It is generally
only a matter of time before a person addicted to
an opiate like heroin, OxyContin or Vicodin
decides that they have to stop using the opiate or
their life will be ruined. In an
estimated 95% of the "cold turkey" withdrawal
attempts where patients tried to withdraw on their
own, the withdrawal was so painful that the person
resumed taking the
opiate.
Being forced to
take the opiate again has created a situation
which can lead the opiate user to believe that
they are trapped-they don't dare stop taking
opiates but they have to stop taking opiates or
their life is ruined. This
feeling of helplessness can lead to intense
depression and erratic behavior. This
condition is not aided when many of their friends
and family are saying that they should just "Stop
this behavior. It is
ruining your life and ours." Even
though the opiate user is now having difficulty
functioning regularly and knows that their actions
are destructive, they just can't confront stopping
and often resent and do destructive things to
those around them that "can't understand" what
they are going
through.
While not
attempting to justify or condone addiction or
physical dependence on opiates, the opiate user
and their family will be better able to confront
and handle the opiate problem when they understand
more about what is actually
happening.
What is withdrawal
and why is it so difficult? Withdrawal
is simply not doing something that you were
doing.
A simple example of withdrawal that most of
us have experienced is to go on a diet and stop
eating desserts, candy and sodas. We know
that for many of us this is very difficult because
instead of our body producing the correct amounts
of carbohydrates for energy we have come to rely
on sugar from these other sources.
While difficult, most of us have an
understanding that the cravings and feelings of
tiredness will gradually lessen if we persist in
abstaining from desserts, candy and soda and
obtain our sugars from the foods we
eat.
Many others of us
have become addicted to caffeine. Our doctor
may have advised us to stop drinking caffeine, but
withdrawing from it is often very difficult. However,
if we persist in the withdrawal, we gradually find
that we no longer need caffeine to "get us
going."
Withdrawal from
opiates is similar to withdrawing from sugars and
caffeine, however, the withdrawal symptoms can be
much more severe.
While sugars and caffeine deal with our
"energy", opiates interfere with the way that our
bodies deal with pleasure and pain.
The human body
produces endorphins, a natural hormone that the
body uses to regulate pleasure and pain. Everyone
wants to experience pleasure and not pain. This is
normal.
The endorphins increase the feeling of
pleasure or at least a feeling of relief from
pain.
(For some who take opiates not because of
pain from a physical problem but because they want
to escape the "pain of life", the opiates increase
the feeling of pleasure, even giving a sense of
euphoria where everything is now ok even if it's
not.)
When the pain is
much more severe than normal-like a painful
operation or a severe injury, the body's
endorphins are normally not produced in a quantity
that is able to sufficiently reduce the pain. The
solution now being used by the medical
establishment is to give opiates. The
opiates trigger the same responses in the body as
the endorphins and the person feels relief and,
depending on the dosage, even a feeling of
euphoria.
For most people, if
they take opiates for a short period of time and
then stop taking them, their withdrawal is not
severe and many don't experience any of the more
severe withdrawal
symptoms.
The real problem is
when a person takes opiates for a longer period of
time, they are more likely to become physically
dependent-they have to have the opiate to control
the pain or the fear of the pain, or addicted-they
have to have the opiate for the feeling of
pleasure it provides and will do anything, no
matter how destructive to them or others, to
obtain the opiate.
Each opiate user
will experience different reactions. However,
we know that as more opiates are used the body
starts to produce less and less endorphins. The body's
natural response to pain, the production of
endorphins, lessens and increasingly the only way
for a person to deal with pain is to take
opiates.
We also know that most people develop a
tolerance to the opiates. This means
that in order for the opiate to have the desired
effect, more and more opiates must be taken. This can
create a very dangerous health situation for the
opiate user.
(One of the serious side effects of opiate
abuse is respiratory failure which can rapidly
lead to death.)
Most of us don't
realize it, but our daily pains and
disappointments are greatly affected by
endorphins.
The opiates cause the body to lessen or
stop the production of endorphins. If the
person suddenly stops or greatly reduces their
intake of opiates, the body is now defenseless to
pain and many unpleasant symptoms can result. Most
people experience sweating, uncontrollable
diarrhea, vomiting, and severe depression along
with any pain that the opiate was masking. (It
is interesting that in many cases, the addicted
person may find that the pain they originally took
the opiate to control is no longer there, but they
will likely experience the other
symptoms.)
Fortunately, most
people will begin producing natural endorphins
again and, if the withdrawal from opiates can
continue, generally in a few weeks the body's
normal ability to deal with both pleasure and pain
is restored.
However, these few weeks can be a hell on
earth for the addicted
person.
Without the
assistance of a quality medical detox facility,
95% of the people who try to stop taking opiates
find the withdrawal unbearable and they again
become addicted to opiates. However,
in a quality medical detox facility, everyone can
safely and, in most cases, much more comfortably,
withdraw from opiates and take the first step
towards regaining their
life.
