Heroin Rehab Treatment

First and foremost, heroin is dangerous. It causes immediate changes in the body. First-time users will feel nauseous, and even experienced users will throw suffer from nausea, sickness, and vomiting on a regular basis. Once the drug has passed through your bloodstream, the effects are instant and will impact your quality of life both physically and mentally.

Heroin, with its opiate-based qualities, impacts how the user experiences different sensations and the cognitive acknowledgment of 'being rewarded.' Once the opiate is injected into the bloodstream, its powers take effect within seconds.

When the opioids in the drug meet the receptors in the brain, they cling onto the molecules, thus creating a feeling of intense euphoria, pleasure, and tranquility. But this is not reality. Heroin use causes severe damage to our thought-processing abilities, decision-making powers, and results in abnormal behavior.

Heroin transforms what is known as you into an entirely different entity.

Although heroin is cheaper than some drugs, addiction can become extremely expensive no matter what the substance is. The financial burden can affect people beyond the individual.

Heroin addiction retracts normal human decisions, and when a user is no longer financially able to purchase their next dose, they are likely to steal from family and friends or manipulate others into giving them money.

Like many drug addictions, heroin dependence does not discriminate against background, origin or status. While the overwhelming effects of the drug take over, an individual's commitment to work and professional life can diminish.  Living with heroin addiction and working, or fulfilling responsibilities is often unheard of.

The emotional effects on both an addict and the family of an addict are extreme. It can be devastating to a person's self-esteem and lead to the development of various mental disorders. Friends and family may also feel anxious for the person and guilty that they cannot seem to help their loved one.

Addiction is known to destroy relationships with family and friends. Often when someone is addicted, they can become deceitful and aggressive, and more often than not, they choose heroin over their relationships.

Heroin is a drug that is highly likely to result in physical dependency, which means the body quickly starts to depend on and crave the drug. Long-term impacts include drastic weight loss, and therefore a completely altered and disheveled appearance.

The sky-high risk of transmitting HIV or other infections is also a serious risk of heroin abuse. Sharing needles, which are often used or tainted with someone else's blood, is a danger. Through bloody needles, you could inject someone else’s blood with HIV into yours.

Many heroin users under the influence will engage in risky sexual intercourse due to lower levels of inhibition and a distorted view of behavioural consequences. The chances of contracting a serious sexual disease are much bigger for those who are addicted to heroin.

Listed below are some common physical risks of heroin use:

• Lesions/ abscesses
• Blood poisoning
• Gangrene
• Necrosis
• Amputation
• Liver disease
• Collapsed veins
• Kidney disease
• Pulmonary infections
• Chronic constipation
• Hepatitis
• Brain damage
• Skin infections
• Infertility

Due to the intensity of the drug, a heroin user is at high risk of overdose. While death is not certain, if the person does not receive immediate medical attention, the consequences can be severe and permanent. If heroin does not kill you, it will ruin your quality of life.

Heroin detox means cleansing your body from a harmful substance. At nearly all rehab centres you’ll have to go through a period of detoxification. In the case of heroin rehab, this means to stop using the drug: withdrawal symptoms will soon follow.

Heroin also has a short half-life. That means that the duration of the effects of the drug is fairly short, and it will be out of your system in several days. In comparison with cannabis for instance, which has a half-life of a full month, this seems like nothing. 

The length of heroin detox depends on various factors. First of all, if detoxification takes place in a facility with medical staff, the process can go by a lot faster.

Generally speaking, detox can be completed in about two weeks, but sometimes it can take a few weeks to a few months longer based on the process and severity of the addiction. After the main process of detox, withdrawal symptoms and cravings can come and go for months if not years.

Detox is hard, but it can be easier when done in a rehab facility when detoxing a person experience both physical and emotional symptoms that can feel devastating. When a person is going through detox, a doctor will help them come up with a plan that will allow them to detox safely and as comfortably as possible.

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Insomnia
• Diarrhea
• Dilated pupils
• Cramping
• Muscle aches
• Sweating

When someone uses heroin, the body gets used to the effects of the drug and changes how it operates and how much it releases neurotransmitters. This means that when heroin leaves the body, the brain and body struggle to function, and withdrawal symptoms appear.

In order to overcome withdrawal, it is important that a person has a support system to help them through it. During the process, relapse can sometimes sound better than the withdrawal symptoms, so without a support system, this period is when most people will relapse.

Other than that, it takes determination and time. Symptoms will lessen and pass if a person does not give in and use.

A very important step on the road to recovery. Once you feel slightly better from your withdrawal, you can start thinking of changing your behaviour and way of thinking, so you will not have the urge to start doing heroin again.

Many rehab centres will use rehab techniques like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This is a therapeutic treatment with the aim of improving your awareness of your triggers.

Triggers are specific things or situations that will start your craving for heroin. Say, you might have had a stressful day and you feel like injecting yourself will make you feel much better. That thought process can be stopped through the help of CBT.

Another successful treatment method is medication. In the United Kingdom, the use of methadone is permitted to treat people with heroin addiction. Methadone is a synthetic drug that was originally manufactured as a painkiller but has also been used as a substitute for heroin. It mimics the effects of heroin and will be gradually reduced over time. This is known as ‘harm reduction’.