Summary:
This article explores what heroin does to an individual, in the short-term and the long-term, and why it’s so important to find approved medical assisted treatment for recovery.
At Sequoia Recovery Center, we provide a full Continuum of Care for our clients struggling with addiction to heroin or other substances. Our team of qualified professionals will guide clients through their initial detox, helping to manage the physical withdrawal symptoms that are caused by heroin, and preparing clients for what comes next. With MAT, we can help individuals better manage cravings in recovery and reduce their risk of relapse.
What Does Heroin Do to You?
Heroin use has many immediate and long-term effects. In the short-term it can cause an immediate rush but also depresses the central nervous system, mainly the heart rate and breathing. This means that a rush is almost immediately followed by the nodding off state, a state where individuals rest somewhere between consciousness and semi-consciousness, continually at risk for respiratory failure.
Long term it leads to severe health complications, suppressed immune function, the risk for liver and kidney failure especially if you or a partner has a relapse. More than that, heroin results in serious withdrawal symptoms making it difficult to get clean on your own. But with our MAT programs and multiple levels of care, we make it possible to get through the worst and transition back to independence.
Sequoia Recovery Center’s Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
At our facility we provide medication assisted treatment which combines FDA approved medications with behavioral therapy. Medications like Suboxone can help occupy your brain’s opioid receptors, preventing that craving that might otherwise happen when an individual stops taking heroin.
This is an initial stage that helps stabilize brain chemistry and make it easier for our team to work with each client through individual and group therapy to develop life skills for handling cravings or challenges, and working through other mental health disorders.
Our Levels of Care
These life skills and therapy sessions are incorporated into every level of care. We start with our medication assisted detox where individuals work through the physical withdrawal symptoms of heroin.
From there our team helps stabilize each client and transition them to the residential phase of their recovery, where they can focus full-time on behavioral therapies, holistic support, nutritional education, and sobriety.
When clients are ready they can move to outpatient programs, with partial hospitalization programs and intensive outpatient programs available to fit different schedules.
Using Relapse Prevention Strategies
We know that recovery is a lifelong journey and that’s why we help our clients map out high risk triggers and build plans for navigating those triggers. Through sessions like cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy our clients learn how to sit with cravings, be with that temporary discomfort, until the moment passes. Not every uncomfortable moment has to be numbed with substances.
We also help build a safety net, a supportive community of alumni members, support group meetings, and family. Family involvement means teaching your loved ones how they can best support you at home, especially when you are participating in outpatient levels of care, and how they can identify early signs of a potential relapse.
Contact Our Team Today
What does heroin do to you? At Sequoia Recovery Center, we help our clients understand the negative impact that heroin use can have on brain function, physical health, and other aspects of personal life. Through our multiple levels of care we can help clients break the cycle of addiction and begin taking back control.
Don’t wait to get help. Call our team today to learn about heroin treatment, relapse prevention plans, and which level of care is best for you.
FAQ
What Does Heroin Do To You Right Away?
When someone first uses heroin, it goes into the brain and gets converted into morphine. That morphine binds to the opioid receptors that naturally exist in the brain creating an intense rush or euphoria. This is followed by the nodding state, where an individual alternates between being conscious and semi-conscious.
What Does Nodding State Mean?
The nodding state refers to a sign of depression in your central nervous system. This is a state into which people transition after using heroin, indicated by slowing heart rate and slowing breathing. The slowing of both of those means that the brain struggles to stay alert. This state is very dangerous because it can lead to respiratory failure, one of the main causes of heroin related deaths.
How Does Heroin Rewire the Brain?
Heroin use over a long time frame can alter the physical size of different components in the brain and the way they function. This is often referred to as rewiring the brain because it creates imbalances in the hormonal systems and neurons that are, actually put, rewired from where they were. That is why our team focuses on multiple evidence-based practices and evidence-based holistic care to help undo that rewiring, fix the imbalances in those hormonal systems and those neurons.
What are the Long Term Physical Health Risks of Heroin Use?
Not only does heroin lead to risks of respiratory failure but long-term use can suppress the immune system and cause collapsed veins. A suppressed immune system means that the immune system doesn’t work the way it should so it can’t respond to infections as easily leaving individuals sicker more frequently. Other physical health risks can include infections because of the suppressed immune system especially in the heart lining and the valves of the heart, liver disease, kidney disease, or pulmonary complications.
Is Heroin Withdrawal Worse Than Other Drugs?
Heroin withdrawal symptoms are notoriously challenging and they often manifest in physical pain like bone pain, uncontrollable leg movements, vomiting, and cold flashes. These symptoms are not necessarily worse than other drugs as this is really based on personal experience, but the fact that they are primarily physical can make it much more challenging compared to things like insomnia or anxiety. These physical symptoms are managed by our team through 24-hour supervision, over the counter medications, and FDA-approved medications where appropriate.
Does Heroin Use Affect Emotions?
Yes, as individuals use heroin it creates a numbing effect that can mask emotions and when it wears off it can create rebound anxiety or depression. Many individuals who struggle with co-occurring disorders like heroin addiction and anxiety might find that after heroin use, their anxiety is significantly higher, feeling more intense than before. This often leads to a cycle where people use drugs like heroin for self medication, trying to avoid, ignore, or otherwise mask symptoms of other mental health disorders.
How Does Sequoia Recovery Center Help Someone Stop Using Heroin?
At Sequoia Recovery Center, we use a multi-phase approach starting with medical detox to help our clients manage their physical withdrawal symptoms and then moving clients into residential treatment when they are able to start intensive therapy. During this process we typically utilize medication-assisted treatment to help reduce cravings and manage relapses. We also provide several outpatient levels of care so individuals can begin to return to full independence as they continue to reach sobriety goals through medical support and behavioral tools.
