A Heroin Addiction Help Guide for your Chances of Success at Quitting
Posted in Addictions on January 24th, 2011 by Jim – Comments OffEvery heroin addiction help guide should mention how many people struggle to release themselves from the habit each year. In the year 2009 alone, there were a third of a million addicted Americans who sought heroin detox and rehab. As staggering a figure as that is, it is only a small fraction of the number of people out there who continue in the habit without seeking help.
The process of detoxifying the system of the effects of heroin addiction does not occur in the hospital alone. Hospitalization is only the first step in a long process that involves a good deal of commitment. The process of heroin detox at one of these centers works mainly on the strength of one of several drugs. Methadone is the most widely used of these – it has been in use for a quarter century, has enough testing done on it to be proven effective and harmless, and it is widely available.
Heroin use brings pleasure to an addict by acting on a certain very specific area of the brain. It makes use of the way dopamine acts on the body to achieve this. Methadone on the other hand, acts as a substitute for dopamine in the body and takes away the ability of heroin to work with the body’s natural supply of dopamine. Other drugs like suboxone act by allowing the body its fix, only doing it without the pleasure an addict associates with drugs.
In a program of treatment for heroin addiction, guide counselors take over after the drugs have begun to act, for a period of in-depth counseling they help an addict establish some kind of a support system to help himself stay on the path he has placed himself on. Does quitting addiction actually require such thorough professional help? Most people who try to quit on their own usually fall right back. One is usually helpless against the effects of a powerful addictive drug. Certainly, the statistics for how many heroin addicts actually manage to go clean are not an encouraging read. However, it only takes determination and inner strength to succeed. There are many who actually have succeeded and who live fulfilling lives.