Experts have discovered the devastating toll of opioid addiction after murder suspect Alex Murdaugh claimed to be a 60-pill-a-day addict.
Murdaugh, 54, said he first became addicted to oxycodone after being given the pain reliever after surgery for a football injury.
He abused the drugs for decades and claimed to spend $60,000 a week on opioids at the height of his addiction.
Many social media users doubted that anyone could actually consume 60 pills a day and still act as a powerful advocate.
But Dr. Tildabeth Doscher, an addiction medicine specialist at the University of Buffalo, told DailyMail.com, “Tolerance is more important than quantity” when it comes to opioids. You or I would die if I took ten because my opioid receptors have no experience.’
Research shows that severe opioid addiction causes emotional swings, unprovoked outbursts, paranoia and depression, and debilitating withdrawal symptoms.
Paul, Alex, Maggie and Buster at a Gamecocks basketball game in January 2019. Murdaugh is accused of shooting Paul and Maggie on the night of June 7, 2021
Dr. Doscher said that Mr. Murdaugh likely had to slowly increase the number of pills he took each day to get to his fix and avoid withdrawal as his abuse continued.
Mr Murdaugh is currently on trial for the 2021 murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
Oxycodone is highly addictive and has been known to cause addiction in people who use it for treatment.
People suffering from this type of addiction often have trouble regulating their emotions, often feel numb or experience violent outbursts.
This is because of the effects the medication itself has on a person’s mood regulation.
Opioids in particular make a person feel euphoric, but they also affect a person’s ability to regulate their mood.
An addict tends to lose control of their emotions and sometimes do things that others find strange.
Drug addiction is also associated with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression.
This is because the addiction can create feelings of sadness and hopelessness when a person does not get their fix.
Alex Murdaugh claims he stole more than $10 million to fund 60-pill-a-day habit sparked by knee injury in college
Murdaugh told police he paid his cousin, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, the drug dealer’s cousin, $60,000 a week for pills.
Spending large sums of money on the pills can also be stressful as it drains resources from the rest of your existence. This increases the feeling of hopelessness.
Even people who already suffer from these diseases are already exposed to an increased risk of developing and becoming addicted.
Paranoia is another common side effect of addiction. Mr Murdaugh blamed the paranoia caused by his drug use for his inconsistent behavior after the murders of his wife and son.
Over time, a person will need more and more of the drug to balance themselves and avoid withdrawal symptoms, experts say.
“Tolerance develops,” dr. Doscher told DailyMail.com.
“There are opioid receptors in the brain. Opioids hit it. You or I will die if I take ten because my opioid receptors are inexperienced.
“Tolerance is more important than quantity.”
Murdaugh’s opioid use dates back to the early 2000s when he was a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks college football team.
This means his tolerance to the drugs has probably been built up over the past 20 years. The disgraced legal villain says the pills “made everything better” for him.
“Opiates gave me energy. Whatever I did made it more interesting. It made me want to do it longer,” he told jurors on Friday.
Opioid drugs, including oxycodone, heroin and fentanyl, work by attaching to opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord and other parts of the body.
The drugs cause a feeling of euphoria and pleasure and can relieve a user’s feelings of pain.
These drugs are known to be addictive as the body craves the euphoria they cause.
However, over time, the receptors lose their sensitivity to the drug. This means that a person needs more opiates to achieve the same feeling.
A person will slowly need more and more to achieve this feeling and the body can experience withdrawal symptoms if this urge is not satisfied.
“More and more is needed to counteract withdrawal, because once these opioid receptors are full, they begin to empty and cause withdrawal symptoms,” said Dr. doctor.
“People use and use and keep using because they’re trying to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.”
Many people turn to more dangerous street versions of the drug to get their fix once their addiction reaches a sufficient point.
Mr. Murdaugh, a wealthy man who can reportedly afford to spend $60,000 a day on the pills, has been able to sustain this dangerous addiction for over a decade.
Dr. Tildabeth Doscher of the University at Buffalo said it is certainly possible for a person to develop a tolerance to oxycodone if they can take more than 60 pills a day.
It escalates and escalates,” he told the court. He said he had visited a detox center three times, the first time in December 2017.
“Opiate withdrawal is, phew, it’s hard,” Murdaugh said. He described how “you have to throw”. You have terrible diarrhea. You sweat like you’re running a marathon. You can’t keep your legs still.”
At this point, he probably wasn’t taking the pills every day to get high, but to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
“It sounds like what happened to this person is that they are increasingly used to kill someone who is opioid-naïve,” Doscher said.
“And when someone consumes that much, they are not very worried. They use it to make them feel normal.”
“Dose means nothing, literally nothing, when you’re looking at someone with an opioid use disorder. It could have killed him five years ago, but not now. What he swallowed sounds like retention,” she continued.
“I’m never surprised to hear they took it and felt normal. I imagine if you take that much, you’re still trying to get the euphoria, the dissociative effect.
“So if he takes 50 pills all the time and one day 70, he will feel different. There is a stabilizing dose versus too high a dose.”
However, DR Docher does not believe that Mr Murdaugh’s alleged violent crimes were caused by the opioids themselves.
She says it’s not the kind of drugs that lead to these violent outbursts.
“As for violence, no. People will do things they would never have done otherwise, but kill someone? NO. It’s not like PCP or other drugs that make people more vulnerable to violence,” she explained.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
