Oklahoma Magazine April 2018

From Fireworks to

Desperation

By Tara Malone

OPIOID ADDICTION, called an epidemic by law enforcement, is one of the leading causes of drug-related deaths in Oklahoma.

“It was like fireworks going off in my brain.”

This is how Nicole Crestmont recounts the first time she took oxycodone.

In Spring 2008, Crestmont struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide. When a co-worker offered her the drug, everything seemed to turn around.

“Oxy made all of my emotional pain completely disappear,” says Crestmont, a Norman resident who asked that her real name not be used. “It began as something I was in control of, but it spun far out of my control in only a few months.”

Crestmont describes the highs of opioid addiction as “floating in a warm ocean,” but the with

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drawals as “utter hell.”

“Coming down off opioids is like being in a car that is about to slam into a brick wall and you can’t find the brakes … because there are no brakes,” she says. “Being without opioids after you have taken them for a while feels like vomit, lots of vomit, and pain in places you didn’t know could hurt – your teeth, your hair, every single muscle between your ribs.

“I first knew I was an addict when I started throwing up first thing every morning. Or maybe it was when I started crawling around on my knees digging through my carpet for a piece of a pill that I ‘might have dropped.’ Being an addict feels like sheer desperation.”

Crestmont has been clean for almost 10 years, but she’ll never forget how addiction nearly destroyed her life.