For people recovering from long-term opiate addiction, maintaining abstinence on a continual basis can be especially difficult. Long-term addictions tend to leave the brain in a weakened state in terms of its ability to regulate the body’s functions as normal. Under these conditions, medication therapies such as Suboxone treatment become necessary.

Suboxone, one of two brand names for buprenorphine, is specifically designed to treat the types of residual withdrawal effects that make ongoing abstinence so difficult to come by. Suboxone works by blocking opiates from triggering chemical reactions in the brain.

The length of time Suboxone can block opiates depends on different factors that influence the rate at which the body metabolizes the drug. Understanding how Suboxone treatment works can give you a better idea of how long Suboxone’s blocking effects will last.

Feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to ask about available Suboxone treatment options.

How Does Suboxone Block Opiates?

Suboxone is a synthetic opiate drug that contains two ingredients: buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine, a synthetic opiate agent, occupies the same brain cell receptor sites as addictive opiate drugs and thereby prevents addictive opiates from forcing these cells to release excess amounts of neurotransmitter chemicals. According to the Journal of Psychiatry, buprenorphine’s effects work to support normal chemical secretion rates, which helps to restore a normal chemical balance in the brain.

Suboxone can usually block opiates for 1 to 3 days.

Naloxone, the second ingredient in Suboxone, also occupies affected cell sites, but does so for the purpose of discouraging a person from relapsing back into old drug-using behaviors. In effect, someone who abuses opiates while on Suboxone will experience severe withdrawal symptoms due to naloxone’s blocking effects.

Suboxone Half-Life Effects

A drug’s half-life duration marks the amount of time it takes for the body to metabolize and eliminate half of what was ingested in terms of dosage amount. In effect, a drug’s half-life helps determine how long its intended effects will last.

According to the Food & Drug Administration, Suboxone’s buprenorphine ingredient has a half-life duration of 37 hours, whereas the naloxone portion has a half-life of 1.1 hours. This means, 37 hours after taking Suboxone, half of the buprenorphine portion will have left the body’s system. With naloxone, it takes just over an hour for half of what was ingested to leave the system.

Duration Effects

The length of time Suboxone blocks opiates varies depending on a range of factors, including:

• Length of time on Suboxone
• Body weight
• How often a person takes Suboxone
• Potential drug interactions

Each of the above factors has an effect on the body’s metabolism rate, which ultimately determines how long Suboxone’s effects last. In cases of long-term Suboxone treatment, the drug has time to build up in the body’s tissues, which tends to prolong Suboxone’s ability to block opiates with each successive dose. Likewise, frequency of Suboxone use can also have the same effect.

People who take other types of medications or abuse drugs while in Suboxone treatment may experience prolonged or shorter duration effects depending on whether the other drug slows or speeds up the body’s metabolism rates.

On average, Suboxone can block opiate effects anywhere from one to three days depending on the types of factors at work.

If you or someone you know are considering Suboxone treatment and need help finding a Suboxone program, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction specialists.

What is Subutex and Is it a Safe Treatment for Opiate Addiction?

As happy as friends and family may be that you’re in recovery, they may not realize that it’s a process and that it takes time. With daily stressors and temptations to use popping up left and right, anyone in recovery knows it only takes one wrong choice to set the drug abuse cycle back in motion.

In effect, wanting to meet your family’s expectations and hopes can become a pressure in itself; one more pressure that you just don’t need. Helping your family understand the ups and downs of recovery can go a long way towards helping everyone get on the same page, and greatly reduce some unneeded pressure on your end.

Call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for information on family-based treatment supports.

The Addiction Recovery Process

According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, addiction, in and of itself, is chronic in nature, altering a person’s life on a physical, psychological and behavioral level. Things can be going along smoothly for a week or a month followed by a period of emotional distress or intense drug cravings.

Under these conditions, people who live in close proximity to someone in addiction recovery stands to get caught up in the ebbs and flows if they don’t understand how the process works.

Family-Based Treatment Support to Consider

Family therapy can improve your relationships with loved ones.

Family Therapy

Your living environment plays a fundamental role in your recovery process in terms of the day-in, day-out behaviors, interactions and routines that make up your overall lifestyle. In effect, stability within the home goes a long way towards supporting drug-free living.

Family therapy works with the family as a unit to establish healthy communications between family members. Family therapy support also emphasizes the importance of accountability with each person taking responsibility for their emotions and actions.

Relationship Counseling

As a general rule, people in addiction recovery should delay entering into an intimate relationship during the first year of recovery. As this isn’t always possible in cases of marriage or couples with children, relationship counseling can go a long way towards helping your partner understand the challenges you face in recovery.

Relationship counseling also helps improve communications between partners, which is an area that tends to spin out of control during the more difficult periods in the recovery process.

12 Step Support Groups

Addiction not only affects the addict on a mental and emotional level, but also those closest to him or her. During the course of using drugs, your significant other and/or your children may have internalized the effects of addiction on a mental or emotional level, according to the Journal of Social Work in Public Health. These kinds of effects can stay with a family member long after drug use ends.

Twelve Step support groups for families fulfill the same role as 12 Step groups for addicts in terms of providing needed emotional support and equipping family members with needed tools for managing the effects of addiction in their lives.

Considerations

For many in recovery, helping family members cope with the addiction recovery process makes a tremendous difference in terms of supporting their own efforts in recovery. In effect, addiction recovery involves a process of healing, not just for the addict, but also for friends and loved ones who may also need some level of treatment support along the way.

If you have any questions about family-based treatment supports or need help finding a treatment program, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction counselors.

Spending the Holidays with Loved Ones vs. Getting Needed Opium Addiction Treatment

Anyone who’s suffered an unexpected injury or accident well knows that life goes on regardless. Work pressures, family responsibilities and the like continue on as is. This can make for a rough and tumble recovery time, even when the pain pills are working.

The dangers of long-term prescription pain pill use have a lot to do with a person’s day-in, day-out life coupled with the risks that come with any form of ongoing opiate use. With opiate use carrying a high risk of abuse, long-term prescription pain pill use all but guarantees a person will fall into a web of addiction.

Understanding the risks and dangers that come with long-term opiate use can help you in taking steps to address a potential drug problem early on and avoid the pitfalls that come with addiction.

Opiates and the Central Nervous System

According to University of Texas Health Services Center, opiates naturally produce pain-relieving effects due to similarities in chemical makeup with the body’s own endorphin chemicals. The brain and central nervous system produce endorphins on an as-needed basis. Prescription pain pills force the release of large amounts of endorphin chemicals throughout the brain and central nervous system.

Any time excess chemical levels occur on a frequent or regular basis, the brain’s overall chemical system enters into a state of imbalance that gets progressively worse with continued drug use. This growing state of chemical imbalance accounts for why long-term prescription pain pill use can be dangerous.

Long-term pain pill use can actually lead to worsened pain symptoms.

Call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for information on opiate addiction treatment programs.

Effects from Long-Term Prescription Pain Pill Abuse

Rising Tolerance Levels

While following prescription guidelines is the best way to reduce abuse and addiction risks, the brain will still develop an ongoing tolerance for opiates, especially in cases of long-term prescription pain pill use. Rising tolerance levels take shape as the brain automatically adjusts to the presence of opiates in its system.

In effect, the longer you take pain pills the larger the dose required to relieve existing pain symptoms. A person may opt to take larger doses or increase dosing frequencies. Either way, the opiate abuse cycle has begun.

Hyperalgesia

Hyperalgesia, a condition that often develops with long-term prescription pain pill use, entails a worsening of pain symptoms over time to the point where opiate effects actually makes pain symptoms worse, according to University of Utah Health Care. This condition develops out of the damaging effects of opiates on central nervous system communications.

With prolonged drug use, nerve cells become hypersensitive or “fried” as a result of damage done to individual cell structures. Under these conditions, someone living with a chronic pain condition can easily turn to a much stronger drug like heroin out of desperation.

Addiction

Once a person starts engaging in opiate abuse practices, it’s only a matter of time before the makings of an addiction start to take shape. Rather than warp the brain on a physical level, addiction results from effects had on the mind as far as warping a person’s thinking, emotional needs and daily behavior.

Once addiction develops, overdose risks increase exponentially, especially in cases where hyperalgesia is present.

Ultimately, long-term prescription pain pill use is wrought with risks and dangers that may well warrant some form of drug treatment once opiate abuse patterns take over. If you suspect you’re struggling with an opiate abuse problem and need help finding a treatment program that can address your specific needs, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction counselors.

The Dangers of Putting Off Opioid Addiction Treatment

Opiate addiction develops in stages, gradually taking over the brain, body and mind. This same progression takes shape within a person’s drug-using patterns, starting out with a once-every-other-day to once a day and eventually multiple times a day.

While you may be able to manage your affairs during the early stages of opioid addiction, the further along you get the more noticeable the addiction becomes. Granted, it’s difficult to see addiction’s effects from a first-person point of view, but certain key signs do develop along the way.

Putting off getting needed opioid addiction treatment leaves a person wide open for the worst of what addiction has to offer. In effect, the sooner the problem is dealt with the easier it’ll be to live life without the “need” for the drug.

Feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to ask about opiate addiction treatment programs.

Opioid Addiction Effects on the Brain

The “high” effect that opiates bring comes at a high cost, weakening the brain’s functional capacity over time. With each dose, opiates trigger the release of unusually large amounts of neurotransmitter chemicals; chemicals that are normally secreted in gradual amounts based on the body’s needs, according to NeuroImage Journal.

The compulsive drug-using practices of opiate addiction change how the brain works, which accounts for the physical, emotional and psychological decline that addicts experience over time.

The Dangers of Avoiding Opiate Addiction Treatment

Increasing Tolerance Levels

Over time, opioid abuse can lead to the development of psychological disorders.

The brain easily integrates opiates within its chemical system, so a person has to keep taking large amounts in order to experience the desired effects. With this growing tolerance for opiate effects, a person ends up chasing a drug “high” that gets harder and harder to come by.

These conditions place users at high risk of overdose, especially during the later stages of opiate addiction.

Emotional Problems

The strain that opiate addiction places on the brain’s chemical system creates widespread imbalances that eventually start to impair the emotion-based areas of the brain, National Institute on Drug Abuse. After months or years of drug abuse, users face an increasing risk of developing psychological disorders, such as depression, panic attacks and generalized anxiety.

Once full-blown psychological problems take shape addiction severity increases significantly.

Lifestyle Effects

Opiate addiction’s effects essentially warp the the brain’s cognitive centers leaving addicts unable to exercise common sense, let alone make sound judgments or decisions. These conditions account for the ongoing decline that takes place within major areas of a person’s life, some of which include:

• Physical health
• Relationship
• Finances
• Employment status
• Legal problems

When left untreated, the effects of opiate addiction gradually diminish a person’s quality of life as well as his or her sense of self-esteem.

Opioid Addiction Treatment Considerations

Opiate addiction exerts its greatest effects within a person’s thinking and perceptions. For these reasons, it’s important to seek out needed treatment help now, rather than thinking you’ll eventually “snap out of it.”

If you have more questions or need help finding a treatment program, please don’t hesitate to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction specialists.

Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms & When to Seek Help

While most everyone has heard of methadone and its use as an opiate addiction treatment, Subutex is one of the newer opiate addiction treatment medications. First developed in 2002 as an alternative to methadone treatment, Subutex offers certain benefits that methadone doesn’t in terms of accessibility and overall safety.

Like methadone, Subutex is used in combination with psychosocial interventions and can also be used during different stages of the treatment process.

If you’re considering Subutex and need information on rehab programs that offer this form of treatment, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?).

What is Subutex?

According to the Food & Drug Administration, Subutex is the brand name for buprenorphine, a synthetic opiate specifically designed as an opiate addiction treatment medication. As a synthetic opiate, Subutex belongs to the Schedule III class of controlled substances and carries a reduced risk for abuse and addiction compared to methadone’s Schedule II classification.

Subutex Use as an Opiate Addiction Treatment

Subutex acts as a partial-agonist, meaning it doesn’t fully stimulate the brain’s receptor sites. According to the Journal of Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, compared to methadone, this partial effect comes with certain safety benefits, including:

Subutex as a long-term maintenance treatment can help you feel normal again.

• Reduced abuse/addiction potential
• Reduced risk of overdose
• Milder withdrawal effects when stopping Subutex use
• Can be administered on an out-of-office basis
• Can be taken every other day as opposed to methadone’s daily dose requirement

Detox Treatment

Subutex’s therapeutic effects mimic those of addictive opiates, providing considerable relief from the types of uncomfortable withdrawal and drug cravings effects experienced in detox treatment. As withdrawal and drug cravings can quickly compromise a person’s ability to make it through detox, Subutex increases the likelihood a person will successfully complete the detox stage.

Long-Term Maintenance Therapy

People coming off chronic and long-term opiate addiction tend to experience prolonged withdrawal effects, such as depression, anxiety and insomnia for months or even years into the recovery process. Much like its use as a detox treatment medication, Subutex can also be used as a long-term maintenance therapy.

Subutex’s use as a long-term therapy enables a person to feel “normal” again, which increases his or her ability engage in the treatment process.

Psychosocial Interventions

While Subutex does a good job at relieving many of the discomforts that come with opiate addiction recovery, it’s effects don’t address the damaging effects of addiction on a person’s thinking, emotions and behavior. For this reason, Subutex treatment incorporates ongoing psychosocial interventions as a part of this treatment approach.

Interventions commonly used include:

• One-on-one psychotherapy
• Relapse prevention work
• Group therapy
• 12 Step support groups

In effect, Subutex’s effects treat the brain’s ongoing physical dependence on opiates, while psychosocial interventions treat the psychological dependence that opiate addiction leaves behind.

Considerations

While methadone and Subutex do many of the same things, the built-in safety features provided through Subutex treatment may be better suited for people who’ve experienced one or more overdose events. Subutex also works especially well for people who’ve made little no progress through more traditional drug treatment approaches.

Call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to ask about available Subutex treatment options.

Does Subutex Block Opiates?

Whether using opiates for treatment purposes or on a recreational basis, there’s always a risk of developing opiate withdrawal symptoms, especially when drug use is ongoing. While opiates work well as pain-relief agents, they can still offset the brain and body’s systems, with withdrawal episodes developing along the way.

In effect, opiate withdrawal symptoms play a pivotal role in perpetuating drug using behaviors and laying the groundwork for addiction to develop. Knowing when to seek out needed treatment help can go a long way towards avoiding the pitfalls and destruction that come with a developing opiate addiction.

If you have questions about opiate withdrawal treatment, feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?).

Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms

The pain-relieving properties of opiate drugs result from how opiates stimulate neurotransmitter chemical production throughout the brain and central nervous system. Chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin regulate many of the body’s major systems, including thinking and emotions.

During the course of opiate abuse, brain chemical imbalances start to take shape in response to opiate’s ongoing presence in the brain’s chemical system. Opiate withdrawal symptoms develop out of these imbalances and so reflect the brain’s growing dependence on opiate effects.

According to the U. S. National Library of Medicine, opiate withdrawal symptoms typically take the following forms:

Insomnia is common during opiate withdrawal.

• Muddled thinking
• Agitation
• Insomnia
• Random aches and pains
• Depression
• Nausea/vomiting
• Anxiousness

More often than not, a person will resort to using more of the drug in order to gain relief from uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.

The Opiate Abuse Cycle

Opiate withdrawal symptoms play an active role in perpetuating continued drug use and ultimately driving the opiate abuse cycle. According to Harvard Health Publications, the brain develops an ongoing tolerance for opiates, so a person has to keep increasing his or her dosage amount in order to experience the drug’s desired effects.

Next comes physical dependence where opiate withdrawal symptoms develop. From there, opiate effects start to interfere with the brain’s reward system, at which point the makings of addiction are at work.

In effect, rising tolerance levels, physical dependence and addiction all work together to support and increase drug-using behavior.

When to Seek Treatment Help

After so many months of opiate abuse, a person’s overall physical and mental well-being starts to decline making it increasingly difficult for him or her to fulfill work obligations or enjoy time with friends and family. Sleepless nights and growing feelings of depression eventually take a toll on person’s motivation and drive.

Before long, the need for the drug starts to take priority in a person’s life resulting in missed days at work and less time spent with friends and family as opiate withdrawal symptoms increase in intensity and frequency. Add to this a growing addiction problem, and compulsive-drug using behaviors eventually take over a person’s daily life.

Ideally, seeking treatment help during the early stages of opiate abuse can help avoid future problems. Once opiate withdrawal symptoms start to cause real problems in your daily life, the need for drug treatment help becomes more and more apparent.

If you’re considering getting drug treatment and need help finding a program that meets your specific needs, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction counselors.

When Does Withdrawal from Opiates Require Professional Treatment Help?

It can be hard for a person to spot signs of opiate addiction once addiction takes hold. Prescription painkillers, such as Vicodin, Demerol and fentanyl work in much the same way as heroin, so signs of opiate addiction can be just as difficult to spot for someone who’s actively using.

While it can be easy to attribute an opiate abuse problem to the physical effects of the drug, addiction encompasses both a physical and a psychological component. According to Harvard Health Publications, the brain’s nerve receptors learn to adapt to the damaging effects of opiates over time; and so do the cognitive and emotion-based centers of the brain.

These ongoing developments account for why it’s so difficult to spot signs of opiate addiction in your everyday life. Being able to spot these signs early on can go a long way towards preventing a bad situation from getting so much worse.

Call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for information on treatment program options.

Signs of Opiate Addiction

Health Problems

The effects of opiates gradually diminish the brain’s functional capacity over time. These changes inevitably affect the body’s overall health, according to the Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders.

Since opiates act as central nervous system depressants, constipation-related conditions tend to develop and grow more severe as opiate addiction progresses. Opiates also disrupt the brain’s chemical system, which soon gives rise to sleep problems and eventual insomnia.

Fatigue and restlessness are common opiate addiction symptoms.

Other health-related signs of opiate addiction can take the form of sexual dysfunction, fatigue and restlessness as the brain’s chemical system skews further and further off balance.

Emotional Turmoil

Anyone who’s abused prescription painkillers for any length of time has likely experienced bouts of withdrawal. During withdrawal, fluctuations in mood, depression and anxiety develop and persist until another dose of opiates is taken.

As addiction grows more severe, a person runs a very real risk of developing full-blown disorders, such as clinical depression, panic attacks or generalized anxiety disorder. With continued opiate abuse, this sign of opiate addiction can actually make an existing addiction problem that much worse.

Changes in Lifestyle

Opiate addiction most affects a person’s thinking and behaviors, warping his or her values, thinking processes and motivations to the point where getting and using the drug takes precedence over everything else. In turn, these changes impair a person’s sense of judgment and reason driving him or her make poor choices.

Choices made tend to impact important life areas and so one’s quality of life will likely take a turn for the worse. Changes in lifestyle may include:

• Broken relationships, separation or divorce
• Financial difficulties
• Legal problems, such DUIs
• Problems at work or job loss

Treatment Considerations

Compared to drugs like heroin, prescription painkillers may seem like a “safe” alternative, but they’re not. The destructive effects of prescription opiate abuse are no less devastating than heroin once addiction takes hold.

Signs of opiate addiction will only become increasingly worse when left untreated. This means, the sooner a person gets needed treatment help the better.

Please don’t hesitate to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for help with finding a rehab program that meets your treatment needs.

3 Opiate Addiction Symptoms that Can Ruin Your Life

In spite of the obvious changes that opiate abuse brings about in a person’s life, the belief that he or she has everything under control is one of the hallmarks of addiction. Even though someone who abuses opiates has experienced the slowing effects of the drug on multiple occasions, the idea that these same effects can can actually shut down the body’s major systems rarely, if ever crosses his or her mind.

No one ever thinks opiate overdose will happen to them until it does.

According to the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, opiate overdose has become a national epidemic, with an estimated 28,000 fatalities in 2014 alone. Whether a person abuses heroin or prescription drugs like fentanyl or oxycodone, the risk for opiate overdose remains. Without needed opiate addiction treatment help, the risk of overdose only increases with time.

For information on available opiate addiction treatment options, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?).

The Makings of an Opiate Overdose

Opiates have a cumulative effect on the brain’s functional capacity, weakening and changing critical chemical processes over time. These changes evolve in stages. Unless a person seeks out needed opiate addiction treatment, these stages will progress to a point where the brain can no longer maintain the body’s major systems.

Rising Tolerance Levels

Opiates easily integrate within the brain’s chemical system, so the brain readily adapts to opiate effects by reducing its own neurotransmitter chemical output. Opiates also place chemical-producing brain cells under excess strain and damages cell structures in the process.

Needing opiates to cope with daily life puts you at risk of overdose.

These interactions result in rising tolerance levels as the brain comes to require increasing amounts of the drug to produce the desired “high” effect. Tolerance levels will continue to rise for as long as opiate abuse continues.

Physical Dependence

With ongoing opiate abuse, it’s only a matter of time before the brain can no longer regulate the body’s systems in the absence of opiate effects. This state of physical dependence gives rise to withdrawal effects, which only work to further aggravate drug-using behaviors.

At this point, rising tolerance levels and physical dependence create an ever-increasing risk of overdose. Opiate addiction treatment stops this cycle in its tracks and helps a person break opiate’s hold on his or her life.

Mental/Emotional Crutch

According to the Journal of Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, the physical damage of opiate abuse creates prime conditions for a psychological dependence, or addiction to develop. At this point, a person uses the opiate “high” as a means for coping with daily life pressures.

The combined effects of rising tolerance levels, physical dependence and addiction creates the perfect storm for an opiate overdose event. In effect, the mental hold opiates exert over a person’s thinking and behavior becomes the last nail in the opiate overdose coffin.

The Need for Opiate Addiction Treatment

The need for opiate addiction treatment becomes even more so apparent the longer a person keeps using the drug. That being so, nothing short of a major life-changing event can help a person see the destruction drug abuse has caused in his or her life. For some people, opiate overdose becomes that life-changing event.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an addiction problem, call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to inquire about available opiate addiction treatment options.

How Naloxone Helps Reverse Opiate Overdose Effects

Nowadays, opiate abuse and addiction show up in headline after headline, with rates of addiction increasing every year. It only makes sense for a person to wonder “am I addicted to opiates” considering how addictive these drugs can be.

Opiate addiction and dependence represent two different stages of the drug abuse cycle, though it is possible for a person to become addicted to heroin-based opiates from first time use.

While long-term opiate use in any form increases the risk for addiction, each person’s body reacts to opiates in different ways so addiction can develop more quickly in some cases. Ultimately, the question, am I addicted to opiates or just physically dependent depends on the role opiates play in your day-to-day life experience.

Call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for information on opiate addiction treatment options.

Am I Addicted to Opiates? – Questions to Ask

Do I Plan My Daily Schedule Around Getting & Using Opiates?

A physical dependence on opiates affects the brain and body on a physical level, leaving the brain unable to function normally in the absence of the drug. According to the U. S. National Library of Medicine, addiction affects the mind, creating a type of psychological dependence on the drug’s effects.

With addiction, opiates takes on top priority to the point where a person arranges his or her day around two primary motivations: obtaining needed drug supplies and using the drug.

Do I Need Opiates to Cope with Daily Life Responsibilities?

If your opiate abuse has gotten out of control, call our helpline to find the best treatment for your needs.

While the body’s physical dependence on opiates most definitely paves the way for addiction to develop, a person doesn’t necessarily need the effects of the drug to cope with daily life pressures or make it through the day. According to the New York Academy of Sciences, a full-blown addiction creates a mental and emotional need for opiate effects. This “need” is what causes drug cravings and also drives the type of compulsive drug-using behavior that characterizes an addiction problem.

Have I Experienced Negative Consequences from Using Opiates?

If you’ve reached the point where you’re asking, “am I addicted to opiates” it’s likely you’ve experienced one or more negative consequences from using drugs. By the time opiate addiction takes hold, the brain’s overall chemical and structural makeup has changed in radical ways.

In effect, opiate abuse breeds widespread brain chemical imbalances over time. Under these conditions, a person’s thinking, priorities and motivations have all become obsessed with experiencing the opiate “high.”

These changes inevitably affect a person’s judgment and decision-making abilities to the point where he or she will sacrifice other important life areas, such as work, family and self respect for the sake of getting and using the drug.

Considerations

The fact that you’re asking “am I addicted to opiates” is a good sign, regardless of whether you’ve developed an addiction problem or just struggle with physical dependence. Letting an opiate abuse problem spin out of control is a surefire way to end up addicted to the drug.

Ultimately, it’s best to seek out some form of treatment help regardless of whether a physical dependence or addiction is at work as both conditions grow progressively worse with time.

If you have questions about opiate addiction treatment options or need help finding a treatment program, feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction specialists.

Is My Opium Dependence Killing Me?

For someone struggling with opiate abuse, detox withdrawal poses the biggest obstacle to stopping drug use. For some people, withdrawal severity can be so overwhelming that it’s all but impossible to maintain abstinence for very long, while others may be able to tough it out when withdrawal severity is minimal.

Types of withdrawal symptoms commonly experienced include:

• Body aches
• Nausea/vomiting
• Insomnia
• Depression
• Bouts of anxiety
• Confusion

Having the needed treatment supports in place offers the single best chance of making it through the detox withdrawal stage. If you’re considering withdrawal from opiates, knowing when to seek out professional treatment help can save you much time and frustration in the long run.

Call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for information on opiate detox treatment programs.

Opiate Dependence vs. Opiate Addiction

The degree of withdrawal discomfort a person experiences tends to correspond with the severity of his or her drug problem. While the terms “opiate dependence” and “opiate addiction” are often used interchangeably, they actually represent two different stages of the drug abuse cycle.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, opiate dependence occurs when the brain’s chemical system becomes dependent on opiate effects to function normally. When this happens, a person starts to experience episodes of withdrawal from opiates when the brain requires more of the drug.

Opiate addicts with depression symptoms should seek professional detox.

Opiate addiction develops out of the chemical imbalances that opiate dependence leaves behind. Someone struggling with a full-blown addiction has reached the point where the mind believes it needs the drug’s effects in order to cope with everyday life.

In effect, someone who’s addicted to opiates stands to experience a more severe withdrawal stage than someone who’s dealing with physical dependence, and so will likely require some form of professional treatment help.

Signs to Watch For

Symptom Severity

When abusing opiates, each successive drug dose impairs the brain’s ability to produce neurotransmitter chemicals on its own while also causing structural damage to chemical-producing cells. With chronic or long-term opiate abuse, widespread damage to cells produces long-term effects in terms of warping the brain’s overall chemical system.

Under these conditions, the severity of withdrawal symptoms becomes too much for a person to handle on his or her own.

Drug Cravings

If you’re experiencing drug cravings on an ongoing basis, this is a good indication that a full-blown addiction is at work. Drug cravings develop out of damage done to the brain’s reward system, which determines what types of things motivate you, and ultimately directs your emotions and behaviors.

In effect, a person has reached the point where he or she “needs” the drug to cope with daily life responsibilities. Someone in this condition will likely require some form of treatment help as withdrawal from opiates will be extremely difficult to bear.

Emotional Problems

According to John Hopkins School of Public Health, the brain chemical imbalances left behind by opiate abuse create an environment where mental health problems can easily take root. After so many bouts of depression and anxiety brought on by withdrawal , a person’s emotional health eventual declines in response to the damaging effects of the drug.

If you’re experiencing ongoing feelings of depression and/or anxiety, withdrawal from opiates will only make these symptoms worse, so it’s best to seek out some form of detox treatment help.

Please don’t hesitate to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) if you need help finding a detox treatment program.

The Dark Night Before the Dawn: Opiate Withdrawal