How Do I Help Someone Addicted to Heroin?
There is no easy way to help someone addicted to heroin. When someone becomes addicted to heroin, it creates a strong physical and psychological need to use the drug. The body experiences painful withdrawal symptoms when it does not have heroin, and the mind requires the effects of heroin to function. The urge to use the drug causes a person to ignore the consequences of their drug use.
Consider the following steps to help a heroin addict:
Plan and execute a family intervention—An intervention is likely needed whether the family hires a professional interventionist or not. Heroin creates an intense physical and psychological addiction.
Arrange adequate detox—Generally, this would involve a medical detox program to manage withdrawal symptoms safely. Most states have private medical detox clinics and partial hospital inpatient help through local hospitals. Detox is a critical step and cannot be avoided.
Arrange long-term inpatient drug rehab—The reality of heroin addiction is that most addicts have a history of drug misuse, whether with pain medication, alcohol, cocaine, or methamphetamine. Generally, before using heroin, they were likely misusing pain medication. Long-term inpatient rehab is the best choice after detox.
Arrange lengthy aftercare support—Recovering heroin addicts require ongoing support, such as 12-step meetings, outpatient treatment, or sober living homes. Relapse brings dangerous consequences. Overdose is much more severe when sober and more life-threatening. Adequate aftercare can help ensure sobriety during the first year.
Ask a Professional
What type of drug is heroin?
Heroin is a powerful, illicit opioid drug. As an opioid, heroin causes pain reduction, euphoria, and many other effects that can be deadly in too large a dose. As a central nervous system depressant, opioids depress breathing and ultimately kill by suffocation. The relatively low cost and potency of heroin make it one of the most commonly abused illicit opioids in the US.
What does heroin look like?
Heroin can vary widely in appearance but is commonly either a whitish powder or a dark brown, tar-like material. But heroin may also take on other forms depending upon the manufacturing process and any additives used. It may even resemble gunpowder or come pressed into pills. Depending on the region, different areas may have various forms of heroin. For example, heroin in the northeastern US has traditionally been a whitish powder, whereas, on the West Coast, black tar heroin has been the predominant form for many years.
How long does heroin stay in your system?
Heroin can be detected in the urine for up to three days after use. However, if the drug is used infrequently and in small amounts, it may only be detectable for one or two days. But because of heroin’s highly addictive properties, infrequent use is uncommon. Other factors like the person’s physiology and health habits can impact how quickly heroin leaves the system.
Why is heroin so addictive?
Heroin is so addictive because of the strong physical dependence it causes. After only a few days of regular use, a dependence develops. Dependence is a condition where the body has become accustomed to the effects of the drug and now needs it to function normally. Without it, the person will suffer uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms and intense cravings for more opioids. So, after only a few uses, a person may become physically addicted to heroin. When this physical component is combined with the mental aspects of opioid addiction, it illustrates why opioids have caused such a scourge across America.
How is heroin used?
Heroin is most commonly used by intravenous injection. That’s because when heroin is consumed this way, it produces a fast and powerful “rush” of intoxicating effects. These effects are all produced by other methods of consumption, but with injection, the rapid accumulation of the substance in the bloodstream can become an addiction in itself. IV drug users generally do not return to other methods of ingestion once they begin shooting up. However, when someone begins experimenting with heroin, they may smoke or snort the drug. Snorting it is much more common when the heroin is in a powdered form, as opposed to the tacky composition of black tar heroin, which is more easily smoked. Heroin may also be consumed orally, but this approach is far less common and mainly occurs when the heroin is pressed into a pill.
Want to know more?
The questions from Addicted.org’s “Learn from our Experts” are answered by Michael Leach, CCMA. If you need further clarification on any of the questions above or have any other questions you can contact him directly at mike@addicted.org.
