Opioids include legal and illicit drugs synthesized from painkilling characteristics of the opium poppy plant. These drugs include hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, and methadone. Thanks in part to misinformation by drugmakers about the potential for opioid addiction, doctors started prescribing potent opioids widely in the 1990s. As a result, millions of people find themselves stuck in the cycle of addiction.
About 250 million prescriptions for opioids make their way into Americans’ hands each year, according to 2013 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although opioids work well for some patients, others find themselves easily and quickly addicted to their medication. Others start abusing opioids available on the street, like fentanyl. However, regardless of where the addiction begins, this common problem can lead to opioid withdrawal symptoms or overdose death.
Opioids treat chronic pain, surgical pain, cough, and diarrhea. Doctors also use these drugs to sedate patients for procedures or treat opioid withdrawal symptoms. However, the high of opioids lures many people to overuse the medications. This high includes a feeling of well-being, reduced physical tension, decreased anxiety, reduced aggression, and general pain relief.
Even when used as prescribed, opioids cause negative side effects. These side effects include nausea, vomiting, reduced activity, and constipation. Of course, your chance of overdosing on your medication looms when you use opioids, whether illegally or under a doctor’s care. Tens of thousands of people die in the U.S. each year because of opioid overdose.
Abusing opioids eventually leads to addiction. Ending your addiction inevitably brings its own discomfort in the form of unwanted opioid withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms keep many people from seeking recovery, despite wanting to stop their maddening cycle of drug abuse.
Acute opioid withdrawal symptoms start when you skip a dose or try to spread your doses out over a longer period. Of course, quitting opioid abuse requires you to go through this withdrawal. However, with the help of a quality treatment center, you don’t have to suffer the worst effects of withdrawal. Through this support, you have access to the comforts, medical supervision, and medications you need to get through withdrawal without relapse or other medical problems.
The degree of your withdrawal symptoms depends on your drug history, dosage, frequency of use, physical health, and mental health. In other words, someone who uses opioids more frequently or at higher doses suffers more discomfort in withdrawal than someone newly addicted and using a lower dosage.
Common symptoms of opioid withdrawal include:
Your withdrawal symptoms start between 12 and 30 hours after your last dose. In most cases, the symptoms last between four and 10 days. However, some people experience symptoms for as long as 21 days, such as those addicted to methadone.
You also risk suffering post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) after opioid addiction. These symptoms last for months. They include depression, anxiety, irritability, fatigue, poor sleep, and an inability to think clearly.
No matter what, recovery from opioid addiction requires you to go through withdrawal. However, through help from a quality women’s rehab treatment center in San Diego, CA, this journey is made easier. Soledad House in San Diego provides this assistance in finding the right detox program that leads to rehab treatment and enduring recovery.
Opioid addiction treatment programs designed for long-term recovery through Soledad House include:
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