Opioid overdose has become a problem in every nation around the world and it has become the cause of numerous accidental deaths but opioids in their natural form aren't the only cause of overdose, there are other synthetic drugs like fentanyl which is also a rising cause of death in young people. The death rate in the past years has increased with people mixing drugs like fentanyl with other drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, or any other drug.
Surprisingly, the people who take these drugs always know when someone has taken an overdose of the drugs and they can differentiate each drug taken by the attitude of the person who took an overdose. Drugs like fentanyl are fat soluble, so they can cross the blood-brain barrier easily. Fentanyl can even make its addict unconscious very fast and fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than morphine which is even stronger than heroin. News flash, with just about 2mg of fentanyl, it can be a suicidal case.
In the case of an overdose, the opioid and dopamine receptor is quickly flooded, and when this happens, there is a feeling of bliss, warmth, and calmness which is a result of the part of the brain responsible for alertness getting slowed by the drug. In severe cases, the neurons in the brain could tell the lungs to stop breathing thereby leading to cerebral hypoxia where the brain lacks oxygen. When this happens, brain cells start to die and the cerebral cortex starts to tell other parts of the brain not to function and gradually every other part of the brain begins to die. If such people aren't saved fast enough, their brains can go dead in about 6 minutes max.
In cases where the injury isn't much, there can still be injuries to the brain in what is known as the hidden brain injury. People who continually injure their brains might end up suffering attention deficit, learning impairment, memory issues, and so on. People who overdose on fentanyl aren't always the ones to tell their experiences because they usually do not have the time to tell their stories. They often collapse or drift off as they call it and they start to experience cyanosis as a result of low oxygen levels.
Some people do not experience the blackout immediately, rather they can tell their experience of how their eyes began to shut. The lucky ones are sent to the ER and if they are lucky, they survive. A lot of users even worsen their case by abusing multiple substances known as polysubstance abuse. Some people even mix these drugs with stimulants giving them a more disturbing result that can be very dangerous to their health as they are stuck in fight or flight mode causing them to become irritated, and irrational, which could put them at a high risk of a heart attack, seizures, stroke, or aneurysm.
While some people take it with stimulants, some can take it with depressants, either way, they are both wrong as they can be problematic to the body where the body can react too high or go too low before or do both which can lead to serious problems. In one simple sentence, Stop Drugs as it is one of the fastest ways to death.
FOR FURTHER READING
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/2025-cdc
https://speciality.medicaldialogues.in/cocaine-use-as-a-rare
https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/cocaine-addiction/can-cocaine-kill-you-instantly/
https://erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Pharms_Fentanyl.shtml
https://theconversation.com/carfentanil-is-100-times-more-potent-than-fentanyl
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/2025-cdc-reports
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470415/
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8889511/
https://stjosephinstitute.com/blog/drug-overdoses-can-lead-to-lasting-brain-damage/
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcohol/risks-effects-dangers/brain