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cold turkey withdrawal

Heroin Addictions – 8 Reasons Why You Should Never Quit Heroin Cold Turkey

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Are you or a loved one struggling to overcome addiction and trying to quit heroin cold turkey? Heroin can create such a strong dependence that it can seem impossible to break free. Withdrawal symptoms, like vomiting, diarrhea, anxiety, tremors, body aches, and chills can make the process even more difficult.

With all these barriers standing in the way to regaining your pre-addiction life, you may start to feel unmotivated or depressed. However, there are ways that you can quit addiction and get back to living a healthy, drug-free life.

You might want to quit heroin cold turkey, but there are so many risks associated with this method. Instead, seeking professional help is the best way to ensure you safely detox and recover from your heroin addiction.

Do you want to know more? Keep reading to discover the 8 reasons why you should never quit heroin cold turkey.

1. Lack of Methadone

The process of detoxing your body from heroin can be long and awful. Withdrawal can last over a week and include a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms. Among the most common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, and anxiety.

These symptoms can make it harder for you to finish the detox process. But, by seeking professional help, you will have easier access to methadone. This can help dull these symptoms and make it easier for you to complete your detox.

2. Increased Risk of Relapse

Without proper professional help and access to methadone, many people trying to detox end up relapsing. Since taking heroin will stop all the withdrawal symptoms, 40-60% of people will relapse at some point during this process.

However, as soon as you discontinue heroin, your tolerance for it decreases. Many people are unaware of this and jump back into doing heroin at the doses they did before attempting to detox. This can lead to an increased risk of overdosing since your body doesn’t have the same tolerance it did just a few days ago.

3. Increased Risk of Dehydration or Malnutrition

Two of the most common physical withdrawal symptoms of quitting heroin are vomiting and diarrhea. What do these both have in common? They are purging your body.

In the process of trying to detox your body from heroin, you are also losing a lot of liquid. This, coupled with nausea, makes it harder for you to stay hydrated and keep food down. Because of these symptoms, you have an increased risk of suffering from dehydration during detox or malnutrition which could require hospitalization.

Quitting drugs cold turkey could put you at an increased risk for this by not having the proper professional help to ensure that you are eating and drinking enough to stay healthy during your detox process.

4. Increased Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm

While the physical symptoms may seem more frightening, there are also some terrifying psychological symptoms to quitting heroin.

You may feel more emotionally unstable while detoxing. This could lead to suicidal thoughts or self-harm. In fact, substance abuse can make you 75% more likely to commit suicide.

If you try to quit heroin cold turkey, you are putting yourself in danger. With no professionals on-call to help you combat these suicidal and self-harm feelings, you will be more likely to act on them.

However, by checking in to a rehab center, you will have access to counselors who are trained to help you handle these psychological symptoms.

5. More Likely to Partake in Risky Behaviors

But an increased risk of suicide and self-harm aren’t the only psychological side effects if you try to quit heroin cold turkey.

Many people going through detox begin to feel emotionally distraught, and their decision-making skills become clouded. Those who are not in the safe environment of a rehabilitation center, may venture out of their house and partake in risky behaviors.

Sharing needles, taking too much heroin, committing criminal acts, and getting into car accidents are all examples of risky behaviors that you may be more likely to partake in. Not only are they risky, but many could result in disease or even death.

6. Dangers of Staying the Same Environment

One risk of quitting heroin cold turkey that you may not have thought of is the danger of staying in your own home.

Staying at home while detoxing can make it harder to stay clean as you probably associate it with where you’ve done heroin before. The best way to successfully detox is to take yourself out of the environment and away from the people you associate heroin with.

7. Less Support and Professional Help

One consequence of heroin addiction is strained relationships with family and friends. However, when trying to detox and recover from addiction, it’s vital that you have the proper support.

All the of negative side effects we’ve listed above can make quitting heroin cold turkey impossible to do on your own. You will need someone to help you avoid drugs, stay hydrated, and make sure you stay safe during this process.

While you may have family and friends who are willing to help, it’s always best to seek professional help. Your family and friends will be a great support system to help you while you’re in rehab, but they have likely never dealt with withdrawal symptoms.

The professional help that’s available at rehab centers can help ensure that you successfully detox and stay safe while doing it.

8. Less Likely to Seek Long-Term Help

Detoxing may seem like the biggest hurdle to overcome on your quest to get clean and stay clean.

However, it’s just as important to partake in a long-term aftercare program. In fact, people who detox from heroin but don’t try to address their underlying substance abuse issues have almost a 100% chance of relapsing.

People who quit heroin cold turkey are less likely to seek these vital aftercare programs.

Instead, detoxing in a rehab center will give you the motivation to continue your journey to sobriety with either an inpatient or outpatient program to address your problem and learn how to deal with it in your daily life.

Should You Quit Heroin Cold Turkey?

Quitting heroin is a long and difficult process that simply can’t be done alone. When you quit heroin cold turkey, you have an increased risk of relapsing, overdosing, becoming dehydrated or malnourished, committing suicide, partaking in risky behaviors, and failing to seek long-term help.

Instead, you should seek professional help where you can have access to methadone, trained counselors, and a safe environment to ensure you successfully detox. To find addiction help near you contact us at (855) 976-2092.

Did you find this article helpful? Check out our detox blog page for more informative blogs such as this one.

 

Sources

[1] Dehydration – Symptoms and causes. (2018, February 15). Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dehydration/symptoms-causes/syc-20354086

[2] Drug Addiction as Risk for Suicide Attempts. (2015).  Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4499285/#

Four Tips for Tapering off Methadone

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Recovery from addiction to heroin can be difficult to achieve on your own. There are many people who turn to methadone to help with their withdrawal from the toxic drug. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize that methadone isn’t a drug designed to be taken forever. You have to wean yourself from the drug over time in order to be as safe as possible.

When it’s time to stop using methadone, you have to slowly taper down use. This means that steps have to be taken to get your body off of the drug, without causing withdrawal symptoms to occur. The following guide walks you through four things you have to know about tampering down methadone use.

Methadone Dosages Must be Evaluated

Methadone is a medication that needs to be taken on a daily basis in order to be effective. It helps to minimize the withdrawal symptoms you experience when you stop using heroin. Before you can start tapering down your methadone use, the amount that you are taking each day needs to be evaluated. When working with a professional treatment facility, the amount of methadone you are given is closely monitored.

After you have been on methadone for a few weeks, medical professionals will be able to determine if you are ready to start lowering the doses that you take. Stopping methadone use cold turkey isn’t a good idea. It can be dangerous to stop using because you could go through withdrawal symptoms that could lead to a relapse.

The amount of methadone you take each day needs to be gradually decreased. Typically, the amount is decreased by 20% or less every few weeks. This allows your body to have time to adjust to the new doses, without having to deal with nausea, headaches or the other many withdrawal symptoms that occur.

Medication Supplementation is Needed

Once medical professionals feel that you have been able to safely lower the amount of methadone you take daily to safe levels, you will need to start taking a long-acting opioid. The opioid is given in place of the methadone but serves the same purpose the methadone did.

Opioids need to be taken as prescribed. Taking the opioids more frequently or in higher doses can lead to a new addiction. Once you suffer from addiction, you always suffer from it. Nearly 40% of all people who have recovered from addiction end up relapsing. This is due to the temptation to use again. At a professional treatment facility, you don’t self-medicate. You are given the medications that you need to be given when you need to take them. This decreases the likelihood of a new addiction developing and ensures that you are able to stop using methadone as quickly as possible.

Health Monitoring Needs to Take Place

Many side effects can come with methadone use that can be dangerous. Loss of appetite, diarrhea, and vomiting are common. You need to be monitored to make sure that your body doesn’t get depleted of the nutrients it needs to thrive.

Medical professionals at a treatment center keep a vigilant watch on your health at all times. Your temperature, weight and blood pressure will be regularly monitored to ensure that you are always in the best health that you can be. A facility also ensures that you’re able to have access to nourishing foods that can make recovery easier for you. When you are battling an addiction, you often have lethargy that can make it difficult for you to be able to have the drive to do anything for yourself. This means that you may have less drive to cook for yourself or even drink water regularly. Having the help of professionals ensures you stay safe throughout your recovery.

Psychological Care Is Crucial When Tapering Down Methadone Use

Hallucinations, paranoia and depression are also common during methadone use. At a treatment facility, you are able to get help for the mental hurdles that occur with addiction. You’ll be able to talk to a professional about the things that you experience during your recovery and things that happened in your past. Talking about any guilt or hurt you have can help you to get a better grip on your emotions, which can make tapering down your methadone use easier. People often do things out of character when they are high. Once they get sober, the guilt can be crushing because they feel that they will never be able to regain the trust they once had.

Since depression is common with people who are in recovery, psychological care can be crucial. If you have thoughts of suicide, talking to someone who can help could actually save your life. The counselor can also help you to determine what your triggers might be to use again when you get out. They can help you determine why you started using in the first place to decrease the chances of you using again.

Mastering Tapering from Methadone Takes Time

After a few weeks of being on the opioids, the medical staff can help you lower the doses that you take. Eventually, you get to the point where you no longer physically need to take anything to battle your addiction. That doesn’t mean the work is done though.

It’s important to know that once you have an addiction you will always be susceptible to it. Many facilities have outpatient programs available for their clients. They allow you to go to regular group meetings with others who are going through the same struggles as you. You can get advice from others and even bounce ideas off of one another about how to stay clean.

Surrounding yourself with people who love you; Avoiding those who still use drugs is the best way to stay clean. Once you have gone through the struggles of recovering from your addiction, the last thing you want to do is relapse. Keeping yourself out of situations that could lead to relapse is the best way to do it. It will not always be easy, but through hard work and dedication, sobriety is possible.

heroin intervention

Help for Heroin Addicts: How to Stage an Intervention That’ll Get Them Back on Track

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If someone you love is addicted to heroin, you know how heartbreaking it can be. The cycle of addiction is painful no matter what side of it you’re on, which is why help for heroin addicts in important. You’re probably dealing with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

But there’s hope. You’ve already got the tools you need to stage an intervention, which is all you can do when someone you love is in the throes of addiction.

If you’re unsure how to get help for heroin addicts, keep reading. We’ll walk you through what you need to know to stage a successful intervention.

The Truth About Interventions

If you’ve spent any time watching A&E, you probably think you have a good idea of what an intervention looks like. But the truth is, there’s much more to them then what you see on TV.

Interventions are all different and they take a lot more to orchestrate than you would think. It takes a lot of big feelings, and oftentimes big personalities, coming together to make a plan that benefits everyone, but most of all the addict.

Pick Your Partners Well

The first thing you want to consider is who you will be including in the intervention process. You want to stick to the people who are closest to the person suffering from addiction, but you also want to pick people who you know will be able to keep their cool.

An intervention isn’t about making an addict feel guilty or bad. It’s about showing them an outpouring of love and support. If you think there’s someone in the group who won’t be able to do that, tell them they need to sit it out.

Time is of the Essence

You want to also make sure that you pick the right time to stage an intervention. If you know your loved one’s using habits, pick a time that they’re sober. You want them to be as sober as possible when everyone starts to talk.

When someone uses drugs, their ability to think clearly is impaired. But it can also limit the number of violent outbursts, making everyone safer in the meantime.

It’s generally a good idea to go first thing in the morning and, if possible, after a huge incident related to drugs, like a DUI.

Private and Formal

If you can avoid it, don’t hold an intervention in someone’s home. You want your loved one to be comfortable, but there’s something about a formal, public place that could make them think twice about acting out.

If you give an addict an out, they’re going to take it. Something like a bedroom where they’re comfortable could be the end of your intervention before you even start. So stick to somewhere formal and public, like a hotel’s banquet space or a therapist office.

Decide Who Goes First

When you’re planning the intervention, you want to give careful thought to who is going to go first. The intervention is over the second your loved one agrees to go to treatment, so you want to make sure that the hardest hitting people go first.

If you know of friends or people who your loved one doesn’t talk to any more thanks to their addiction, consider asking them to speak too. Hearing from the same family over and over again can make an addicted person irritable.

Rehearse

This isn’t the sort of thing that you want to take lightly. It’s not something that should be ad-libbed. You want to make sure that the exact events are laid out for you, no matter what they are. Know who is going to speak, when, what they’re going to say, what you’ll do if your loved one agrees or refuses, and what to do if a problem arises.

Don’t Deviate From the Script

As much as you might want to go off script, don’t do it. Stick to what you rehearsed. If you decide to change things up, it will throw off the whole thing and could result in disaster.

Be Open and Warm

Again, interventions are about showing an addict how loved and supported they are. You want to make sure that you maintain a body language that spells this out clearly. Make sure your arms and legs are uncrossed and make eye contact with your loved one. Try not to bounce your leg, even if you’re nervous or anxious. Lean in, reach out, let them know you care.

Keep Your Emotions Under Control

It’s also important to make sure that you keep your emotions in check. If you cry, it’s okay. This is an emotional subject and it’s going to take a toll on you and everyone else in the room. But the last thing you want to do is react in anger.

No matter what anyone believes, addiction is not a moral flaw. It’s not a character defect. It is a scientifically proven chemical change in the brain. Try to keep your temper under control.

Likewise, try to keep your loved one away from anger too. Don’t let them start a fight with you or change the subject. Don’t blame and don’t argue.

Have a Plan B

Trying to get help for heroin addicts can be difficult. They can be unpredictable. They might try to leave or scream and cry or tell lies. But you need to be able to prepare, no matter what the situation calls for.

It’s also important to remember that flexibility is key here.

Keep Trying

At the end of the day, if you’ve managed to get your loved one into treatment, you’ve won. However, there’s a very real possibility they might refuse. And there’s also a possibility that they might go to treatment and then fall back to their old habits.

That’s okay. Don’t give up. This is all a part of the addiction and recovery process.

Getting Help for Heroin Addicts

Getting help for heroin addicts can be a difficult process. It’s full of emotion and hard feelings and you never know what you can expect. But it’s worth it.

For more information about helping heroin addicts, take a look at our resources on addiction treatment today. You can also reach out and speak to someone at (855) 976-2092. Get help for heroin addiction today.

 

Sources

NIDA. (2017, April 24). Trends & Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics on 2019, February 13

Joel Young. (2014, August 27). Drug and Alcohol Interventions: Do They Work? . Retrieved from Psychology Today : https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-your-adult-child-breaks-your-heart/201408/drug-and-alcohol-interventions-do-they-work