The road to opiate detox and recovery is a process that is seldom straightforward. Since many factors often cause addiction, overcoming it involves getting into the root of the problem, which takes time. Because of this, people started thinking of methods to accelerate this process of recovery. However, approaches like this can do more harm than good.
What are opiates?
Before diving into the topic of detoxification processes for opiates, it is crucial first to identify what opiates are.
Opiates refer to natural opioids such as heroin, morphine, and codeine instead of opioids, which refer to natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic opioids. These chemicals interact with nerve receptors in the body and brain, weakening pain impulses and perceptions.
What are the consequences of opiate use?
On the forefront of the dangers of abusing opiates are two things: dependence and overdose.
Using addictive substances like opioids can lead to physical dependence. Physical dependence is a drug adaptation that causes unpleasant symptoms when withdrawing from the substance. These are painful physical symptoms that can arise if you do not take the drug.
On the other hand, an overdose harms the body in the form of poisoning and occurs with overconsumption of the drug.
These two dangers are linked together because physical dependence on opiates increases the risk of an overdose.
What is detox?
Detoxification is a set of treatments and medical practices that treat and adequately manage acute intoxication and withdrawal. It entails removing pollutants from the body of a patient who is acutely intoxicated and/or dependent on drugs.
What are some detox methods?
Numerous approaches and interventions are available to help people get through their detoxification period as painlessly as possible.
Medical practitioners prescribe buprenorphine or a mix of other medicines to ease withdrawal symptoms. However, it is vital to note that these treatments may be insufficient to assure total abstinence from substances, and more rehabilitation may be required.
One of these detox methods is rapid opiate detox.
What is rapid detox for opiates?
In a nutshell, this detoxification method speeds up the normal process of detoxification. Typically, the withdrawal process for opiates should take one to two weeks, but in the rapid detox method, it condenses into four to six hours.
In this procedure, you are sedated, and doctors use various medications that are meant to “flush” out the contaminants in your body. This process effectively skips most of the withdrawal process since, by the time you regain consciousness, their withdrawal symptoms would have passed, and you are released from the hospital within 48 hours.
Does rapid opiate detox work?
On paper, rapid opiate detox seems like a highly convenient and highly effective way to stave off opiate addiction. However, its overwhelmingly positive effects and convenience come off as too good to be true.
Drug addiction is a disorder that affects a person’s behavior, causing them to lose control and abuse legal or illicit substances. Many organizations consider it a disease due to its ability to change brain and body functions. Substances such as nicotine, alcohol, or illegal narcotics influence how the brain and body react to stressful or rewarding situations.
In the case of opiates, they interfere with your central nervous system and give your brain a hard time distinguishing its natural endorphin chemicals from the substance. Once this happens and addiction sets in, the central nervous system and the body changes so much to the point that reversing it becomes complicated.
Because of this, the rapid opiate detox process is not enough to completely eliminate withdrawal effects. These withdrawal effects that could remain are as follows:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Mood swings
- Feelings of despair
- Fatigue
- Confusion
What are the risks and dangerous effects of rapid detox?
Not only is the process of rapid detox not conducive to full recovery, but it also places your body under an immense amount of strain. The following are potential life-threatening side effects of this method:
- Delirium
- Heart problems
- Respiratory problems
- Liver problems
- Psychosis
- Suicidal thoughts
At worst, improper execution of this method can even lead to death.
Furthermore, the rapid detox process can also be counterproductive, increasing the risk of opiate abuse relapse. This is because rapid detox not only gets rid of the opiates in your body it also leaves your brain with a severe lack of dopamine.
Since dopamine has an essential role in keeping your emotions and mental health stable, the lack thereof could cause you to once again turn to opiate abuse to cope with daily stress and the dopamine shortage.
What’s worse, people who relapse on opiate abuse tend to pick up right where they left off, meaning, to appease their dependence on the drug, they would take a dangerously large amount of it to get the same gratification. This drastically increases the risk of an overdose.
What is the best way to detox from opiates?
The better way to attain opiate detox and recovery is through the process of medical detoxification. Even though it does not work as fast as rapid detox, it is a process that takes no shortcuts.
Medical detox ensures that over five to seven days, you receive treatments that are meant to gradually get rid of your withdrawal symptoms and assure that your system is monitored. Your vital signs are kept stable throughout the process.
Unlike rapid detox, which only focuses on the physical dependence aspect of opiates, medical detox also makes sure to treat the psychological effects of addiction. In effect, this process leads to a more healthy and complete recovery.
Start your detoxification process today
Coping with opiate withdrawal can be difficult. There are numerous things to keep an eye out for, as well as multiple ways to interrupt your opiate detox and recovery. If you know someone struggling with opiate addiction and is looking for an effective detox treatment in California, Roots Through Recovery is a name you can trust.
Roots Through Recovery is a drug rehabilitation center in Long Beach specializing in addiction treatment the right way, without any shortcuts.
Our team of caring professionals is always ready to bring your loved one back to the right path. For more information, you can visit our website here at https://roots-recovery.com or call us at 866-766-8776 to schedule an appointment.
