but of endurance and of determination. Ultimately, it is a story of encouragement for anyone who is wrestling to overcome addiction, and anyone who is looking for the strength to heal.
For a Jane magazine article, Lyon bought Vicodin illegally over the Internet. After devouring the painkillers he immediately ordered more, his journalistic research turning into a full-fledged addiction. Lyon had company in his opiate abuse-more than 33 million Americans have used prescription painkillers nonmedically, he notes. The seven million currently abusing Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet, et al., are more than those who use cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy and meth combined. As Lyon researched his book-and fed his continuing addiction-he explored the latest permutation of the American drug culture, one that has snared everyone from doctors and schoolkids to grandmothers on social security. Lyon interpolates memoir segments between interviews with experts and profiles of other abusers. The fact that he also strongly advocates certain policy and treatment strategies adds another element to an already broad approach. The resulting swirl of characters, story lines and perspectives at first makes it difficult to find a narrative thread. Yet Lyon writes powerfully about his own experiences as a young, troubled gay man in New York City, and it's this human story that stays with the reader. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Prologue xiii
1 The How, the Why, and Let's Get High 1
2 "I Want Total Sensory Deprivation and Backup Drugs" 13
3 "I Meant for You to Take One or Two-Not the Whole Thing!" 25
4 "I Couldn't Imagine Ever Not Doing Them" 43
5 "Depression Hurts" 53
6 "Remember Valley of the Dolls?" 63
7 "It Was the Worst Week of My Life" 73
8 "Are We Being Irresponsible?" 83
9 Heather Hits Rehab 109
10 Fight or Flight 123
11 How to Destroy a Doctor 133
12 Jared's Turn 143
13 Hunting and Shutting Down 149
14 Horror Hospital 177
15 "All of This Foam Came Out of My Son's Mouth" 187
16 Escape to (and in) the Midwest 199
17 Harm Reduction and the Future of Painkiller Abuse 213
18 "Boredom Is God" 221
19 One Year Later 231
20 Onward 241
Epilogue 262
Sources 265
Resources 269
Anonymous
Posted November 1, 2011
As someone who was badly hooked on all manners of painkillers I was so shocked at how accurate the writters description of the high was! Wow... this truly is one of my peers. Having a pinched nerve in my elbow ended up resulting in years of replacement therapy. It was a success from the 1st try but I'm sure I'm one of the lucky few. Read this and pass the word along to anyone who has half a chance of being affected by this epidemic!!!! It's as serious as heroin folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted October 8, 2011
I enjoyed the book and it was a fast read. I have always been fascinated with addictions and drugs and i thought i was pretty saavy on the subject. I learned alot more through this book.
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Posted March 31, 2011
How refreshing to hear the truth and not babble!
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Posted December 5, 2010
Couldn't put this book down for a secind time!
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Overview
Joshua Lyon was no stranger to substance abuse. By the time he was seventeen, he had already found sanctuary in pot, cocaine, Ecstasy, and mushrooms--just to name a few. Ten years later, on assignment for Jane magazine, he found himself with a two-inch-thick bottle of Vicodin in his hands and only one decision to make: dispose of the bottle or give in to his curiosity. He chose the latter. In a matter of weeks he'd found his perfect drug.
In the early half of this decade, purchasing painkillers without a doctor was as easy as going online and checking the spam filter in your inbox. The accessibility of these drugs--paired with a false perception of their...