Opioids Feel Like Love. That’s Why They’re Deadly in Tough Times.

I had told myself that I’d never try heroin because it sounded too perfect. It’s like “warm, buttery love,” a friend told me.

When I did yield to temptation — in a fit of rage over a boyfriend’s infidelity in the mid-1980s — that’s what I experienced. It wasn’t euphoria that hooked me. It was relief from my dread and anxiety, and a soothing sense that I was safe, nurtured and unconditionally loved.

Science now shows that this comparison is more than metaphor. Opioids mimic the neurotransmitters that are responsible...