Author: Alex Thompson

Home Remedies for Opiate Withdrawal

When caring for someone else, it is essential to ensure that you also care for yourself. This can be difficult and draining, so make sure to take care of yourself physically and emotionally. This can involve taking time for yourself, ensuring you are attending to your needs, and checking in with yourself often. This way, you will be in the best possible position to support your loved one. One of the best things you can do is explore treatment options together. This way, you can better understand what withdrawal entails and the best course of action.

According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, around 9 percent of Americans will end up abusing opiates throughout their lifetime. Overcoming opioid addiction is a tough process, but it’s not impossible. Part of making it through the opioid withdrawal process involves understanding it. You may be tempted to take more opioid medicine than your taper recommends. Do not start taking any opioids you have at home that you received from other health professionals or visits to the emergency room. Extra opioids, alcohol and drugs can increase your risk of an overdose.

Detox facilities can monitor your health and make the process safe and more effective. Medical professionals provide important monitoring and can treat you if you have extreme side effects or if you experience dangerous complications. With other substances, withdrawal symptoms are often exceedingly unpleasant—shakiness, irritability, intense anxiety or depression, flu-like symptoms. They are treated with common medications that provide symptomatic relief. Specific pharmaceutical agents, notably buprenorphine, are available to counter the symptoms of withdrawal from opioids, such as heroin, oxycodone, and fentanyl.

WHAT WE TREAT

Opioid withdrawal syndrome is a condition in which your body needs time to recover and readjust to the loss of opioids that it got used to. In severe cases, opioid withdrawal syndrome can be life threatening. If you’re using opioids, your body might grow accustomed to their presence and effects. When you’re frequently using, the body develops a physical dependence. Then, if you cut back on using opioids, you may experience opioid withdrawal syndrome.

Dehydration can be a serious problem leading to abnormal heartbeats, which in rare cases can lead to circulatory and heart problems. In the case of acupuncture, several studies demonstrated reduced withdrawal symptoms when combined with certain medicines. The report of studies on Chinese herbal medications found that the herbs were actually more effective at managing withdrawal symptoms than clonidine was. Dehydration due to vomiting and diarrhea is common and could lead to serious health complications. Many people end up in the hospital with dehydration when they’re going through withdrawal.

Drug cravings can be fierce, and fear of withdrawal symptoms often drives continued drug use. The longer a substance is used and the more potent it is, the more likely it is to produce withdrawal symptoms. The acute symptoms of withdrawal can last a week to 10 days, but the more psychological symptoms of withdrawal, such as anxiety or depression, can last for weeks or months. If you’ve used alcohol, heroin, meth, or other substances for only a short time or have taken only small doses, you might not experience withdrawal.

The type of drug you were taking, the amount of time you were taking it, and the dosage you were taking can all affect the type and severity of the symptoms you experience. If you try to go through withdrawal on your own, you’ll need to be prepared. Try to slowly taper off opiates before you go off them completely. However, given the compulsive nature of addiction, most people find self-regulated tapering to be impossible.

Many people who were once addicted to opiates struggle to not start abusing them again in the future. Ashley Olivine is a health psychologist and public health professional with over a decade of experience serving clients in the clinical setting and private practice. She has also researched a wide variety psychology and public health topics such as the management of health risk factors, chronic illness, maternal and child wellbeing, and child development. Over half of Americans aged 12 and older are considered current alcohol users, classified as drinking within the past month, and 15 million people experience alcohol use disorder (AUD).

1. When you’re frequently using, the body develops a physical dependence.
2. For example, delirium tremens is a severe, life-threatening symptom of alcohol withdrawal that involves tremors and disorientation.
3. And to restore our sanity, collectively we must rethink how to navigate a dopamine overloaded world.
4. Aches and pains that seem to crop up everywhere can be treated with acetaminophen (Tylenol) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil).

For many people, returning to use is part of the recovery process. By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website. Withdrawal can be unpleasant and potentially dangerous in some cases. For this reason, you should always talk to your doctor before stopping or reducing your substance use.

Charitable Care & Financial Assistance

Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You might even feel let down and disappointed that something that felt so good turned out to be harmful, and leaving such a big part of your life behind might feel like grieving. Withdrawal is not the same as a post-intoxication hangover that people generally sleep off.

You may be eager to reach your goal, but your body needs time to adjust to lower levels of opioids, and then to none at all. A step-by-step plan to lower how much opioid medicine you take will help this process go smoothly. This slow tapering also helps ease the discomfort you may feel as you stop taking opioids.

Stock Up on Healthy Foods and Liquids

These cells will begin to need the drug just to function properly. When you stop using opiates abruptly, your body will react, leading to symptoms of withdrawal. Cocaine is a highly addictive stimulant drug that increases dopamine (the “happy” chemical in the brain). This impacts the reward system and the way a person feels pleasure. Roughly 5.5 million Americans use cocaine each year, making it the second most used recreational drug in the U.S. following marijuana. Cocaine is highly toxic, even in small doses, and can cause acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies and seizures.

Medical Professionals

Symptoms of withdrawal are an indication of dependence on a substance. You should talk to your doctor before you reduce or stop taking a medication or drug for advice on how to do so safely and minimize potential withdrawal symptoms. Your doctor may be able to help if you are having trouble managing your symptoms and provide medical supervision to ensure your safety as you detox from a substance. You may have withdrawal symptoms when you stop or lessen the use of opioid medicine. Symptoms may vary depending on several issues, such as the speed of the opioid taper and how long you’ve used opioid medicines. Tapering over time can help lessen withdrawal symptoms or keep you from having them.

It’s important that your family members know how to use naloxone. The right length for an opioid taper varies with each person and each medicine. Your healthcare professional works with you to create an opioid taper schedule that meets your medical needs while keeping risks to your health low. If you’ve taken opioids for less than 7 to 10 days, you should be able to simply stop these medicines as soon as you’ve finished the pills your healthcare professional ordered, if not before. Ask your healthcare team if you’re not sure when you can stop your opioid medicine. Extended use of opiates changes the structure of nerve cells in your brain.