Dopesickness is a colloquial term for symptoms of withdrawal that come when a person suddenly stops using opioids (the opioid heroin is sometimes called “dope”). It’s extremely unpleasant, and some addicts keep using just to avoid the effects of dopesickness. The book is titled Dopesick not just because of this slang term, but also because the United States itself is “sick” from the opioid epidemic.
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Dopesick Term Timeline in Dopesick
The timeline below shows where the term Dopesick appears in Dopesick. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...of heroin into the region. Macy wonders how many of Jones’s former users ended up dopesick after he was arrested or how many of them drove over to big cities where...
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...increasingly turned to heroin and to dealing themselves in order to avoid the pain of dopesickness.
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Chapter 5
...an overdose. Hadden believes the death may have been a suicide, in order to avoid dopesickness.
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Chapter 6
...who started the fire looks like a poor junkie who is desperate to avoid being dopesick. His circumstances are very different from Spencer Mumpower, who went to private school and several...
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Chapter 8
...fly to Jacksonville for another attempt at treatment. His friend Dennis, however, is vomiting from dopesickness and buys heroin to ease it. Jesse is reluctant at first, but since he’s also...
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Chapter 10
...requires a long hospital stay. Babies with NAS look like miniature versions of adults with dopesickness.
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Chapter 12
...against him are true, he denies that he ever used drugs to have sex with dopesick users.
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