Opiates

Most if not all alcohol treatment centers and drug rehabs will tell you that fighting an opiate addiction is one of the hardest struggles any addict could possibly face. Opiates create a strong chemical dependency in the user that makes withdrawal painful, lengthy (depending upon the type of opiate), and highly dangerous. They are also yet another drug family that forges a psychological dependency upon the drug. This combination of physical and chemical dependency make it imperative that anyone who has come to the realization that they have a drug dependency upon an opiate seek medical treatment, preferably in an inpatient program.

History of Opiates

Opiate use goes back thousands of years in some form. All opiates are created from the latex sap of the opium poppy. This sap is then synthesized into a plethora of compounds that can disassociate the user from the feeling of pain or anxiety. Morphine was one of the first opiates to be synthesized for medicinal purposes. It was created at a time where surgery techniques were becoming better refined and more successful in their aims. Battlefield surgeries went far to school doctors in their craft. All they needed was more adequate means of stifling the pain of their patients. Morphine did this with high efficiency. Heroin was the next phase in painkiller development. This drug was perfect for use in amputations, open abdominal and other highly invasive and painful surgeries as it allowed the user to completely remove themselves from the pain and anxiety. As history would tell us it did “too” good of a job and quickly spread into the black market for use as a recreational drug.

About Opiates

As painkillers, opiates are highly effective. Their addictive component makes their usage highly controlled for medical purposes. They are usually given when an individual has back, hip, or other extreme injury, or if the patient is terminally ill. Of this family of drugs come some of the most addictive and highly abused drugs on the black market:

 

• Morphine
• Vicodin
• Oxycontin/Oxycodone
• Heroin

 

Opiates Effects on the Body

Opiates affect the pleasure and reward center of the brain by activating the opiate receptors in the VTA, nucleus accumbens, and the brain’s cerebral cortex. Heroin is able to penetrate the brain quickly, moreso even than oxycodone, and is one reason why opiate progression can eventually move from oxycodone use to heroin. Opiates are able to produce the same reaction within the human body as occurs during sexual orgasm for an extended period of time. They also work to assist the body’s own pain management mechanisms. Opiates act differently than other painkillers. They don’t block pain messages the brain sends out, as do other chemicals produced by the body or pharmacological products, instead they change the nature of the pain experience. Individuals on opiates still experience pain but it does not “feel” the same to them. Their experience with pain, the psychological memories, is forever changed. Part of the problem that drug treatment centers and drug treatment programs have with drug detoxification for individuals that suffer from opiate addiction is that opiates change the subjective nature of the addict’s experiences. Pain is different. Emotions are different. The addict’s entire worldview is different. You may have been able to detoxify the body of the chemical, but the brain has been altered and is slow to “bounce back”. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE EFFECTS OF OPIATES CLICK HERE

As addicts start to venture out into their recovery they will experience depression, they will find that the small bumps and knocks that each of us have each day as we maneuver around cause pain again. Their world will seem very strange at first. Opiate addicts are quick to turn back to opiate use following an event that “triggers” their memory and cravings, which is why successful treatment of opiate addiction includes both an inpatient drug treatment program and outpatient treatment and follow up. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TREATING OPIATE ADDICTION CLICK HERE