Heroin Detox
Heroin Addiction Detox Treatment
Inspire Malibu specializes in proper and safe heroin detox.
We specialize in Heroin Detox in Los Angeles at our facilities in Agoura Hills, California. We offer inpatient detox treatment and outpatient detox services. Our clients travel from all over the USA and many different countries, as well as from the surrounding areas of Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Woodland Hills, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Hollywood, Oxnard, Ventura, Tarzana, Encino, and Santa Barbara.
Heroin is in a very addictive opioid category of drugs, meaning it does not occur organically in nature. It is manufactured from morphine, which is derived from the opium poppy plant.
Heroin goes by many different names on the streets, but comes in the form of either a white or brown powder, or as a sticky black substance. The drug can be snorted, smoked, or injected directly into the bloodstream.
Whatever the delivery system, heroin quickly moves through the body and binds to a person’s opioid receptors located in the brain. Many of these receptors control the brain’s ability to distinguish pain and reward. This can create a false sense of well-being, and is the reason why heroin is so dangerously habit forming. More and more of the drug is needed over time to achieve the same euphoric effect.
It’s estimated that 23% of people who try heroin become dependent on it, and require specialized professional treatment for heroin addiction. Once addicted, users can experience a rapid need to increase their dosage. In some cases, heroin abusers use up to ten times their initial amount in as little as three to four months after their first encounter with the drug.
Heroin Detox and Addiction Treatment
Inspire Malibu’s addiction specialists understand that the first step to recovery is proper treatment. That’s why clients at our heroin addiction treatment centers receive the utmost attention and care while undergoing heroin detox in a therapeutic and secure environment.
Like many other chronic diseases, heroin addiction can be treated. The addiction specialists at Inspire Malibu are leading this charge with cutting edge scientific treatments that combine behavioral therapies and non-12 step supportive services. Their incredibly effective approach has, time and time again, proven successful in ridding patients of their heroin addiction.
The facilities at Inspire Malibu offer a peacefully therapeutic and naturally serene landscape for those seeking treatment for heroin addiction.
Treating Heroin Addiction
The most recent information on heroin use suggests that some 4.2 million Americans have tried this powerfully addictive drug.
The addiction specialists at Inspire Malibu’s heroin addiction treatment centers recognize that, regardless of the statistics, every one of our patients in treatment for heroin addiction is unique and different.
Heroin Addiction Treatment clients are monitored and treated during heroin detox in a safe and comfortable environment. They receive an individualized treatment program that caters not only to the physical addiction, but addresses the underlying personal reasons for heroin use.
Inspire Malibu helps patients overcome their heroin addiction and get their life back on track.
50% – 70% of intravenous heroin users have experienced non-fatal overdoses. Smoking and snorting the drug is just as risky when it comes to overdosing. No heroin use can be considered safe because the drug also affects opioid receptors located in the brain stem.
This area of the brain runs processes vital to life, such as blood pressure and breathing, which is why respiratory failure is a common cause in countless fatal heroin overdoses.
Heroin Addiction and its Consequences
Long term use of heroin leads not just to serious health problems, but also creates numerous social problems like job loss, violence and crime. It also contributes to the spread of deadly infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis.
Heroin sold on the street often contains untold toxic additives that can cause additional and permanent injury to a user’s vital organs.
Continual heroin addiction and abuse can lead to:
- Spontaneous abortion
- Liver and kidney disease
- Collapsed veins
- Pulmonary complications
- Infection of the heart lining and valves
Heroin addicts might also experience:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Clouded mental functions
- Warm flushing of the skin
- Dry mouth
- Heaviness in the extremities
- An alternate wakeful and drowsy state, known as “the nods”.
Heroin Detox Treatment
Withdrawal from heroin is known to start in as little as 6 to 12 hours from a user’s last dose. When heroin withdrawal sets in, an user can expect to experience at least some of the following symptoms:
If performed properly, heroin detox can be successfully completed in 5 to 7 days. However, some users can experience symptoms for weeks, or even months. This is known as Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS).
It’s believed that this syndrome might be due to physiological changes in the central nervous system associated with continual abuse and should be monitored during heroin detoxification.
Heroin addiction can be successfully treated. The addiction specialists at Inspire Malibu are leading this charge with cutting edge scientific treatment that combines behavioral therapies and non-12 step recovery services.
This incredibly effective approach has, time and time again, proven successful in helping quit heroin.
Heroin Addiction Treatment:
Inspire Malibu recognizes that every one of our patients in treatment for heroin addiction is different. As such, we take an individualized approach to treating addiction.
The first step in our treatment process being a full analysis of the patient and determining which treatments will work best (as well as which treatments are likely to be less than effective).
In most cases, we use medication-assisted therapy to get the patient through detox, and then after detox to minimize cravings and help patients manage their withdrawal symptoms.
According to an article on NPR, “the best way to tackle the country’s opioid epidemic is to get more people on medications that have been proven in studies to reduce relapses and, ultimately, overdoses.”
We frequently use Suboxone for heroin addiction.
Buprenorphine (buprenorphine/naloxone) is an opiate partial agonist, meaning that it “scratches the itch,” so to speak, of an opioid user craving heroin without doing the damage that a full opiate agonist like heroin does.
Buprenorphine + Naloxone is a recent addition to the array of medications now available for the treatment of heroin addiction, and it’s different from the similar and better-known medication methadone in that it offers less risk of addiction and overdose, and it’s able to be prescribed in the privacy of a doctor’s office.
Physical Addiction
- To fight physical addiction, it’s necessary to address the underlying personal reasons for heroin use, such as childhood trauma, depression, etc. Inspire Malibu helps patients overcome their heroin addiction and get their life back on track. In addition to medication-based therapy, our other methods include:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been proven by research to be the most effective type of behavioral therapy for treating drug dependency, especially for heroin abuse. Our clinical team also uses a sophisticated form of to properly address and treat each client’s behavioral issues.
- Motivational Enhancement Therapy involves a counselor showing the patient the difference between the life they want and the life that forces them to have, and then helps them through the steps they must undergo in order to motivate themselves to break free of the addiction cycle and live the life they truly wish to live.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy covers the two seemingly contradictory states of mind that a patient must experience to overcome their addiction: they must accept who they are, and they also must change.
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a noninvasive procedure that stimulates small sections of the brain with magnetic field generators. This treatment is effective at fighting depression, one of the most common root causes behind heroin addiction.
- Neurofeedback Therapy allows counselors to see in real-time how a patient’s brain acts when they’re thinking about certain subjects or past events, and this information helps counselors make their therapy sessions more efficient and effective. It is available for an extra fee unless covered by insurance.
- Nutrition and maintaining a healthy diet during and after treatment is vital to successful relapse prevention.
- Exercise also helps a patient stay focused on recovery and avoid relapse.
