You never thought you’d be here, but somehow your life spiraled out of control. You’ve looked up from your heroin haze to realize that you don’t know who you are anymore.
It’s a familiar feeling for many struggling with heroin addiction. The frightening thing about drugs like heroin is that they make you believe that you can’t live without them.
We’re here to tell you that life without heroin is possible. More than that, you deserve to live a life where your decisions and interactions with the people you love are not dictated by drugs. You deserve to live your life to the fullest.
If you’re starting the process of seeking heroin addiction treatment, here’s what you need to know about the stages of treatment and the importance of a Florida substance abuse treatment program.
Understanding Drug Addiction
To understand your treatment options, it helps to understand how they treat the mechanisms of addiction and withdrawal.
Drug addiction doesn’t happen overnight and isn’t an issue of character or willpower. Many risk factors come together to contribute to drug addiction, including:
- Familial risk factors, including childhood maltreatment and family history of substance abuse
- Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse
- Neglect
- Social risk factors
- Peer pressure
- Bullying
- Gang affiliation
- History of mental illness
You may have taken drugs the first time for any number of reasons. Maybe you wanted to feel good or wanted to feel better. Maybe you wanted to do better at school, at work, or in your personal life. You could have been curious about what effect it would have on you.
Now, though, your addiction has spiraled. It’s controlling your life and giving you noticeable symptoms. Your family, friends, and coworkers are starting to notice signs of heroin use. It’s no longer about chasing a feeling, but about needing to get high. If you’re reading this, you know, in your heart, that you want your life to be more than this.
Heroin Addiction Treatment Options and Stages
Unfortunately, the process of recovery is not an easy one.
Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs in the world. While opiate withdrawal is not one of the two withdrawal syndromes that can be lethal if done cold turkey (that dubious honor goes to alcohol and benzodiazepines), it is a very unpleasant withdrawal syndrome and difficult recovery process.
There are several stages involved in heroin addiction treatment. Here are four stages to prepare for if you’re starting the process.
Precovery
Precovery, a term coined by researcher William White, is not listed on most recovery treatment plans, but that’s because it’s not something doctors can do for you. It’s also vital to the recovery process.
Precovery describes the addiction phase characterized by internal dialogue within an addict. It consists of a few phases:
- Depletion of the drug’s once-esteemed value
- Cognitive disillusionment with the addiction lifestyle
- A crystallization of discontent due to a pro/con analysis of the lifestyle
- Growing emotional distress and self-repugnance
- Spiritual hunger for greater meaning and purpose
- Breakthroughs in the addict’s perception of self
- Access to recovery carriers
Essentially, this is the phase at which you stop chasing heroin as an idealized perfect place. You become discontent with the lifestyle of drug abuse and start to not only believe that there’s a better life out there but yearn for it.
Some people reach this process during other stages of recovery, while others reach it before deciding to commit to recovery.
Detoxification
Once you’ve committed to beginning recovery, the first stage is medical detoxification.
This is the process of halting drug abuse and working through the worst of your withdrawal syndrome until heroin is completely out of your system. As the name implies, this process often happens under the supervision of doctors or nurses. You can complete it in a hospital or another medical setting.
You don’t have to complete this stage under supervision, but it is advisable if you’re halting usage after long-term or severe heroin abuse. Medical personnel can help keep you as comfortable as possible while ensuring you don’t seek out heroin to relieve your withdrawal.
Inpatient or Outpatient
After completing detoxification, you’re ready to move to the next stage of treatment. The first choice is whether to do inpatient or outpatient treatment.
In an inpatient treatment program, you leave your life on hold for the duration of the program and live in a heroin addiction treatment center. You’ll have supervision and guidance from the staff and you can work with others who are going through the same process.
This option is particularly useful for patients who need to get away from unhealthy lifestyle patterns. You won’t have access to others outside of the heroin addiction treatment center and you won’t have to worry about the stresses of ordinary life. All you have to worry about is getting healthy again.
That said, not all patients can afford to press pause on their life, which is why outpatient treatment is popular. In outpatient, you go through all the same forms of treatment as inpatient, but you’re allowed to live outside the facility and carry on your day-to-day life.
This is useful if you can’t take time away from your job or your family, but it does present unique challenges. You have to cope with daily stresses and keep yourself out of old patterns, which can be harder for some patients to handle.
Behavioral Counseling
Regardless of which type of treatment you go through, a cornerstone of all successful heroin rehab programs is behavioral therapy at a Florida mental health treatment program.
This can take many forms, from cognitive behavioral therapy to old-fashioned talk therapy.
The goal of behavioral counseling is to give you the resources and coping mechanisms you need to maintain your sobriety independently. A counselor, therapist, or psychologist will work on:
- How you think about yourself
- How you think about the world around you
- How you handle stressful or upsetting situations
- How to deal with addictive thought patterns when they arise
- How to turn to healthier coping mechanisms
- How to recognize when you’re struggling
Many people struggling with addiction fall into the same pattern of behavior. They encounter something they’re emotionally unequipped to handle and, unsure of how to process the situation, they numb or bury the feeling with drugs.
A counselor helps you learn to deal with emotions and situations that upset you so that you can cope with them successfully rather than hiding from them.
To be clear: it’s not going to be pleasant. You’ll have to face uncomfortable truths, and you probably won’t like it at first.
It’s not going to be pleasant, but it is necessary to build a healthier emotional landscape and live your life without relying on heroin.
The First Step Toward Sobriety is Willingness
As we said earlier, getting sober is not a matter of willpower. It is, however, a question of willingness.
No one can choose to get sober for you. You have to make that commitment to yourself.
Remember, getting sober is a difficult process. You’re going to have to overhaul the way you live your life, and you’re going to stage an uphill battle with your mind and body to do it.
It’s not a direct route, either–for many, the path to sobriety is more of a meandering scenic route littered with switchbacks, roundabouts, and false starts.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, only that it’s difficult. You’re going to have to work hard to show up each day and keep trying even when the going gets rough. Willingness isn’t the magic bullet to fix addiction, but it is essential to start the process of recovery.
If you’re willing to start the journey, we’re ready to help you find your way with professional and compassionate heroin rehab.
Reclaiming Your Life from Addiction
If you’re considering a Florida addiction treatment program, we’d like to congratulate you. You’ve taken the difficult first step of admitting you need help and recognizing that your life is so much more than heroin.
Our job is to help you find your way.
We understand the cycle of addiction, and we know how difficult it is to break away. We also know that anyone can heal if they have the right support. Promises Five Palms offers a full continuum of care, compassionate expert staff, and a holistic approach to deal with the many facets of addiction and recovery.
You deserve to live a life free of drugs. Let’s start this journey together. Call Promises Five Palms today and learn how we can help you defeat heroin addiction and get your life back 844-820-6323.