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How did you know your fentanyl use had crossed a line?

Posted by graniteflow19 on August 10, 2026

Original post

The moment I knew fentanyl had taken over was when I stopped caring what I was actually buying, I just needed something that worked within twenty minutes of running out. I'd been using pressed pills for months telling myself they were oxy, and it was only when a friend's test strip came back positive that I understood why my tolerance had exploded so fast. I was using every four to six hours just to avoid getting sick, not to feel anything good anymore. When I caught myself lying to my sister about where grocery money went, that's when I admitted the line had been crossed a long time before I noticed it.

2 replies

  • quietmarsh550
    I knew something was wrong when I started needing a dose before I even got out of bed, just to function enough to shower. Before fentanyl, I could go a full day if I had to, uncomfortable but functional, and that stopped being true almost immediately. I also noticed I'd started keeping extra hidden in places I'd never have hidden anything before, like inside a shoe in my closet. Recognizing how much planning and hiding was going into it made it obvious this had become the center of my life.
  • amberlodge402Marked as the answer
    For me the line was an overdose I don't fully remember. A friend told me afterward that I turned blue and she had to use naloxone on me twice before I came back around, and I had no memory of any of it happening. That gap in my memory scared me more than anything else because it meant my body had gone somewhere I couldn't track anymore. I went to a detox program the next week because I knew I couldn't manage what was happening in my body without medical support at that point.

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