Opiate Withdrawal Medication
Find out how opiate withdrawal medication can ease the detox process
In recent years, opiate addiction rates have skyrocketed in the United States. This includes both prescription opiate addictions as well as heroin addictions. Because of the increase in opiate abuse and addiction, the rates of fatal overdoses have also increased significantly. Of course, there are ways to make it through an opiate addiction and into recovery. The biggest hurdle for most people to get over when fighting to overcome an opiate addiction is detox. Going through detox means getting the opiate completely out of the system and body which in turn means experiencing withdrawal symptoms. While this process can be difficult, there are ways to help detox from opiates, including the use of opiate withdrawal medication. It is important to get to know the options for opiate withdrawal treatment so that you can be sure that you are able to successfully overcome an opiate addiction and take back your life from addiction.
What Is Opiate Withdrawal?
In order to understand the ways to help detox from opiates and why opiate withdrawal medication is so important, you need to know what opiate withdrawal entails. When a person goes through opiate withdrawal, it is because the person is not consuming or using opiates as often as the body has become accustomed to. In the detox process, this means the person has decided to completely quit using opiates.
Because addiction is just as much physical as it is mental or emotional, the body will react in negative ways when it is denied the opiate drug to which it is addicted. The exact reasons for these negative reactions are biochemical in nature and have to do with the changes an opiate addiction makes to a person's brain chemistry.
What Is Opiate Withdrawal Treatment?
Opiate withdrawal treatment is a way to help a person successfully get through detox from an opiate drug. Generally speaking, this means that the addict that wishes to recover from an opiate addiction will go to a medical detox treatment center to get through the first stages of opiate addiction recovery. In the medical detox center, the person will receive supervision and 24/7 support and care while they go through opiate withdrawals.
How Long Do Opiate Withdrawals Last?
While every person that goes through the detox process will experience it a little differently, opiate withdrawals generally start within the first 12 hours that a person stops using opiates. These symptoms will hit their worst at about 3 days after the onset of symptoms and then will gradually decrease over the next several days or weeks. Some symptoms can linger on longer and it is not uncommon for a person to experience intermittent or occasional opiate cravings throughout the rest of their life. However, these cravings become more manageable and less intense as recovery continues.
What Is Opiate Withdrawal Medication?
Opiate withdrawal medication can be used during the medical detox process for patients that may need it or want it. Such medications are designed to help control the detox process, making it more gradual and predictable. A doctor could prescribe an opiate withdrawal medication to be administered to help manages severe discomfort during detox or ca be used to try to prevent severe symptoms like seizures from occurring.
These opiate withdrawal medication options tend to contain to components. One component is a low-dose opiate drug and the other is an opiate antagonist. What this means is that the medications trick the body into thinking it is consuming opiates and satisfying the dependence it has on the drug, but the full effects of the opiate never occur. These medications prevent the effects of cold turkey opiate detox and make the process much easier for the patients going through detox.
On top of that, many people with severe opiate addictions, meaning they have had the addiction for many years or they have attempted recovery previously and ended up back in treatment, may continue using opiate withdrawal medication after the detox process is technically completed to prevent relapse and intense drug cravings. This treatment is not appropriate for all patients and the goal is to discontinue such treatments as soon as it is safe to do so and the patient is able to cope with cravings and triggers without the crutch of prescription medication.
Now that you better understand medical detox, opiate withdrawals, and the ways that opiate withdrawal medication can help with the process, you can be sure that you approach your detox process and opiate addiction recovery in the best and healthiest way possible.