They had a special assembly in high school (very unusual) and they showed us a black and white film about heroin addiction (which we knew nothing about). The withdrawal scene had a once pretty woman screaming and scratching her arms begging for a fix. Nothing that ugly was ever on TV or even in the movies.
We were stunned
I can't speak to heroin withdrawal, but opioid withdrawal was nothing like that for me. Quitting cigarettes was tougher.
I ran out after my surgery because I had plenty left over from before surgery, so I told the surgeon i was good on pain pills. Post-op pain was gone by the time I ran out and I had been reducing the dosage (too quickly as it turned out) on my own so I didn't worry about getting any more. Then I couldn't sleep more than a half hour a night for three days and I figured out I was dependent. Went to my surgeon, told him what was going on, and he prescribed enough for me to taper off without the side effects. Two weeks later I was pain AND drug free.
Easy Peasy.