For many years, we’ve been seeing an increase in deaths related to opioid overdoses in the United States. So, the FDA and the CDC decided to analyze the data the National Vital Statistics Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Statistics System released for the years between 2002 and 2013.

It’s not new that usually men have more addiction problems. However, women also have the same problem. One of the surprising conclusions of the study was the fact that the heroin addiction has been increasing among young women.

Until now, women who had substance addiction problems were mainly related to alcohol, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepine. But this study shows a new heroin epidemic among women specifically.

Heroin Top Preference: More People Addicted to Heroin

Despite the preference for certain drugs keeps changing over time, until this report it was known that the preferred drugs were synthetic drugs, meth, and cocaine. However, it seems that heroin is now returning to the top preferences once again, and if this was only a phenomenon you could see in the cities, it’s spreading to the suburbs too. According to the study, the most common heroin user is young, middle-class, and female.

The fact that heroin is coming back to the top preferences may be a result of the high number of people who are addicted to prescription painkillers, like morphine, Oxycontin, Percocet, or Vicodin, to mention some. The fact that heroin is more affordable is definitely one of the reasons to its comeback.

Are Women Really More Addicted to Heroin?

Before this study, there was no evidence suggesting that women or men were more frequently addicted to heroin. So, how come women are now consuming more heroin? There are several reasons:

* Women have more prescription painkillers than men;

* Women tend to be addicted faster than men;

* Women usually don’t tend to get help or at least, they take much longer to do so.

* Women are more susceptible to have an opioid overdose and die than men.

There’s no doubt that painkillers can be very addictive in a short time-frame. And with the more strict regulations regarding prescription medications, it’s even harder and pricier to continue to take those painkillers. In the end, it’s much more easy and affordable to women to start using heroin than continue with the prescribed painkillers. And the fact that it’s so mainstream nowadays, people don’t even need to go to the cities or bad neighborhoods to get it. They can easily find heroin in the suburbs as well.

The main problem with women’s heroin addiction is the fact that they usually don’t ask for help. And this happens for several reasons:

* lack of education;
* lack of access;
* may not be able to access the help they need because they don’t work outside home;
* fear of losing their children;
* fear of the stigma of drug addiction;
* among others.

Women really need to step up for themselves and find good addiction treatment centers that can help her deal with substance abuse and addiction.