Every individual is different. Not only does addiction present itself in different ways and cause varying problems in the lives of those it touches, but each individual patient also does not respond the same way to the same treatment options. This is why there are so many options available, so that each individual can receive the treatment that most befits their needs.

If you are an opiate addict and you have decided to seek treatment, you have made a beneficial first step to recovery. And when trying to decide what type of treatment to attend, it is important to ask yourself what you require. So, how do you know you need inpatient treatment for opiate addiction?

A Less-than-Common Scenario

Generally, most individuals do not require inpatient treatment for opioid addiction. This is because the drug itself does not often cause an addiction syndrome that requires a controlled environment and 24-hour care as part of treatment. For example, drugs like PCP, methamphetamine, and crack cocaine may cause severe psychosis, hallucinations, paranoid and homicidal thoughts, and other issues that cause those who abuse them to require this type of intensive treatment. Opiates do not usually cause these types of severe reactions as part of their addiction syndromes.

Therefore, when a person has been abusing opioid medications like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and others, they will often be able to attend outpatient care for their treatment. But there are certain scenarios that cause some individuals to require inpatient treatment and signs that may point to a particular person’s need for this more intensive treatment option.

Your Social Support System and the Part It Plays

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, outpatient care “often is more suitable for people with jobs or extensive social supports.” It is beneficial to those who are comfortable living their lives while attending treatment, perhaps not to the same capacity as they will once treatment has ended but with the ability and the desire to do both. This becomes much easier when the individual has a strong social support system at home.

Friends, family members, coworkers, spouses, and other people who support your decision to attend rehab will all be important to your overall recovery from opioid addiction. These individuals will provide you with the love, support, community, and hope that will often help you immensely during all of the stages of your treatment (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). However, if you do not have a strong social support system, it can be hard for you to recover without a safety net.

In this instance, you may want to consider seeking inpatient treatment for your opiate addiction. If you only have one or two individuals who are helping you during your recovery, or none at all, you may begin to feel unsupported and distraught. It could be much safer, as well as easier, for you to attend inpatient care in this instance because you can receive the support you need that you are unable to get at home.

Mental Health and Its Importance

Those with a mental illness should seek impatient care.

There are other reasons you may want to consider seeking inpatient treatment as well. Though opioid abuse does not cause severe psychosis like other drugs of abuse can, the NIDA states that, “compared with the general population, people addicted to drugs are roughly twice as likely to suffer from mood and anxiety disorders, with the reverse also true.” This is true of any type of drug abuse and addiction syndromes, including those associated with opioids, meaning many individuals who seek help for opioid addiction may also have mood disorders or other types of mental health issues.

Having severe psychiatric problems, such as a mental disorder that has gone untreated, could be a possible reason to attend inpatient care. A study published by Psychiatric Quarterly stated that “high psychiatric severity” could increase an individual’s need for inpatient care. Mental disorders, like depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and others, often fall into the category of high psychiatric severity for a recovering addict and cause someone to require more intensive care.

Mental health is incredibly important to recovery, and many people who have both an addiction to a drug and a mental disorder experience issues with both that are intensely intertwined. What’s more, if you attend treatment for your addiction and are only treated for that issue, you will have an increased likelihood of relapse if you do not receive treatment for both the addiction and your mental illness. In inpatient care, these facilities are often more equipped to treat both addiction and mental disorders or illnesses simultaneously.

It Comes Down to You

All in all, the need to attend inpatient treatment mostly rests on the addicted individual and what is best for them. Though it isn’t a necessary option for many opioid addicts, it may be for you for any number of reasons. Your safety, comfort, and ability to heal in the treatment environment you choose are several of the most important components of finding the best treatment option for your needs. As the NIDA states, “Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to an individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.”

If you are still unsure as to whether or not you require inpatient treatment for your opioid addiction recovery, consider your needs as well as what would make you most focused and comfortable during treatment. It may be helpful to ask your friends and family about their thoughts, but keep in mind that the decision ultimately should be yours. You can also ask your personal physician about the treatment options available to you and about which they would recommend, as they have the benefit of medical knowledge as well as your own medical history. You can also ask a drug counselor or interventionist their thoughts. Ultimately, though, it comes down to you and whether you feel you have the need for inpatient care in order to begin your recovery.

Still Have Questions About Your Need for Opiate Addiction Inpatient Care?

Call 800-442-6158 Who Answers? today. We can help you consider your options and find rehab centers in your area that will cater to your needs.

Anyone who’s abused opiates for three or more months has likely developed some degree of dependence on the drug’s effects. Ideally, opiates should only be used on a short-term basis, whether for medicinal or recreational purposes. Any longer than this, and it becomes increasingly difficult to stop or reduce drug use.

While it is possible to detox on your own, the risks and complications that develop during the detox stage can make it especially difficult to follow through. Opiate detox treatment programs provide the necessary physical and psychological supports needed to get you through this critical stage of the recovery process.

Opiate’s Debilitating Effects on the Brain

Opiate-based drugs in general share a chemical structure that’s similar to the brain’s own neurotransmitter chemicals. When using opiates on a regular basis, the brain readjusts its chemical processes to accommodate opiate effects. According to the University of Delaware, these changes become more and more pronounced the longer a person keeps taking the drug.

Over time, a person loses the ability to stop taking opiate or reduce drug use as the brain’s chemical processes become more and more dependent on the drug’s effects to function. Opiate detox programs administer medication therapies that work to support damaged brain chemical processes, which greatly increases the likelihood of maintaining ongoing abstinence.

Overwhelming Withdrawal Effects

Opiate withdrawal can make you irritable.

Stopping drug use after a period of long-term opiate abuse sends the brain and body into withdrawal. Withdrawal develops out of the brain’s inability to regulate bodily processes in the absence of the drug’s effects.

Withdrawal effects typically take the form of:

• Sleepless nights
• Irritability
• Depression symptoms
• Bouts of anxiety
• Agitation
• Drug cravings

In effect, withdrawal effects become a driving force behind continued drug use. Without the needed supports in place, the risk of relapse is high. In addition to medication therapies, opiate detox treatment programs provide ongoing support and guidance to help you make it through the detox withdrawal period.

The Psychological Component

After so many months of using opiates, the brain develops a certain degree of chemical imbalance that ultimately starts to interfere with a person’s psychological well-being. Over time, getting and using opiates becomes the primary motivation in one’s daily life, dictating his or her choices and behaviors.

This aspect of drug abuse lies at the heart of the addiction problem. Opiate detox programs employ a range of behavioral-based treatment interventions designed to help you extinguish the thinking patterns that drive addiction-based behaviors and develop the type of healthy lifestyle practices that make ongoing abstinence possible.

Overdose Risks

The risk of relapse runs high with opiate addiction regardless of how long a person has maintained abstinence, according to the U. S. National Library of Medicine. This risk comes with certain dangers, especially during and after detox periods.

In effect, the brain’s tolerance level for opiates plummets during detox. In the event of relapse, the likelihood of overdose rises considerably as the brain can no longer tolerate the drug’s effects like before. Opiate detox treatment programs work closely with you to develop an aftercare plan to ensure you have the needed treatment supports in place after completing detox.

Doing It Right the First Time

Considering the damaging effects of prolonged opiate abuse, ensuring you make it through the initial detox stage has a considerable bearing on your recovery progress as well as helping to ensure your overall safety in the process. For these reasons, it’s best to get needed opiate detox treatment help rather than go it alone.

If you’re struggling with a drug problem and considering getting treatment help, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 800-442-6158 Who Answers? for more information.

Opiate drugs cover a wide spectrum of legal and illegal substances with heroin and prescription pain pills breeding the highest rates of addiction to date. If you’ve abused opiates for any length of time, you’re likely well aware of the havoc compulsive drug use can wreak in one’s daily life.

The decision to enter opiate addiction treatment program often comes with much frustration and heartache. For these reasons, it’s especially important to ensure you get the level of care that best addresses your treatment needs. Knowing which types of opiate addiction treatment program to consider can go a long way towards help ensuring a successful recovery process.

Opiate Abuse vs Opiate Addiction

Opiate addiction develops over time as the effects of the drug weaken critical brain functions. During the course of a developing addiction, most people move from physical dependency to psychological dependency, which operate as different stages in a developing addiction.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the difference between these two stages marks the difference between opiate abuse and opiate addiction. Someone who’s at the opiate abuse stage will most likely require a different level of treatment than someone at the opiate addiction stage.

Effects of Opiate Abuse

Withdrawal symptoms indicate the start of an addiction.

Uncomfortable withdrawal effects most characterize the opiate abuse stage as the brain becomes physically dependent on opiate effects to function. Before long, withdrawal effects start to drive continued drug as a means for relieving uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.

In effect, a person uses opiates as a means to self-medicate withdrawal symptoms. Ideally, it’s best to get opiate addiction treatment at this point as this is the lesser of the two stages that makeup the addiction cycle.

Effects of Opiate Addiction

Much like opiate abuse practices work to relieve physical withdrawal effects, addiction-based behaviors cater to the psychological dependency that develops out of chronic drug use. Psychological dependency takes root within the cognitive and emotion-based centers of the brain as opiate effects continue to disrupt the brain’s chemical processes.

Ongoing drug use drives a person to believe that he or she can’t cope with daily life without the effects of the drug. At this stage, a more intensive level of opiate addiction treatment should be considered as this mindset can persist for months or even years into the recovery process.

Residential vs Outpatient Treatment Programs

Residential and outpatient opiate addiction treatment offers two levels of care with residential being the more intensive treatment option. Residential programs operate as live-in facilities that require patients to live at the facility for the duration of the program. Outpatient treatment offers more freedom and flexibility, allowing patients to schedule treatment sessions while residing at home.

If you’re struggling with opiate abuse issues, you’re still at the early stages of the addiction cycle. Under these conditions, an outpatient opiate addiction treatment program may well suffice in terms of providing the level of care most needed, according to the University of Delaware.

Someone who’s dealing with a full-blown opiate addiction problem requires the type of day-in, day-out support and guidance provided by residential programs as he or she is dealing with both physical and psychological dependency issues.

While the decision to get needed treatment help does not come easy, taking the necessary steps to overcome opiate’s hold over your life is well worth the effort. If you have further questions about opiate addiction and its effects, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 800-442-6158 Who Answers? to speak with one of our addiction counselors.

According to the 2015 World Drug Report compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, limited information indicates there are 16.5 million opiate users worldwide, or .7 percent of the world’s population. In some ways, that may not be surprising because opiate use that continues for as small a period of time as a few days can lead to dependence.

If you find yourself waffling between continuing your opiate use and seeking treatment, it’s important to be honest with yourself and that means confronting the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of opiate addiction.

The Good

Many users (both past and present) will argue that the best part of an opiate addiction is the drug use, and that’s worth exploring. Addiction to opiates is all about highs and lows. The initial highs create a euphoria that surpasses what can be created naturally and that can feel good. When the drugs wear off, users return to feeling normal and that’s seems good because there don’t seem to be any drawbacks or consequences. But, those feelings don’t last. The feeling of euphoria diminishes and it becomes hard to get back to normal without the opiates. So, although one can argue that opiate use feels good, it doesn’t feel that way for very long.

The only truly redeeming part of an opium addiction is that it can be managed. In 2012, of the 1,375,146 people seeking drug treatment in the United States, 42.6 percent were opiate and opioid users. There is a will to succeed among opiate users and many of them are successful. Part of success comes from finding the right treatment type and setting. If you are ready to seek treatment, call Opiate.com at 800-442-6158 Who Answers?  and get the process started.

The Bad

Long term opiate use can damage your teeth.

Treatment and sobriety are excellent goals. The bad? They are not easy. Of the total number of North Americans entering treatment for opioid addiction, only 22 percent were first time entrants. On one hand, it may seem depressing that so many people in treatment have done it before and need to do it again, but relapse isn’t failure. In fact, it is a normal part of the recovery process and a good treatment program will have steps in place to help participants get back on track.

Most opiate addiction treatment involves:

• Detox
• Counseling & behavioral therapy
• Support groups
• Long-term follow up care
• Sober living

All of these steps present their own challenges, but detox tends to be the step most feared because an opiate user develops a tolerance over time and cutting off a body dependent on large doses is intimidating. Stopping opiate use does cause some painful consequences, including:

• Restlessness
• Muscle and bone pain
• Insomnia
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Cold flashes with goose bumps
• Leg movements

Yes, these sound terrible, so why isn’t detox in the ugly section? Because major withdrawal symptoms peak between 24–48 hours after the last dose and disappear after about a week. You can deal with them and remain on track to complete sobriety.

The Ugly

Without treatment, things will get uglier and uglier as time goes on because opiate addiction is—and will remain—a dangerous situation that brings with it a high risk of adverse effects and possibly deadly consequences.

The Foundation for a Drug Free World identifies the following as effects of long-term use:

• Bad teeth
• Inflammation of the gums
• Constipation
• Cold sweats
• Itching
• Weakening of the immune system
• Coma
• Respiratory (breathing) illnesses
• Muscular weakness, partial paralysis
• Reduced sexual capacity and long-term impotence in men
• Menstrual disturbance in women
• Inability to achieve orgasm (women and men)
• Loss of memory and intellectual performance
• Introversion
• Depression
• Pustules on the face
• Loss of appetite
• Insomnia

The worst consequence of long-term use is death. Even though the number of opiate users has remained stable over the last few years and has not gotten larger, that isn’t positive news because the number of deaths has increased; the 2015 World Drug Report finds: “Mortality rates have nearly tripled from 1.0 to 2.7 heroin overdose deaths per 100,000 of the population between 2010 and 2013; this reflects an increase in the number of heroin-related deaths from 3,036 to 8,527.” Yes, treatment is hard, but life without treatment is worse and can end quickly.

There are definitely bad and ugly aspects of opiate use, but finding the right type of treatment and help can help your focus stay on the good. For assitance finding your way from the ugly to the good, call Opiate.com at 800-442-6158 Who Answers?  and speak to someone who is waiting to help you.

Everyone has wishes, but the dreams that cause people to hopefully throw coins in a fountain are far removed from the wishes of an addict. If you are a heroin user, you aren’t alone in wishing. The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes, “The number of people using heroin for the first time is unacceptably high, with 156,000 people starting heroin use in 2012, nearly double the number of people in 2006 (90,000).” When your wishes are less about how to get drugs and more about how to get off of them, you should keep a few things in mind.

It Won’t Be Easy

For heroin users, the relationship with their addiction is complicated. It’s generally part of an extremely close relationship with the drug and one that continues for years. Often, heroin is like a member of the family. There are many bad times, but there are also fond reminiscences, kind memories.

Even when you want to quit and leave the relationship behind, there is a part of you that you know will miss the good times and you wonder whether you will be able to get along without it. Some addicts can’t even admit that they are quitting heroin for good because they can’t face never feeling its effects again.

But, that doesn’t mean that recovery from heroin addiction is impossible. On the contrary, not only is recovery possible, it is something you are capable of doing, even if you aren’t sure that you can. Of course, it isn’t easy. But, finding a great treatment facility and a program that work for you can start you down the right path. Give us a call at 800-442-6158 Who Answers? .

You Can’t Do It Alone

Family support will help you recover.

Rehabilitation is tough. For heroin addicts, the detox that must happen before treatment even begins in earnest is deeply painful both emotionally and physically. Undertaking that challenge without a system of support in place can set an addict up to fail.

One of the best ways to make it through detox is to undergo it at a facility. People who attempt to do it on their own often relapse rather than face the discomfort and those who succeed independently may be so drained that they can’t fully undergo a rehabilitation treatment. Getting the support of trained staff is immeasurably helpful.

It is important to note “[M]edically assisted detoxification is not in itself ‘treatment’—it is only the first step in the treatment process. Patients who go through medically assisted withdrawal but do not receive any further treatment show drug abuse patterns similar to those who were never treated.”

Another important support outside of your center’s staff is friends and family. Often, gaining support from these people can be hard because addiction has taken its toll on them as well as on you. Relationships may have fractured or become so dysfunctional that it feels like there is no way to get back to the love you once had for another. This is why treatment center’s offer family counselling.

The book Substance Abuse Treatment and Family Therapy identifies two purposes of family therapy: “First, it seeks to use the family’s strengths and resources to help find or develop ways to live without substances of abuse. Second, it ameliorates [improves] the impact of chemical dependency on both the IP [identified patient] and the family.”

You Need the Right Facility

There are many treatment centers, ranging from state-funded to luxury centers. And, in each tier of the hierarchy there are dozens of approaches to addiction treatment and recovery.

It is important that you find a facility that is available to treat you as soon as you are ready to begin the process towards sobriety. A waiting list isn’t a good idea, given how hard it is to work up to seeking help. But, just because a facility has openings doesn’t mean it is the right one for you.

You need to do research. If you can’t get the time and focus to do the research ask for help from friends, family, or social services. For help, you are welcome to call us at 800-442-6158 Who Answers? . The recovery community is a great place to determine which treatment center is right for you. Look for an insider at a support meeting or through family and friends. You will want someone who has maintained their sobriety for at least a year. If the internet is available, search for treatment centers in your area and check Google reviews.

Stopping using heroin is an important first step, but a lot of addicts have an easier time quitting than they do maintaining it. To have the best chance at maintaining sobriety, be sure to use some of the same tools that will help you through your treatment from the beginning. Remember how hard you fought to get through detox and treatment. Work to continue growing your support network. Make the most of your rehab center. Be sure that you know there will be highs and lows, but also know that you have the power to fight through them and to recover.