What is Heroin?
Heroin is an extremely addictive opiate, derived from poppy plants and is taken for its euphoric effects. Typically heroine is brown or white in color, pure heroin, white in color originates mainly in South America and South East Asia. Despite its origin, heroin addiction is a worldwide epidemic. Heroin addiction is particularly dangerous, probably more than any other drug, due to the short span of time it takes for human body to develop a dependency on it. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to quit heroin due to the physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms. If you or your loved ones seem to develop a heroin addiction, read below for more details…
What are the effects?
Heroin is taken for its euphoric effects, and some of the long and short-term effects of heroin addiction are described as follows:
- Flushed skin
- Dilated pupils
- Drowsiness
- Sleeping for hours
- Clouded thinking
- Feeling sedated
- Slowed breathing and heart rate
In addition to the above short-term side effects of heroin, some users might face some severe symptoms that could lead to psychological issues and immediate professional health support. The severe typical symptoms could include chest pain and difficulty in breathing and psychological symptoms could include anxiety and severe depression. Some users could face toxic results that could even put them in coma.
What are the warning signs?
Some of the most common associated symptoms of heroin addiction are changes in the color of skin and lips to blue, along with dilated pupils. Moreover, heroin causes extreme disorientation and weak pulse, so if you notice any of these signs in anyone they might be in need of professional help. Moreover, heroin addiction is extremely difficult to quit because of the severe withdrawal symptoms associated with it. Therefore, users that want to quit are often incapable of doing so because of the severe side-effects. So, due to the difficulty in quitting the drug, heroin abusers are often caught in financially difficult situations and might start selling their valuables to purchase heroin and start neglecting their responsibility to themselves and their family.
What are the withdrawal effects?
As mentioned earlier withdrawal symptoms of heroin are extremely painful. It is extremely easy to develop a dependency on heroin and according to statistics of a study conducted by the Center of Disease Prevention and Control, a person who has developed a heroin addiction is 6-20 times more likely to die than a person without addiction. Some of the severe withdrawal symptoms of heroin withdrawal are:
- Cravings
- Body aches
- Insomnia
- Dysphoria
- Depression
- Restlessness
- Anxiety
- Nausea
- Vomiting
Treatment and Re-integration
The first step of treatment of heroin addiction is finding a good facility for professional help and treatment. The first step after being admitting into a facility is detox and stabilization. The detox process is the most difficult part, as after detox the person in recovery could face extreme withdrawal effects, such as physical pains and psychological problems.
It is important to thoroughly observe the person in recovery so that they do not try to gain access to drugs again or hurt themselves during the recovery process. In addition to proper psychological and physiological professional support, patients should opt for an outpatient program to further solidify the foundation of their recovery.
Moreover, after stabilization patients should be encouraged to join a support group or a facility that can help them in successful reintegration of the user to society.
