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Facts About Treatment for Opiate Addiction

It is well known that opiate addiction is a very dangerous disease that has far-reaching consequences. You may have heard that treatments the best way to end this disease, but you may not know much about treatment. This is why you need the facts.

1. Treatment Needs to Last Long Enough

Every addiction is as different as every person is. It is well known among addiction specialists that the length of treatment necessary varies greatly among different people, but it is essential that you get the proper amount of opiate addiction treatment in order to be successful in recovery.

2. Behavioral Therapy and Counseling Form the Base of Treatment

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, treatment for opiate addiction includes several behavioral therapy or counseling approaches. These include:

  • Contingency management
  • Family or group counseling
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Individual counseling

All of these methods can be effective in helping you beat an opiate addiction.

3. Medications are Available

In addition to behavioral therapies and counseling, there are also medications commonly found in opiate addiction treatment. The ones you are most likely to see are:

  • Methadone
  • Buprenorphine
  • Naltrexone
  • Suboxone

All of these medications are used in different ways, but all can be effective treatments. This is especially true if they are used in conjunction with behavioral therapies and counseling.

4. Support is Key

Even with treatment for opiate addiction, beating this disease is incredibly difficult. Addiction experts all agree that having a strong support network is one of the biggest factors affecting the outcome of treatment. Support can come from:

  • Significant others
  • Friends
  • Family
  • Peers in recovery

All of these people are likely to provide positive support, but that doesn’t mean you cannot seek support from anyone that approves of your recovery.

5. Getting Treatment Now is Essential

Opiate addiction is a chronic relapsing disease. It is also a progressive disease that gets more damaging and difficult to overcome the longer it goes. The best way to combat this is to get help as soon as possible.

Myths About Treatment for Opiate Addiction

While most people understand the dangers of an addiction to opiates, there is still a lot of speculation about addiction treatment. This is due to the persistence of a number of myths. For this reason, you need to know these myths and the truth about them.

1. Treatment is a Cure

Opiate addiction is a chronic relapsing disease. This means that it has no cure and it is possible to begin drug use again, even after treatment. While opiate addiction treatment is not a cure, it does give you the best chance of beating your addiction and living a healthy, drug-free life.

2. Treatment Doesn’t Work

There is a common misperception that because addiction cannot be cured, treatment does not work. However, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, treatment for opiate addiction is proven to reduce opiate abuse, improve health, and prevent relapse. These factors are all associated with successful addiction recovery.

3. Medications Just Trade Addictions

The majority of medications used in opiate addiction treatment do have addictive qualities. However, using them as prescribed and under strict supervision greatly reduces the risk of creating a new addiction. In these circumstances, opiate addiction medications are safe and effective. Get the right help, visit our official site.

4. Treatment Only Lasts 28 Days

There are many rehab and detox facilities that claim to end your opiate abuse in 28 days. As nice as this statement may sound, the reality is much different. Health professionals all agree that treatment for opiate addiction should last a minimum of sixty days to six months in order to be effective.

You Don’t Really Need Treatment

Perhaps the most dangerous myth about addiction treatment is that you can beat an opiate addiction without it. Or, worse, you really do not have a problem that needs help. The fact is that the only proven way to end an opiate addiction is professional treatment. Not only this, but if you do not get help to end it, your addiction will kill you and ruin the lives of those around you.

Long Term Treatment for Opiate Addiction

Many people know that opiate addiction is a dangerous and complicated disease. While it is commonly accepted that professional treatment is the best way to deal with this disease, not all treatment is the same. One of these treatment options that you should know about is long term treatment.

Who Needs Long Term Treatment?

The majority of people that undergo long term treatment for opiate addiction have co-occurring mental or physical disorders that complicate their treatment. Some others need extensive training in healthy living or making healthy choices.

However, it is well known among addiction specialists that the more treatment you receive, the better your chances of successful recovery. This makes long term treatment right for many more people than take advantage of it.

Treatment Techniques Used

Long term opiate addiction treatment utilizes many of the same techniques that are used in shorter term treatment centers. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the best treatment methods for opiate addiction include medications, behavioral counseling, or a combination of them both. Long term treatment also usually includes life skills training, intensive treatment for other mental or physical disorders, and healthy living education.

Benefits of Long Term Treatment

If you are suffering from an opiate addiction, you should consider long term treatment because of its many benefits. Some of these include:

  • Higher success rates
  • More complete treatment
  • Life skills training and healthy living education
  • Lower relapse rates after leaving treatment

All of these things are proven benefits of long term treatment for opiate addiction.

Why Treatment is Needed

Opiate is one of the most addictive substances known. When trying to stop using it you will experience intense cravings and a debilitating withdrawal syndrome that will make your worst flu seem like a case of the sniffles.

Professional treatment addresses these problems and eases withdrawal symptoms and cravings. This is why you need opiate addiction treatment now.

 

Cocaine addiction can develop very quickly. After someone starts to abuse cocaine, it can become addicting so much faster than they may realize. But how does cocaine addiction develop? And what causes it to happen?

 

Factors that Influence Cocaine Addiction

There are actually many factors that influence cocaine addiction and the likelihood that someone will become addicted to the substance. As stated by the NIDA, “Genetic studies continue to provide critical information about hereditary influences on the risk of addiction to psychoactive substances, including cocaine.” It is still true that a person’s genetic background and makeup can influence their potential risk of becoming addicted to the drug, but there are actually other factors that are seen to be even more influential, such as:

  • Nutrition
  • Stress
    • Acute or chronic
  • Parenting style
  • Lifestyle
  • Setting

It has only recently come to light how important these environmental factors are on affecting cocaine addiction risk. According to a study from the NCBI, “Data from twin registries, for example, suggest that a sizable portion of the variability in the susceptibility to drug abuse is due to environmental factors that are unique to opiates or to psychostimulants.”

Because of this, someone who has a higher risk of addiction based on environmental factors may encounter the issue of these factors “influenc[ing] gene expression and thus genetic risk” (NIDA). The two types of risks together make someone highly susceptible to cocaine addiction.

cocaine abuse

Cocaine has a unique impact on the brain that can lead quickly to addiction.

How Cocaine Abuse Affects the Brain

When someone starts to abuse cocaine, they are always at risk for addiction; some are merely more at risk than others. But cocaine affects the brain in such a way as to perpetuate addiction and habit.

The NIDA Teen states, “Stimulants like cocaine change the way the brain works by changing the way nerve cells communicate.” Cocaine causes a buildup of the neurotransmitter dopamine and “prevents the dopamine from being recycled” the way it normally would be. All of the dopamine that floods the brain after a person snorts or injects cocaine causes the high of the drug.

When a person abuses cocaine, the drug causes them to feel euphoria, high amounts of energy, and extreme pleasure. A person will want to feel that same effect again usually and will continue to take cocaine. “With repeated use, stimulants can disrupt how the brain’s dopamine system works, reducing a person’s ability to feel any pleasure at all.”

 

The Development of Addiction

A person who has been abusing cocaine chronically will start to feel pleasure only from cocaine. And they will need more and more of the drug over time in order to just feel the same effects as before. Some people say that they spend a long time abusing cocaine just trying to find the same high that they originally felt.

Chronic cocaine abuse will cause a person’s entire life to become about cocaine alone. Based on regular cocaine abuse and a genetic and environmental disposition that breeds it, addiction can develop so quickly, especially in those who are highly susceptible to it, that the person may not realize it until they are already in trouble.