👍¹³ 💡³³ ☕¹⁰ Big Boy Ben ● 07 October, 2019 ⚓︎

opioids refer to a very large class of drugs including heroin (morphine), fentanyl, and vicodin. the drugs themselves do not have direct effect on personality as they only affect the reward pathway in your brain. however, cravings for the substance as a result of dependence can manifest in behavioral changes as you would expect from someone in pain. understanding that, as with all substance abuse disorders, you'll see comorbid disorders resulting from the trauma of addiction and related events such as anxiety/depression and all the consequences that come with them. in fact, you would be hard pressed to find someone with a substance abuse disorder who doesn't have a co-occurring disorder. however, it is important to be precise about labeling and correlating. being "mean spirited" and "dishonest" and "paranoid" are all subjective terms which can be applied to a lot of people in varying degrees. demonstrating these traits does not mean a person is doing abusing opiates, nor does someone abusing/using opiates always demonstrate them. tl;dr no, opiates do not cause changes in personality. they may cause behavioral change, but for most people using opiates such as in the case of surgeries you'll see no concrete change. negative behavioral change can usually be rectified by medication and cognitive behavioral therapy