Heroin addiction has soared in recent years as reforms aimed at slowing the opiate epidemic made prescription drugs less accessible, and addicts began switching their drug of choice. Like prescription drugs including oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and morphine, heroin is an extremely addictive opiate. This article will cover topics about heroin addiction including signs, withdrawal symptoms, detox, and the levels of care offered at heroin addiction treatment centers.
Heroin is a drug that is extracted from raw opium derived from poppy plants. The drug is commonly abused by snorting, smoking, and shooting the powder or hardened substance. Heroin provides users with a rush of pleasure sensations or euphoria. Due to these solid artificial feelings, an addict begins to use heroin as a coping mechanism or escape. The high from heroin or opiates cause a bond with the drug, which is hard to break. Heroin can be consumed through liquid or powder, by injection, nasal insertion, or smoking. Heroin can be white, brown, or black powders, which are usually injected. However, dealers combine or “cut” heroin with sugar or powdered milk. Street heroin is often cut with poisonous properties, which makes it a risk to use.
Heroin addiction is often difficult to escape and is often abused correspondingly with opiates and painkillers.
Long-term heroin abuse will cause adverse physical effects and medical deficiencies. It also causes financial, behavioral, relationship issues. The symptoms of heroin addiction are diverse. These include:
The appearance of “nodding” or sleeping
Pinpoint pupils
Marks or bruises on extremities
Avoidance of loved ones
Irritability and hostility
Euphoria followed with depression
Disorientation
Due to the strong effects of heroin abuse on the body, withdrawal has severe side effects. The withdrawal stage can begin as early as a few hours to 48 hours after last use. Withdraw symptoms are contingent on the abuser’s frequency, duration, and quantity of use. The consequences of heroin abuse impact various parts of a user’s life. These include medical, social, and economic outcomes.
Common Withdrawal Symptoms of Heroin:
All In Solutions Heroin Addiction Treatment Program Can Help You Regain The Life You Deserve
Get HelpHeroin detox symptoms are managed with the proper dispensation of several drugs to minimize the physical sensations of withdrawal. Some examples of commonly used medicines include clonidine, naltrexone, suboxone, and methadone, which may only be administered in a licensed drug addiction treatment center. These medications are merely examples and do not reflect the specific drug used for any individual’s heroin detoxification.
A licensed medical professional will need to evaluate and monitor each patient during their detox process to receive the right treatment. At All in Behavioral Health, we offer 24-hour, 7-days-a-week treatment by medical staff and behavioral technicians at all of our inpatient detox programs. This will help you feel comfortable and safe during this difficult time. Through proper detoxification and treatment, your journey back to sobriety will be complex but life-changing. Once you have completed a heroin detox program and withdrawal has subsided, you can begin to address the root of the disease in a drug addiction treatment program.
Did you know that most health insurance plans provide coverage for substance use disorder treatment? Submit your policy information below for a free, confidential review of your benefits. All In Solutions accepts most health insurance plans.
After detox, those recovering from heroin dependence must seek additional help, typically at an inpatient facility. The stability and safety of an inpatient rehab allows individuals to build a support network and immerse themselves in recovery before rejoining the environmental stressors of everyday life. Addressing physiological and mental health issues will decrease the chances of relapse and give each individual an opportunity to work on their underlying issues.
All In Solutions heroin recovery program combines complex therapeutic practices, 12-step programs, optional medication-assisted treatment plans, and recreational activities with peers to create a holistic healing environment. We provide truly individualized care, meaning each patient’s treatment plan is uniquely tailored to accommodate their needs. Patient progress through the program and graduate to less intensive levels of care according to their growth.
Overall, our core mission is to help each individual receive the care and compassion that was once given to us.
Inpatient Rehab –
Inpatient treatment, sometimes called residential treatment, requires patients to remain in a facility for an extended period during which they receive treatment. After detoxification and stabilization in a residential environment, partial hospitalization programs (PHP) are usually the next step. PHP is where actual healing for mental health issues that play a role in heroin addiction takes place.
This level of care is ideal for those who have been unable to maintain any significant sobriety outside of treatment. Perhaps they have trouble processing their emotions, suffer from mental health disorders that make them more prone to drug abuse, or are recuperating from an overdose. Inpatient treatment is the most intensive type of addiction therapy.
Outpatient Rehab – After completing inpatient treatment, most people will continue their treatment in an intensive outpatient program (IOP). IOP continues to provide patients with a high level of supervision and assistance as they make the transition back to normal life. While still living at home, patients can continue to attend treatment and meetings on a daily basis.
An IOP does not require that a person begin treatment in a residential facility. Because residential therapy is not practical for everyone owing to job or family commitments, it may be beneficial for someone who still need extensive assistance or does not have a strong support network at home. However, most outpatient treatment programs will not accept patients who have not maintained at least a week of sobriety and can pass a drug test.
Outpatient Addiction Counseling – Even if a person is making progress in their recovery, they may benefit from continuing to meet with a counselor or therapist on a regular basis to hold them accountable and offer them with support.
Like any counselor or therapist, addiction counselors utilize talk therapy on an outpatient basis to help patients work through difficulties and improve their ability to process emotions. Addiction counselors, however, are uniquely suited to help those in early recovery as they are familiar with the typical struggles and understand the importance of a patients sobriety.
Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) – Heroin addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to recover from partly because of the profound physical impacts that opiates have on a person. In addition to this, because of the introduction of fentanyl and carfentanyl to the drug supply a heroin relapse can quickly result in overdose and death. These factors have made medication-assisted treatment programs much more prominent in treating heroin addiction.
Proven to be effective in reducing relapse rates and also in decreasing overdose rates in those that do relapse, medication assisted treatment programs utilize medications like Suboxone, Methadone, or Vivitrol to help minimize post-accute withdrawal symptoms and curb cravings in recovering addicts.
The effectiveness of MAT programs is dependent upon the rehabilitation that the medication supports. Simply getting a prescription from an outpatient Suboxone doctor will not provide a high probability of long-term recovery. This medication is intended to complement therapeutic efforts, not to replace them.
Faith-Based Recovery Program – For decades, even before the program now know as Alcoholics Anonymous began, recovering addicts have realized the importance of reliance on a higher power. Christian drug rehabs and faith-based recovery programs have built on this idea by utilizing Biblical teachings and spiritual principles to supplement the reconstructive program guided by the 12 steps.
In many faith based addiction programs, including the one offered at All In Solutions, Christian and 12 step elements are combined with evidence-based therapeutic practices to provide biological, psychological, social, and spiritual change.
For many people struggling with heroin addiction, finding a Suboxone doctor or clinic can seem like a convenient and effective solution. While Suboxone will help to curb withdrawal symptoms giving a person a better chance at getting clean, there are non-physical components to addiction that are not addressed. Intensive counseling and therapy are necessary to get to the root of the problem, and outside of the accountability and safety of an inpatient rehab, heroin addicts are unlikely to follow through and stay on track in their recovery.
Just like Suboxone, methadone only solves (temporarily) the physical problem of addiction. Without addressing the mental health conditions that contibute to a person’s addiction, they have little chance of long-term success. In addition, methadone has an extremely long half-life making it very long and painful to detox from.
Yes, tons of research definitively concludes that rehab is effective. That being said, it’s worth noting that this questions is a little deeper than it looks. First of all, whether or not rehab works depends on your definition of success. If a patient goes to rehab and then stays sober for 15 years before relapsing, was that treatment successful? That is for you to decide. However, scientific evidence supports that rehab is effective in producing long-term sobriety as well as reducing the occurences and severity of relapse in the patients who do not stay entirely abstinent.
A patients length of stay is dependent on their needs and their progress during treatment. At All In Solutions, we will work with you to provide an individualized treatment plan that will work for you and get you home as soon as you are ready.
The cost of rehab depends on the program and your insurance provider. In some cases, addiction treatment is entirely covered by health insurance. To get a better idea of the out-of-pocket cost of treatment at All In Solutions, give us a call or visit our scholarship and insurance verification page.
The level of care you choose should be whatever is recommended by professional clinicians. When you call All In Solutions, we will perform an assessment on the phone which will be reviewed by our medical and clinical team. Based on your substance use and mental health history, they will recommend a level of care that will best meet your needs.
To get started, simply give us a call! Our admissions team will collect your health insurance and demographic information to assess any financial responsibility you may have. After that, you will complete an assessment that will be reviewed by our clinical and medical team so that we can identify a treatment plan that is likely to work for you. Once you are approved for admission, our admissions team will help you come up with a plan to tie up any loose ends like speaking to your employer or family, and plan your intake.
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