Suffering from addiction is painful, not only for the addicts but also for the people around them. It will disturb the normal balance of your life and make it a complete mess, which can be disastrous. Whether it is heroin, prescribed opioid drug, opium, or other opiates, your life will be destroyed if you don’t go through heroin/opium detox at the right time. If you have any addict in your family or friend circle, it is time to come forward and provide any help to bring the person back to the right track of life. And to do that, you need to consult the best UK addiction treatment center like Rehab Healthcare.
Now, detoxification is also not easy. An addict has to go through withdrawal symptoms at the beginning of the treatment, which is crucial. Any triggers can drag him back again to the addiction. Also, the patient requires medication as well as regular counselling, mental, and emotional support to overcome the withdrawal syndromes. That can be possible when people around him know well how the withdrawal condition affects the person.
What is Opiate Withdrawal? What Can Be the Symptoms?
Drugs like heroin, opium, or other opiates have a strong impact on your brain and body. Therefore, when you decide to go through detoxification, you have to be ready to face the painful impact of withdrawal. However, you must have the will power to go through this and defeat addiction now, right? Here are certain types of symptoms you may suffer from like-
- Diarrhea, abdominal pain
- Chills, watery eyes, runny nose
- Cramping, insomnia
- Vomiting, nausea, anxiety
Besides these, many people also suffer from a type of flu that appears as a withdrawal syndrome. Such symptoms may become severe enough to make people give up on treatment and go back to the addiction, especially where the right treatment and support are not being provided. To avoid such situations, you need to consider the professional and experienced rehab or detoxification center where you can get proper care, medication, counseling, and other 24-hours help and support. It is time to consult the rehab centers like Rehab Healthcare.
Association of Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms with Detoxification
Recovering from opiate addiction means your difficult journey through painful withdrawal symptoms. Usually, the withdrawal syndrome affects the central nervous system, and you can get the signs of hyperactivity. Usually, the withdrawal symptoms appear within 4 hours of taking the last dose of heroin, and it may continue for 48 to 72 hours, and sometimes even for a week. This time is very difficult as the patient has to go through severe cravings for the drug and feel high anxiety and increased respiratory rate, repeated yawning, diaphoresis, stomach cramps, and mydriasis lacrimation, and rhinorrhea. Besides this, the patient may also develop tremors, twitching in muscles, chills, fever, hypertension, tachycardia, nausea, anorexia, diarrhea, etc. To control the withdrawal syndromes, the patients are often prescribed buprenorphine, methadone, naltrexone, etc.
How is Opiate Withdrawal Diagnosed?
To start with the diagnosis of opiate withdrawal, you will initially need to go through a physical examination where the addiction specialist doctor will ask about your symptoms. You will also have urine tests so that the experts can monitor how much opiate is there in your body. They will also ask you about the history of any drug abuse and your medical history. You should answer properly and truthfully to cooperate with the caregivers to provide you the best support and treatment.
What Kind of Treatments are Provided for Opiate Withdrawal?
Opiate withdrawal is a difficult situation, and many addicts continue taking the drug only to avoid the treatment. Therefore, treating them within a controlled environment will be the best decision, and the chances of healing become greater.
Mild withdrawal is treated with medicines like aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, etc. Besides that, proper rest and having enough water is important. For more serious conditions, residential rehabilitation and other opioid medicines are important.
So, if you know someone close to you is suffering from opiate addiction, consult the best rehab center where they can get perfect treatment and help to go through the withdrawal.