3 Tips to Help Someone in Recovery from Heroin Addiction

Embarking on the journey to assist someone in recovery from heroin addiction can be daunting. However, your support can be a pivotal factor in their recovery. Here, we offer three insightful tips to guide your efforts in providing meaningful support:

Educate Yourself About Opioid Addiction 

When supporting someone in recovery from heroin, fentanyl, pain pills, or other drug addiction, it’s crucial to educate yourself about the nature of addiction. The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment emphasizes the deep connections within families, describing them as interdependent groups bound by enduring emotional, social, and financial ties and commitments to each other.This means that if you care about someone struggling with addiction, you are a part of their support network. Understanding addiction’s complexities can help you provide more effective support and empathy during their recovery journey. 

Tackling addiction is a team effort, involving more than just the individual in recovery. Family and friends play a crucial role. If you’re supporting someone overcoming heroin use, gaining a deep understanding of addiction is essential. Remember, addiction impacts not only the individual but also those close to them. The person struggling must make the choice to heal, but they also rely heavily on support from loved ones. When family and friends demonstrate understanding and compassion, it significantly aids the recovery process, fostering a more nurturing and supportive environment for everyone.

Explore your local library or delve into online resources for valuable reading material to deepen your understanding. To start your journey, consider reading these two articles:

• The Effects of Heroin
• 17 Symptoms During Opioid Withdrawal

Recognizing the Impact of Heroin

Understanding how heroin impacts a person is key to providing compassionate support. Initially, heroin use may cause physical signs like skin warmth and dilated pupils, along with a reduced interest in physical activities. Overuse can lead to a state often referred to as “nodding out,” where the person may struggle to stay conscious.

Heroin can also have long-term side effects and can significantly affect emotional and mental development. It alters brain chemistry, affecting areas responsible for happiness and reward. This can lead to emotional stunting, where someone might not emotionally mature past the age when they started using heroin.

Heroin can change how the brain functions, leading to hormonal imbalances and a shift in how neurotransmitters, which are responsible for feelings of pleasure, are produced. This reliance on heroin for these feelings means that during detox, a person might not find joy in activities they once enjoyed. Their reaction to social outings, like a dinner or a game, might seem underwhelming, but it’s important to remember that their ability to feel joy is recovering. Simple, calm activities can be positive steps on their path to recovery.

Promote Overall Health and Regular Checkups:

Encourage your loved one to prioritize their overall health. This includes regular medical checkups, as well as attention to nutrition and personal hygiene. Being mindful of these aspects plays a significant role in holistic recovery.

Regular medical check-ups are essential, as health issues can sometimes go unnoticed, particularly in those who have experienced challenges with substance use. Sharing needles can lead to the transmission of infectious diseases, and it’s important to be aware of this risk. Additionally, it’s not uncommon for individuals to face challenges with decision-making that could increase their risk of sexually transmitted infections. Addressing nutritional needs and personal hygiene, including dental care, is also crucial, as these can sometimes be overlooked. Offering support and understanding in these areas is key to promoting holistic health and recovery.

Discern Between Helping and Enabling:

It’s crucial to understand the difference between supportive actions and enabling behavior. Learning to recognize and avoid enabling can significantly impact your loved one’s journey towards recovery. Understanding codependency and enabling is vital in addiction recovery because it helps in identifying and modifying behaviors that may hinder the recovery process. Learn the difference between the two below:

Enabling

In supporting someone with substance use challenges, it’s essential to be aware of enabling behaviors. Enabling occurs when actions inadvertently facilitate continued substance use. For example, if an individual requests money for various needs, consider addressing these needs directly rather than providing cash. This approach helps ensure that financial support is not diverted towards substance use. It’s important to recognize that fulfilling these requests might indirectly enable the person to allocate their resources towards substance use, which can be a sensitive and challenging issue to navigate.

Codependency

Codependency in the context of supporting someone with substance use challenges involves putting another person’s needs before your own to the point where your self-worth becomes tied to their dependence on you. This might happen if you feel it’s your duty to take care of them and they can’t manage without you. It can be hard to distinguish between genuinely helping and being codependent. Discussing these feelings with a counselor can be helpful. For more insights, consider reading “Codependent No More” by Melody Beattie.

Heroin Withdrawal Symptoms

Portrayals of individuals with substance use challenges in media can often be misleading. In reality, withdrawal from substances such as heroin or any opioid is a significant medical concern and includes symptoms like:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Muscle aches
• Watery eyes and nose
• Diarrhea
• Insomnia
• Cold flashes

These symptoms require understanding and appropriate medical attention, not just for their physical impact but also for the overall well-being of the individual.

How Long Does Heroin Withdrawal Last?

Withdrawal from heroin is a complex medical condition that varies in duration among individuals. While major withdrawal symptoms often peak within a few days after the last substance use, it’s important to understand that some individuals may experience these symptoms for an extended period, even months. Additionally, cravings for the substance can persist for years, requiring ongoing support and management.

Different Types of Heroin Withdrawal Treatment

When considering support for someone in recovery, it’s a common misconception that residential rehabilitation, as often depicted in media, is the primary or only solution. In reality, treatment typically begins with a more discreet and accessible approach. Substance use treatment professionals, upon evaluating a new client, usually recommend the least restrictive level of care necessary. For many, this journey starts with outpatient counseling, which may occur once or twice a week, providing a balanced approach to recovery.

For individuals recovering from heroin use, prompt and appropriate treatment is crucial due to the substance’s high risk. While some might consider residential rehabilitation centers for immediate admission, it’s important to note that other forms of treatment, such as methadone maintenance, often show higher success rates. 

Medication-assisted treatment (MAT), an FDA-approved method, plays a pivotal role in supporting individuals who are in recovery from heroin, offering relief from intense cravings and withdrawal symptoms. This treatment includes options like methadone and buprenorphine, both designed to manage the cravings and dependencies linked to highly addictive substances such as heroin, fentanyl, pain pills, and other opioids like morphine and tramadol. While these medications bear some similarities to the misused drugs, they are processed more quickly in the body and are closely supervised by healthcare professionals in licensed programs. Methadone is broadly accessible for anyone beginning their recovery journey from heroin, whereas buprenorphine (known by its brand name, Suboxone) is typically offered to those who haven’t found success with other treatment modalities. Understanding the nature and classification of these substances is crucial for effective recovery and treatment planning.

Get Started On Recovery Today with MedMark

While you can’t force a loved one to seek treatment, guiding them towards recovery is a constructive step. Educate yourself about the substances they’re using and reflect on your role in their situation, including how your actions might affect their substance use. Understanding these aspects is key to offering effective support. Remember, methadone programs and other treatment facilities require confidentiality, so approach discussions about treatment with sensitivity and respect for their decision-making process. Encourage your loved one to consider treatment by discussing the risks of continued use and the benefits of seeking help. To begin this supportive journey, direct them to contact MedMark Treatment Centers or one of our many locations for compassionate, professional assistance.

Give them a number to a local methadone treatment center and urge them to call.

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Short-Term Side Effects of Heroin

Heroin manufacturers originally developed it as a “wonder drug” meant to replace morphine. In the years following the Civil War, morphine addiction was a severe problem among soldiers on both sides. Morphine was readily available as a painkiller due to its undeniable efficacy, and doctors did not become aware of its addictive properties until the war was over. In the early days of heroin manufacturing, people marketed it as a non-addictive substitute for morphine.

Although the non-addictive element of this claim is false, the short-term effects of heroin are similar to those of morphine. As an opioid derived from morphine, heroin works by binding to mu-opioid receptors in the brain. Once attached, heroin triggers the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which transfers information between neurons in the brain and is responsible for the pleasurable effects of heroin.

When a person takes heroin, the immediate dopamine flood provides instant gratification. The person will feel intense pleasure and feelings of well-being. Many people report a heaviness throughout the body paired with feelings of calm, even when in a frightening or dangerous situation. Heroin also works as an analgesic to reduce pain. 

However, the initial feeling of pleasure also comes with short-term effects when people use heroin, including:

• Dry mouth
• Flushed skin
• Nausea and vomiting
• Extreme itchiness

One of the telltale signs someone is high on heroin is a condition known as being “on the nod,” which means they’re fluctuating between being conscious and semi-conscious, and they may be impossible to communicate with.

Developing Tolerance to Heroin

The first couple of times someone uses heroin, the short-term pleasure is the overriding experience. They may feel the brief burst of euphoria makes up for the itching and nausea, and decide to do it again. When used repeatedly, the effects of heroin will feel differently than the first use and the user may not feel the euphoria as strongly. This effect is due to tolerance.

The definition of tolerance is a state in which an organism no longer responds to a drug, and it requires a higher dose to achieve similar effects. With frequent use, heroin’s pleasurable effects quickly diminish, and people who misuse it find themselves having to take more and more to achieve the same type of euphoria. Someone may switch from smoking or snorting heroin to injecting it in higher concentrations.

Developing a tolerance to a drug does not always indicate an addiction. For example, if you get a tooth pulled and go from taking 250 mg of ibuprofen to 500 mg because of tolerance, you shouldn’t expect to get addicted. However, due to heroin’s potent nature and intense effects, the transition from tolerance to addiction is rapid and perilously easy.

Once someone starts building a tolerance to heroin — which can start happening within days of first use — their body craves the drug more and more. Sheer willpower is rarely enough to break the cycle. Seeking professional assistance is vital for individuals developing a tolerance to heroin to address the escalation of addiction.

Long-Term Effects of Heroin

From a physical standpoint, heroin is exceptionally damaging. Prolonged usage over weeks, months or years leads to medical complications that affect health and quality of life. If a person continues to use heroin, the long-term effects of heroin will reduce longevity. Below we have included 3 of the most common long-term effects of Heroin use.

Brain Damage From Heroin

Heroin is a depressant, or “downer,” meaning it reduces the functionality of the central nervous system (CNS). Along with changing the body’s response to pain, heroin affects heart rate and breathing. In the case of an overdose, depression of the CNS makes the body forget how to breathe without conscious thought. But even at non-overdose levels, heroin slows breathing enough to create a severe lack of oxygen.

Growing levels of opioid abuse have given rise to a new term: toxic brain injury. It refers to two types of brain injury that occur with oxygen deprivation. Hypoxic brain injury happens to a brain that doesn’t receive enough oxygen, and anoxic brain injury occurs when the brain doesn’t receive any oxygen at all.

Hypoxic brain injury occurs in many people addicted to heroin, forcing their brains to function on limited oxygen for an extended period. Anoxic brain injury usually occurs during an overdose, but not necessarily a fatal one. For example, someone may take too much heroin and pass out for a few seconds or a minute before waking up. During that time, they may stop breathing altogether, leading to an anoxic brain injury.

Organ Damage From Heroin

There are many ways opioids damage the body, but the concentration of heroin means it causes the damage much faster than other opioids. Here are some of the ways this powerful drug can harm your body.

• Large doses of heroin cause blood pressure to drop dramatically, and an overdose can result in heart failure.
• Intravenous heroin users are 300 times more likely to die from a heart infection called infectious endocarditis.
• Heroin can cause problems with heart rate or rhythm, called arrhythmia.
• Heroin can cause pulmonary edema, a condition in which the heart can’t effectively pump blood through the body.
• Heroin increases pressure in blood vessels and causes fluid to build up in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe normally.
• Heroin may cause significant damage to the liver.

It’s also important to note that heroin dealers often cut the drug with a variety of substances from powdered milk to chalk, or combine heroin with other drugs like fentanyl. The effects of additives to heroin can be highly unpredictable, and cutting the drug with a highly potent substance like fentanyl can easily lead to an accidental overdose.

Appearance Changes From Heroin

Most people are aware heroin can dramatically change a person’s appearance. Once someone has become addicted to heroin, they tend to neglect personal hygiene and nutrition. They may appear dirty and unhealthily thin, with skin issues from constant itching. If they inject the heroin intravenously, they will likely have visible track marks at the point of injection and be put at risk for infections.

Using heroin often results in dental problems like tooth decay and gum disease in part through persistent dry mouth. Heroin usage may also lead to a lack of proper nutrition, thereby causing the skin to appear dull and sallow, and eyes may appear sunken from weight loss. Overall, prolonged heroin use can cause people to appear run-down and generally unhealthy.

Heroin Misuse Symptoms

If a person is addicted to heroin, the signs might not be obvious at first. Obvious clues like red track marks can tell you if someone is using heroin, but they might hide these marks. In that case, you should be aware of other signs of heroin use. Certain symptoms can reliably indicate that someone is using opioids, including heroin which are:.

• Loss of interest in activities
• Increased isolation and social avoidance
• Mixing with new groups of people
• Poor hygiene practices
• Strange sleeping habits
• Fluctuating appetite
• Appearing overly energetic or very depressed
• Missing appointments and meetings
• Skipping work or school
• Experiencing financial hardship
• Cycling through erratic moods

Someone abusing heroin will seem to turn into a different person to their friends and family. Sudden changes in demeanor and habits can indicate an addiction, especially if accompanied by visible cues such as frequent itching or states resembling nodding off.

Heroin Withdrawal Symptoms

When someone stops using heroin, they go through the process of withdrawal. After prolonged addiction to heroin, the brain doesn’t know how to function correctly without it. If a person quits heroin, the brain goes into panic mode and produces an array of extremely unpleasant symptoms as it adjusts to the lack of the drug. 

The milder symptoms include:

• Nausea and abdominal cramps
• Excessive tearing and runny nose
• Frequent yawning
• Sweats and chills

On the more acute end of the spectrum, people may experience these symptoms:

• Vomiting and diarrhea
• Extreme agitation or anxiety
• Restlessness
• Trembling and goosebumps
• Fatigue
• Trouble concentrating

In the most severe cases, someone may experience hypertension, rapid heartbeat and difficulty breathing. The severity of heroin withdrawal symptoms varies based on several factors. The longer someone has been abusing heroin, the more intense their withdrawal experience will be. The dosage taken matters as well. Someone who has been using heroin once a day for six months will likely have fewer symptoms of less severity than someone who used heroin twice a day for a year.

Heroin withdrawal is not usually life-threatening, but it creates an extreme craving for heroin. The symptoms often combine to feel like a terrible flu, and the discomfort can be bad enough to cause an immediate relapse. If someone has an underlying condition like depression or anxiety, withdrawals can feel significantly worse and even lead to suicidal ideation.

In most cases, withdrawal begins within 12 hours after the last use of heroin. The milder symptoms appear first, and the more severe symptoms usually appear within the first 24 to 48 hours. The third and fourth days of withdrawal are often the worst in terms of pain, nausea, sweating and shivers. By the end of the first week, the worst of withdrawal is usually over.

Recovery From a Heroin Addiction

Heroin addiction can be terrifying and isolating, but there are effective treatments that can help people begin a successful recovery. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommends a two-pronged approach consisting of behavioral and pharmacological treatment to help restore the brain to a healthier state.

Behavioral therapies are highly versatile and can take place in both outpatient and residential settings. A variety of techniques can be effective, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or group therapy. The goals of therapy are to give people emotional support, help them modify thoughts and behavior toward drugs and learn new methods for coping with the difficulties and stress that contributed to the addiction in the first place.

The other component of an effective program is medication-assisted treatment. In this type of program, patients receive drugs that block the worst symptoms of withdrawal. Patients usually take either buprenorphine or methadone, medications that engage opioid receptors just enough that the brain doesn’t rush into withdrawal. Instead, taking these medicines allows patients to feel healthy and stable enough to participate in behavioral therapy and go about their daily lives.

Not all people respond the same to a single type of treatment plan, so it’s vital to choose a program that takes your needs into account when designing your recovery plan.

Start Your Recovery Journey With MedMark

Heroin addiction is a severe health condition, but it doesn’t have to be permanent or destroy lives. With the right treatment program and support network, you or someone you love can make a successful recovery. MedMark Treatment Centers offer compassionate treatment based on the proven efficacy of medication-assisted treatment and an array of behavioral therapies.

Our treatments are medically supervised and tailored to individual needs. We offer individual and group counseling, resource referral, addiction education and discharge planning services, making MedMark a comprehensive treatment option for anyone struggling with heroin addiction.

The sooner you choose to get professional help for heroin addiction, the sooner you can halt the damage and start the healing process. If you’re ready to take the next step and get more information on heroin addiction treatment, call MedMark at 866-840-6658 to reach a clinic near to you or get in touch through our contact form.

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Heroin addiction side effects are devastating, not just physically, but also emotionally. But today, it’s not just the side effects that people hooked on heroin have to think about; it’s death. Fentanyl is a frequent mix with heroin that increases the high. It also makes an overdose more likely. A recent article on California Healthline.org news summarized the dangers of fentanyl:

“Fentanyl is an opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin. There’s a legal, Food and Drug Administration-approved version. But labs in China are churning out cheap versions of fentanyl that dealers are selling on the streets mixed with fillers, heroin, or other drugs. Buyers have no idea how much fentanyl they are getting or how much risk they are taking with every injection.”

Physical heroin addiction side effects

The Foundation for a Drug-Free World has helpful information, including the short and long-term heroin addiction side effects. Short term effects create a quick high and then things slow down – like breathing and mental functioning. You may feel nauseous or cold. Consequently, continuing use often results in collapsed veins and diseases such as HIV from sharing needles. You’re also more likely to get tuberculosis and/or arthritis. Other long-term side effects include:

• Bad teeth
• Weak immune system
• Respiratory illness
• Reduced sexual capacity and/or long-term impotence for men
• Insomnia
• Loss of appetite
• Pustules on the face
• Depression

Social heroin addiction side effects

When you’re hooked on heroin, the need for it takes over your life. If you’re reading this, and this is your story – or the story of someone you love – then you know. You can’t hold a job, you may become homeless, and you may turn to crime to continue your addiction. The crime leads to jail time, then the cycle begins again when you’re out. Relationships you used to have with your family and people who don’t use are gone. Life is a mess, and it may seem like there’s no hope.

Starting one day at a time

Everyone knows that overcoming addiction is one day at a time. Asking for help is the first step. Medication-assisted treatment is a way to help end heroin addiction side effects for good and save your life in the process. Treatment centers are available in California and across the U.S., so help is not too far out of reach. You’re not alone in the battle and you won’t be alone in recovery, either. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) uses medications such as methadone or buprenorphine to relieve cravings and block the effects of the opioids. You have medical supervision during the transition off of heroin. The goal is to ease withdrawal symptoms so that you can make it to the next step. After withdrawal, the medication helps keep the body stable so that you can live the life you want without addiction to illegal drugs.

As bad as the heroin addiction side effects are, people still relapse and go back to the illegal drugs. Opioid addiction is very tough to beat, but it is possible. If you do relapse, don’t give up. Your life is worth saving. Go back to treatment and try again. Many people have gone before you on this path, and there is no need to feel shame. Accept the support and help that comes from counseling or find a support group to walk with you on your journey.

Stockton, CA

1111 N. El Dorado Street
Stockton, CA 95202

TEL: 209.938.0228
FAX: 209.938.0281

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Long-Term Heroin Addiction Symptoms

Over time, you’ll notice these things in yourself or in someone you care about:

• Needle marks and bruising where heroin is injected
• Infections or abscesses on the skin

The above heroin addiction symptoms are minor compared to the things that you don’t see. Long term heroin abuse causes significant problems with disease in liver, kidneys, and heart. Veins also collapse, giving way after so many injections.

Consequences of Heroin Addiction Symptoms

When your body is addicted to heroin, you develop a tolerance to the drug. First, you begin to need more of the substance to feel the same results. You may need more pure drugs or taking it by different methods. After this phase, your body demands heroin just to feel normal. This is called dependence. If you don’t get the heroin, your body begins painful and sickening withdrawal. This is a time when many people turn to fentanyl to mix with the heroin because it is extremely potent. You may know fentanyl-laced heroin as Apache, China Girl, China White, Dance Fever, Friend, Goodfella, Jackpot, Murder 8, TNT, or Tango and Cash. By whatever name, fentanyl-laced heroin is a deadly substance.

Breaking Free of Heroin Addiction Symptoms

According to studies cited by the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Repeated heroin use changes the physical structure and physiology of the brain, creating long-term imbalances in neuronal and hormonal systems that are not easily reversed. Studies have shown some deterioration of the brain’s white matter due to heroin use, which may affect decision-making abilities, the ability to regulate behavior, and responses to stressful situations.” But there is hope for treatment. Addiction is a disease for which there is no ‘cure,’ but it can be managed with help.

Also according to the NIH, “A variety of effective treatments are available for heroin addiction, including both behavioral and pharmacological (medications). Both approaches help to restore a degree of normalcy to brain function and behavior, resulting in increased employment rates, a lower risk of HIV or disease, and criminal behavior. Although behavioral and pharmacologic treatments can be extremely useful when utilized alone, research shows that for some people, integrating both types of treatments is the most effective approach.”

Medication-Assisted Treatment

Medication-assisted treatment eases the physical symptoms of withdrawal that are so hard to bear. Withdrawal is the reason that so many people relapse. They just can’t take it. However, there is significant danger for overdose when a person relapses. You may take more than your body can handle after a period of abstinence from the heroin. When you go to a medication-assisted treatment center, you receive the right amount of methadone or buprenorphine to stop the cravings and ease off of heroin. After your body moves through the transition, you still need medication to stabilize and manage the changes that happened in your body. Taking methadone or buprenorphine is not trading one addiction for another. Methadone and buprenorphine are legal, safe, and long-acting to help your body recover from addiction to dangerous and illegal opiates.

Medication-assisted treatment centers include counseling and behavioral therapies that help you get back to a healthy lifestyle. Without such support, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to beat addiction. In therapy, you learn how to cope with the stress of life without drugs and how to move forward to the life you want.

Help for heroin addiction recovery is available in Greensburg, PA and all over the country. Don’t wait. Ask for help.

Greensburg, PA

1037 Compass Circle
Greensburg, PA 15601

TEL: 724.834.1144
FAX: 724.834.2077

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The need for heroin addiction treatment is urgent for the U.S. because of the spike in overdose deaths in 2016, and Baltimore, MD has a long history as the heroin capital of the U.S. The Baltimore Sun reported on March 29, 2017 that President Donald Trump vowed to increase federal efforts to confront opioid addiction, largely with heroin addiction treatment availability. The effort has bipartisan support that began during the Obama administration. The article cites the rising death toll due in part to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that mixes with heroin.

All too often, the path to heroin addiction treatment begins somewhat innocently, with prescription painkillers. From the March 29, 2017 Sun article: “Vanessa Vitolo, a New Jersey woman, told the president her addiction stemmed from an injury for which she was prescribed painkillers. She eventually switched to heroin to satisfy her addiction and wound up homeless before enrolling in a long-term treatment facility.” She told the president, “You have no feelings, and you’re a shell, and it takes over your whole life. There is hope and there is a tomorrow, and there is a day after that. You just have to fight for it.”

How Heroin Addiction Treatment Works

The most effective form of heroin addiction treatment is with medication assistance. A medical professional prescribes methadone or buprenorphine, allowing the person to transition off of the opiate without going into extreme withdrawal. Managing withdrawal with medication assistance convinces the body that it is getting what it needs, yet there is no feeling of rush or high. There is no feeling of dope sick, either. After moving through the withdrawal stage, the medical professional prescribes a maintenance dose. The best outcomes typically happen with the highest doses of medication and staying on the medication for at least a year. There is no harm in taking methadone or buprenorphine for many years. It’s like a diabetic taking insulin, and medication-assistance for heroin addiction treatment doesn’t show up on an employer’s typical drug screen. It’s also a protected substance that meets Americans with Disability Act (ACA) criteria.

Important ‘Part 2’ of Heroin Addiction Treatment

Counseling is an essential process to achieve lasting success in heroin addiction treatment. It’s more than just talking about what leads a person to addiction, although that’s important to understand. In counseling, and with support, men and women learn triggers for using and how to avoid them. They also learn how to create new habits and a new lifestyle. They can’t go back to where they were with the same friends using, or back into other unhealthy situations. Everything is new. It’s difficult to begin a new life, and this is where counseling and support encourage each person on his or her path of recovery.

Heroin Addiction Treatment Resources

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has excellent resources about addiction and recovery. Their website cites the following four major dimensions that support a life in recovery:

• Health—overcoming or managing one’s disease(s) or symptoms—for example, abstaining from use of alcohol, illicit drugs, and non-prescribed medications if one has an addiction problem—and, for everyone in recovery, making informed, healthy choices that support physical and emotional well-being
• Home—having a stable and safe place to live
• Purpose—conducting meaningful daily activities, such as a job, school volunteerism, family caretaking, or creative endeavors, and the independence, income, and resources to participate in society
• Community—having relationships and social networks that provide support, friendship, love, and hope

If you or someone you love in Baltimore, MD want a place to begin recovery, contact MedMark Treatment Centers on North Eutaw Street (two locations).

Baltimore, MD

821 North Eutaw Street
Suites 101 & 201
Baltimore, MD 21201

TEL: 410.225.9185

FAX: 410.225.7964

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Every generation has its own celebrities whose deaths are mourned because they were the bright and shining stars of that generation’s collective firmament. Heroin use destroys many people, and more than a few of them are among the celebrated famous. They stand out to us because they captivated our imaginations, and our hearts, with their God-given talents. There have been many stars who tumbled to Earth because of their battles with addiction, but there is one special person whose death should galvanize us to action in the battle against heroin use.

A Star Was Born—to Heroin Use

Who are the celebrities that have most exemplified the defeat that comes from drug addiction, especially alcoholism or heroin use? The most venerable generation we have still among on us on this planet—the aged World War II veterans who are now our great-grandparents—revered Judy Garland. She grew up in the public eye, taking us Over the Rainbow and zinging the strings of our heart. When the studios gave their child stars sleeping pills at night to get them into bed, and amphetamines in the daytime to keep them at a marketable weight, who knew they were putting the children of Hollywood at such a great risk? Garland sang Be a Clown but on the inside, her growing addiction tore her apart. But, Come Rain or Come Shine, she kept getting up on that stage for our entertainment day after day, until it all ended within a month of turning age 47. It was only after her death that the public recognized what the studio system had done to her.

Marilyn Monroe was another Candle in the Wind worshipped by our grandparents’ generation—a sad little rich girl, born Norma Jean as immortalized by Elton John, and dead at the age of 36. It wasn’t heroin use that was her downfall, but the Nembutal —barbiturate sleeping pills— found in her system. Was it the mob who killed her? Was it the Kennedys? Was it her addictive behavior? That’s one of those questions that none of us will know the answer to until we get to Heaven and ask our Maker.

Miss You, Signed, The Baby Boomers

The children of the World War II generation—the Baby Boomers—are pretty well into their retirement years. But they still Cry, Baby, All Around the Watch Tower for their musical heroes like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix who left this world before they even reached the age of 30.

Jimi Hendrix was born in 1942, and by the time he reached the age of 20 he was unrivaled on guitar. He showed musicians of his time just how beautifully an electric guitar could sing. As time went on, fame brought its troubles. Disputes with his manager, women problems, and challenges from the musicians he worked with; but, the drugs he used for recreation topped them all—they sapped his health and his strength. The day he died, he felt tired and under pressure to work on his song writing, and he took some barbiturates. He was found dead at the age of 27.

Janis Joplin grew up as an ugly duckling from a small town in Texas, and she never quite made it into a swan. It was her engagement into the fast and quick, no-holds-barred culture of the Sixties that shot her to stardom and then yanked her down into the perils of addiction. She drank heavily, earning free booze from the Southern Comfort company, and experimented with drugs of all types, including heroin. When she overdosed from heroin in October 1970, just a month after Jimi and at the same age, she was the second musical genius of a generation to crash back to earth, another victim of heroin use.

Iron Men Drink Green Tea

The Baby Boomers’ children, grown now into their thirties, can celebrate the victory over addiction that belongs to Brat Packer Robert Downey Jr. He was a self-sabotaging Oscar phenomenon who lived to fight another day and become an Iron Man. He freely admits that it wasn’t so much about just alcohol or heroin use because he would take any drug that wasn’t nailed down. He confesses that at one point that he seemed to have a death wish. But he got sober and stayed sober, rebuilding his career, drinking green tea and embracing the best that life offers these days—plus one of the highest salaries in Hollywood.

We have heroes like Downey who have survived and others who have lost. We have Sweet Baby James Taylor, who gave us Fire and Rain right in the middle of his heroin use—but still lives today, drug free. We have Cory Monteith of Glee who wasn’t so lucky. His death from heroin use shocked us, proving to the world that even a love like the one he shared with his on-camera star, Lea Michele, couldn’t save him. Ironically, one of his last songs was Can’t Fight This Feeling.

Beloved By All Generations

There is one person whose reach crossed generational lines, who achieved success and respect in his private and personal lives. His unexpected death taught us that drug addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer. The Boomers, the Millenials, Generation X and Y, and even today’s teens—Generation Z—have all loved Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who died of heroin use in 2014. We were all shocked by his death, not understanding his heroin use, and wondering: if he couldn’t make it, with all his talent, how can we?

We saw him as a schoolboy in Scent of a Woman, learning right from wrong at the hands of Al Pacino. He played Brandt in The Big Lebowski and the hapless Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley. If you weren’t old enough to love him in Capote, then you no doubt reviled him in The Hunger Games movies—Plutarch Heavensbee, who had an interesting relationship with Katniss Everdeen.

His heroin use was so compelling that he couldn’t put his own children ahead of it. If you’re struggling from heroin addiction, then you probably know how he felt: Tortured by the constant use. Barraged with guilt over the children he knew he neglected.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Legacy

No matter how hard you work in life, how well educated you are or how many advantages you’re given, the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman has taught us that heroin use can level anybody who takes it on. Heroin is the great equalizer, as Phillip Seymour Hoffman learned: It has no boundaries and abides by no rules. It can ruin the lives of those who use it and those who love them, leaving destruction in it’s wake. That’s why no matter how difficult the fight against heroin use seems, you can’t give up the fight.

Methadone treatment clinics help those struggling with heroin use because they offer a way to get clean and stay clean without the horrible cravings and withdrawals that make abstinence almost impossible. If you get yourself into a methadone program, you CAN turn your life around. You don’t have to be a fallen star, but can recover and shine brightly for others who need some hope to see.

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People who think about going into heroin recovery in Fresno County worry about the barriers that will stand in their way to getting treatment. It takes a while for most people to get from the point of thinking about treatment to the time when they actually get into heroin recovery. In Fresno County, there are no more barriers than there are anywhere else. Most of the worries that people have are simply in their heads.

People wonder whether they can jump through the hoops put in place by their health insurance company. For the most part, the private insurance companies have successfully avoided paying for medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction. The programs that offer methadone or buprenorphine often refuse to bill the insurance companies and they require payment up front.

However, because of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), more and more private insurance companies are reluctantly agreeing to pay for services. Ask the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) program that you are choosing if they will bill your provider. If not, you can submit the bills on your own.

Medi-Cal MCOs for Heroin Recovery in Fresno County

It’s possible if you qualify for Medi-Cal, it will pay for heroin recovery in Fresno County. California Medi-Cal uses managed care organizations (MCOs) that approve and process claims for the state. Each MCO has its own criteria for deciding what kind of services you can receive and they generally require you to have prior authorization for your treatment.

The case manager at the program you want to attend will need to submit a Treatment Authorization Request. It’s a simple process that the case managers perform routinely. They will need to notify the managed care organization that you have been diagnosed by a doctor and that your addiction has lasted longer than a year. The process ensures that your Medi-Cal MCO will pay for methadone or buprenorphine therapy for heroin recovery in Fresno County.

There is some talk that among the 21 managed care organizations that approve claims for substance abuse treatment in Fresno County or throughout California, one in particular resists paying for medication-assisted treatment. Obviously it cannot be singled out on this page, but you should be aware that state law requires that you have at least two options in choosing a managed care organization. If you belong to an MCO that refuses to pay for your heroin recovery in Fresno, you have the right to be switched to another one. Ask the case manager at the local methadone treatment program to tell you which MCOs they have good experience with.

There will then be a second stumbling block thrown in your way, but, again, the people at the medication-assisted treatment program will know how to overcome it. This is especially likely to happen if you opt for Suboxone or buprenorphine. The managed care organization may stop the pharmacy from filling your prescription until the doctor calls in their approval for you to continue the medication.

Making such phone calls is a routine job responsibility for the nurses at the medication-assisted treatment program that you attend. There is usually one nurse designated at a facility who will make those phone calls. Your role in the process is to take your prescription to the pharmacy early in the day, so that there is time to make the phone call if it becomes necessary.

Finding the Right Program

It’s easy to find a certified program that offers treatment for heroin recovery in Fresno County. You can access a list of county-contracted drug treatment providers through this link. If you do not live in Fresno County, you can visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) treatment location tool at this link.

Whether you go through private insurance or if you qualify for Medi-Cal, your benefits will be processed through the Mental Health portion of the plan. Sometimes this is referred to as the behavioral health provider. Do not be offended by the label, because substance abuse treatment routinely falls under behavioral health services. You can talk to the assessment counselor at your local MAT program if you are worried about the stigma associated with seeking heroin recovery in Fresno County.

Ultimately, you are making the right decision to get help. Methadone and buprenorphine both offer a great potential for success if you seek out treatment for heroin recovery in Fresno County or anywhere. You can stop using heroin or pain pills without the withdrawal symptoms that you dread and the unbearable cravings that send so many people back into relapse, as long as you follow the rules of the program.

It is most definitely possible to regain health and happiness in your life if you get the right kind of treatment. Only you can make the decision to do that, but even if you go because of a court order you will still enjoy benefits from the help you’ll receive. Call your local MAT program now to find out how to get started, because there’s a life at stake: And it’s yours.

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Statistics on children who end up in the foster care system vary from state to state. Increasing numbers of children are entering foster care because their parents are struggling with pain pill or heroin drug abuse or addiction. What are parents to do when they are torn between the vicious cycle of drug addiction and the natural love they feel for their children? What can friends and families do to save young ones from getting lost in the system?

The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids reports that increasing numbers of parents are addicted not only to drugs, but specifically to opiates. In recent years, the number of children who ended up in foster care had decreased, but over the past two years, since 2013, numbers are once again on the rise.

• In Ohio, the percentage of children with parents abusing heroin or cocaine rose from 19 to 23 percent. Even worse, of those children under one year of age, 70 percent of them had parents needing treatment for cocaine or heroin drug abuse.

• In Indiana, children’s services officials hired an additional 113 case workers just because of the spike in heroin drug abusers.

• In Vermont, where the governor devoted an entire State of the State address to the overwhelming epidemic of opiate addiction and heroin drug abuse, almost 19,000 children were placed in the foster care system as of July 2015. Those children in the custody of the state rose by 33 percent in the past year.

• Arizona officials reported that 59 percent of the children removed form parental care were victims of the heroin drug abuse epidemic. Drug-using parents cause concern because addiction to heroin use or other drugs leads not only to abuse but to neglect.

Specific Problems of Heroin Drug Abuse in Georgia

Heroin drug abuse in Georgia homes was reported last year by Jennifer Jacob Brown and Nick Watson in the GainesvilleTimes.com. In Hall County, which is just an hour away from Blairsville, the 25 available foster homes were ill prepared to handle the increasing numbers of children entering the system because of their parents’ heroin drug abuse. At any given time, they reported, 180 children would be in the system in that county alone.

The director of Georgia’s Family and Children’s Services counted out the many ways that drug addiction, including the huge spike in heroin drug abuse in Georgia, could turn a child’s life into a living hell. They often suffer from domestic violence at the hands of the addicted parents. Neglect afflicts them with hunger and shame. They come into contact with criminal activity when their parents interact with dealers.

Despite these negatives, every time a child is placed into children’s services custody, the initial objective is family reunification. But many of the children are placed far from home, making parental visits difficult, because Hall, Glynn, Bartow, and Floyd Counties have the fewest number of foster care homes throughout the state. That means increasing amounts of children whose parents are heroin drug abusers in Georgia will be left stranded in the system.

Family Drug Court is available in Hall County, and in fact throughout the state of Georgia and the entire country, according to the federal government’s Child Welfare Information Gateway (CWIG). CWIG reports that in several states almost 60 percent of the children referred to foster care had parents who used drugs or alcohol. It also tells us that of those children who are investigated and left in the home, 29 percent of their parents use alcohol or drugs. Those statistics apply to all substance use disorders and not just heroin drug use, but clearly the system is simply overwhelmed.

Effects of Heroin Drug Abuse on Families

CWIG describes parents affected by drug use as suffering from co-occurring physical or mental impairments, a reduced ability to respond to their children’s needs, difficulty controlling their own anger and impulses, spending household funds on drugs or alcohol, withholding time spent with the children, and periods of hospitalization or incarceration because of their addiction or related criminal activity.

That litany of behaviors describes the parents but how do those behaviors affect the children? Obviously, they are suffering if their parents abuse them physically or emotionally. They go hungry if the parents fail to buy adequate food, and they hang their heads in shame if the parents don’t provide good clothing.

But the emotional damages go beyond the obvious. Children of drug abusers, and especially of parents preoccupied with opiate or heroin drug abuse, learn not to trust adults. At least one of the children will take it upon himself or herself to care for the other children in the family without anyone looking out for their own emotional or physical needs. The addicted parent, sick from withdrawal and disabled by self-pity, depends on the child to get cleaning and cooking done and even provide them with comfort.

All the children in the family become accustomed to hiding family secrets from adults outside the home such as teachers or community adults who might help. They learn that nobody holds them accountable to get homework done or earn good grades. They grow up trusting nobody and failed by the system. Eventually, the children learn to give drugs a try and perpetuate the cycle of poverty and alcohol, cocaine, or heroin drug abuse.

There Is Help

Are you the parent considering heroin drug abuse treatment and finally admitting that you need to take better care of your children? Even if you’ve tried and failed to stop using heroin, you can succeed if you enter a methadone treatment program. Methadone will be prescribed by a doctor, and it will quiet the urges to use and the unbearable withdrawal symptoms that have caused you to relapse in the past.

If you’re the friend or family member of a man or woman who is abusing heroin or other opiates and neglecting their family, you can put the information in front of them so that they know where to get treatment. You can support their effort to get clean using methadone as a medication approved specifically for opiate or heroin drug abuse treatment.

Once the drug-using parent gets into treatment, they will find an assortment of helpful resources available to them. The counselor assigned to their case will steer them toward medical care, financial aid, and legal help, if needed. The counselor will know of resources that can provide gender-specific counseling to help with women’s issues, for example. Parents who seek heroin drug abuse treatment can also be matched with recovery coaches, including host families who will demonstrate the right way to provide effective parenting and maneuver through difficult parental decisions.

It’s a long journey, and not an easy one, but the children are worth it. Pick up the phone and make a call to find out about treatment for heroin drug abuse today.

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September of every year is National Recovery Month, according to the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. While we believe that recovery must certainly be celebrated every month of every year, this is a special time to express the pride you have in the work you’ve done and to show your support for other people in recovery. How are you celebrating your heroin rehab in Texas?

While National Recovery Month may be over by the time you read this, rest assured that SAMHSA on the national level as well as treatment and recovery organizations at the local level offer options all year long. It’s important not only to share stories about our struggles but also to become better educated about the issues that affect people with substance use disorders. If you’re one of the many who participate in heroin rehab in Texas, you will find subgroups of women in treatment, teens in treatment, veterans in treatment, and so forth. But first, we do have some National Recovery Events.

Kicking Up Your Heels About Heroin Rehab in Texas

If you attend or live near the University of Texas at San Antonio and you have an interest in heroin rehab in Texas, you can join in a Substance Abuse Panel Discussion and Reception at the University of Texas, at 501 Cesar Chavez Boulevard, on September 15 at 5:30 p.m. If you’ve missed this event, contact Joseph Avera at recoverymonthutsa@gmail.com for follow-up.

Recovery in the Park takes place on September 19 in Austin. If you’re in alcohol, drug, or heroin rehab in Texas, come to 2608 Gonzales Avenue in Austin from Noon to 4:00 p.m. on that Saturday to find some spiritual fellowship and celebrate your recovery. There will also be a rally and—oh yeah, food. This event is sponsored by Recovery Alliance of Austin, a group of treatment professionals that brings fellow addicts together to participate in weekly activities such as yoga or conscious contact. Visit RAA’s website to take an interesting survey.

A Recovery Capital Conference takes place in Austin—again, about 90 minutes from San Antonio if you’ve got a mind to go there—over the weekend of September 26-27. If you’ve been in heroin rehab in Texas, your counselor has probably familiarized you with the concepts of recovery capital, which are the strengths you have that sustain your recovery over the long term. Registration for this event is required, and if you’re just a regular Joe Schmoe in recovery you’ll have to pay ten bucks. Topics of panel discussion will include everything from Whole Health, Wellness, and Recovery to Opiate Addiction Recovery using medication-assisted therapy, and Beginnings, Endings, Strings and Things.

If you’re in heroin recovery in Fort Worth or Dallas, you won’t be far from the Run For Recovery at the Phase I Clubhouse on Waterview Parkway, on Saturday, September 26, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Registration is $20 with a form at https://payableform.appspot.com/forms/lbzva.

If you enjoy kicking up your heels in Houston, there’s a dance on Saturday, September 26, from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m., at 3353 Elgin Street. This is properly billed as the Big Texas Recovery Rally Kick-Off Dance, and if you’re in recovery in Texas you’re promised an evening of fun complete with food, fundraising, and fancy footwork. It’s $4 per person or $8 a couple. On SAMHSA’s website for this event you’ll find a phone number.

Resources for College Students or Their Families

If you’re in heroin rehab in Texas and you attend the University of Texas at any of several locations, you can find resources plus the stories from people who have already walked over the ground you’re now covering.

In San Antonio, there is the Center for Collegiate Recovery. You will find a safe place with the support you need to maintain your sobriety as you work toward your degree. Students often get into trouble with alcohol or drug addiction not only from the pressures brought on by their studies but also by the changes in their family lifestyle. If you are the loved one of a college student in trouble, you can also contact the CCR for advice on help for family members. Its website lists resources for campus issues, for 12-step recovery, recovery resources, both residential and outpatient treatment, plus more.

The University of Texas at Austin’s version is The Center for Students in Recovery. You’ll find 12-step meetings and groups relevant to your personal experiences, plus faculty who volunteer their time to organize social and academic activities. There are also opportunities for you, as a person who is working on long-term heroin rehab in Texas, to put yourself out there as a volunteer and give back to the community.

The University of Texas system of colleges expanded its help to students in recovery in 2012. Recognizing the need to help its students “cultivate life skills and celebrate their successes,” the University began with Austin and San Antonio, expanded to Dallas and Tyler, and continues to grow this effective network for addiction help. Not all fourteen campuses have yet established resource centers for those who need help with alcohol, drug, or heroin rehab in Texas, but you can learn more about it in a statement issued by the Office of Public Affairs.

Working Your Recovery

Help with heroin rehab in Texas begins with contacting a licensed, certified methadone treatment program—but you can’t stop there. You’ll need to attend one-on-one counseling sessions at the treatment center and participate in any group sessions there that fit who you are. But recovery doesn’t come without your participation in other events. Attending 12-step groups is vitally important, and so are activities like the ones suggested here.

Remember that celebrating your recovery does not end on October 1. You should make it a point to revisit SAMHSA’s website periodically throughout the year. As your recovery becomes stronger, consider submitting your own story. You can submit your story by email or fax, and remember that telling your story not only validates your recovery; it also lends strength to someone else who hasn’t yet reached your level of commitment to recovery.

The post Are You Celebrating Your Heroin Rehab in Texas? appeared first on MedMark.

The Business Journal, an online news magazine, has published a story by Hannah Esqueda that the Fresno County District Attorney and the Fresno Chamber of Commerce share a concern about heroin abuse in Fresno and throughout the Central Valley. Despite the existence of multiple methadone and Suboxone treatment programs and also the Fresno Needle Exchange, people are continuing with heroin abuse in Fresno and getting sick with diseases transmitted by dirty needles.

There is no doubt that heroin abuse in Fresno is widespread, said D.A. Lisa Smittcamp; heroin is available at virtually every high school. Fresno Deputy Police Chief Keith Foster was recently arrested for drug trafficking. So from cops to kiddies, heroin abuse in Fresno affects everyone, at every socioeconomic level, of all demographics, including age, religion, and ethnicity.

People who abuse heroin in Fresno pay little attention to hygiene. The need to get high is so overwhelming that all attention to safety goes out the window. It’s bad enough to think that friends or partners who are both addicted will share a needle. It’s even worse to realize that a bunch of people shooting up together will all use the same needle. It’s horrible to imagine that someone desperate to get high will pick up a used needle off the ground and use it to put drugs into their arm. But it’s happens.

The diseases most commonly spread by needle among heroin abusers in Fresno include HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. Here’s a breakdown of the reality and the costs:

HIV/AIDS. The first cases of HIV/AIDS came to light in the United States in the early 1980s, but effective long-term treatment was not available until 1996. You may contract HIV/AIDS but not feel any symptoms for quite a white. You can only find out if you have it for certain with a blood test. It still cannot be cured, but its damages to the body can be controlled. If you are still unable to stop your heroin abuse in Fresno, you can go to any methadone program and ask to be tested. About 1,200,000 people live with HIV/AIDS. About 960,000 of them are intravenous drug users.

Costs for treatment for HIV run from ten bucks a pill to 80 bucks. You’re looking at a $1,000-2,500 for a month of treatment. If you have health insurance, it may cover costs for treating your heroin abuse in Fresno and also for your HIV medication. Otherwise, you may be eligible for a prescription treatment discount. Again, the best place to ask is at your local methadone treatment program.

Hepatitis.

There are five types of hepatitis, which refers to an inflammation of the liver. Some types of hepatitis you can catch from risky sexual behavior. If you are guilty of heroin abuse in Fresno, you’ve probably had a few ill-chosen sexual encounters. You should be tested for hepatitis and also for the regular list of sexually transmitted diseases.

You can also catch hepatitis from dirty needles. Health agencies tell us that the number of hepatitis infections are declining, but if you talk to someone who works at a methadone treatment program, they’ll tell you that plenty of patients at the clinic turn out to be carrying this infection. Again, the symptoms are not obvious, but gone untreated hepatitis can result in liver cancer or cirrhosis, which is a fatal hardening of the liver. The National Institute on Drug Abuse warns that so-called super-spreaders get the disease—either HIV or hepatitis—and because sharing dirty needles during heroin abuse in Fresno is so common one person can spread illnesses to 20 other people. Treatment for hepatitis was partially effective with the old drugs. Now there are one or two new drugs out that work quite well, but an entire course of treatment can run as high as $100,000. There are grants that make the medication available at lower costs, but doctors are typically unwilling to approve active heroin abusers in Fresno because many IV drug users fail to complete the entire course of therapy, which is necessary for best results.

Tuberculosis

Intravenous heroin abuse in Fresno and also shot-gunning, blowing smoke from one person’s mouth into another’s, account for increased cases of tuberculosis among drug users. While the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is not high, it’s twice as high in drug users as in non-drug users. Still, it’s like the other two diseases in that you may have it and not realize it for quite some time. Those who develop multi-drug resistant TB and fail to get treatment can die. If you are abusing heroin in Fresno, you should know that California ranks among the top seven states with recorded cases of tuberculosis. Unlike the other contagious diseases, treatment is inexpensive.

Heroin Abuse in Fresno: More Than the Needles

The risk of disease transmission is not just limited to needles. Those afflicted with heroin abuse in Fresno can catch the viruses from whatever they cook their drug in—bottle caps, spoons, whatever. They can catch viruses from cigarette filters or other materials used to filter the drug. They can catch the viruses from using and then re-using the water used to cook down their drugs. All those things spell contamination and death.

But here’s the thing about treatment for these contagious diseases for those who abuse heroin in Fresno: The cost of methadone treatment per person averages out to be $4,700. Compared with the costs of treating HIV or hepatitis, methadone treatment costs far less.

You can take advantage of Fresno’s needle exchange program if you worry about this risk and turn in your dirty needles for clean ones. The group—run by volunteers, not police—operates just two hours per week, but it exchanges 700,000 needles per year in the Central Valley area.

You can get screened for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis not only at your local methadone or Suboxone program in Fresno but also at the Fresno County Department of Public Health. Call the main number and ask when the next health clinic will be.

Most stories tell about the people who die using heroin or pain pills, and on average 11 Californians die each day from drug abuse. But we are talking about the people who live. Why not simply make an appointment to go in to your local methadone or Suboxone program? You can talk to them about everything—your drug use, your potential for an infectious disease, and what life would be like if you stopped using. You can find out about methadone versus Suboxone. Getting treatment for heroin abuse in Fresno will make your life a lot healthier and happier. Make the call.

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Imagine that you’re working on heroin addiction recovery—and you suddenly stop struggling with triggers. You simply don’t have them anymore. It’s because you’ve forgotten about all your past occasions of using heroin. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?

This speculation has been prompted by research published in August 2015 in Molecular Psychiatry, a medical journal, detailing the research performed by scientists based at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in Florida. Their research involved studying mice addicted to methamphetamine, and the researchers found a way to eliminate their memories of past methamphetamine use. While this has not yet been tried on humans, the scientists theorize that triggers to use would be eliminated from their daily routines.

This new research was spun off from a study done in 2013, in which the scientists erased a protein called actin. One function of this protein is to provide structural support of memories within the brain. However, it also has other functions throughout the body, and the researchers realized that erasing the actin would be fatal to the person whose actin was targeted.

This new research describes that the same team of scientists has discovered a way to selectively target the actin. They are able to inject a substance called blebbistatin into a protein molecule called myosin II so that the actin cannot attach to the neuron that would allow the brain to recall specific drug memories.

The National Institute on Drug Addiction (NIDA) based on figures available a couple years ago reports that over 4 million Americans have tried heroin at least one time, and almost one-fourth of them will eventually become dependent on heroin. People in both methamphetamine and heroin addiction recovery have a tremendously high rate of relapse, and so the applications for this research are astounding. Imagine not having any triggers to use heroin because you don’t remember the last time you used it!

The Triggers of Heroin Addiction Recovery

When you begin heroin addiction recovery at a methadone treatment program, you benefit from attending individual or group counseling, and also from attending 12-step groups, because they are all methods of teaching you how to handle your triggers.

Triggers, for those not familiar with the term, are the actions that make us want to use the drugs we’ve been using. For a cigarette smoker, it might be a cup of coffee—you can’t have coffee without a cigarette. An alcoholic might run into an old drinking buddy while he’s doing Christmas shopping, and he immediately gets the urge to go to one of the bars where he and his old friend spent countless hours. For someone in heroin addiction recovery, the memory might be the first time they got high together. Just the sight of that person makes them want to use.

Sometimes triggers are much more obscure. Maybe the alcoholic’s buddy is wearing a baseball hat that brings back memories of attending a ballgame where they drank to oblivion—and now he wants to go to that bar, because the hat triggered the memory.

Is It Safe?

Memories are strange things, and these scientists in Florida are pretty excited about the idea that a single injection of blebbistatin can erase a subject’s memory of drug use for up to a month. That brings, of course, so many questions. Can the researcher guarantee that no other memories will be interrupted? What if the subject in heroin addiction recovery is reminded of past drug use by his buddy—hey, old man, remember last Spring when we were chasin’ the dragon—will he then regain his memories? If your memories are safely erased, will you have some warning before they return, so that you know you need another injection?

Some people might even wonder about its expanded potential for mind control. Does anybody remember an old Jim Carey movie from 2004, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? In this flick, Carey’s girlfriend played by Kate Winslet had all her memories excised of her relationship with Carey. He decided to get back at her by doing the same thing, but when the mind control team came to his apartment to initiate the process, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to go through with it…

In the mice that were treated with the blebbistatin, their memories were erased for about a month, and none of their other memories were eliminated. There was no interference with their ability to form new memories, either. Presumably, if you’re in heroin addiction recovery, you would not remember the last time you got high, but if you relapsed you would be creating a new memory of using heroin.

A recap of the story in ScienceDaily.com suggests that the blebbistatin actually interrupts the brain’s ability to store the memory—it doesn’t technically erase the memory itself. The researchers remain excited about the possibilities that this therapy can block relapse potential. If you’ve gone to the tenth layer of hell because of your opiate addiction, it’s easy to embrace this as the next new modality for aiding heroin addiction recovery.

In the meantime, until this memory drug becomes available and we all know it’s safe, your best bet for heroin addiction recovery is to call your local methadone program, because right now it’s still the best and safest way to achieve recovery from opiates.

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It’s difficult to think that people suffering from heroin abuse in Georgia would be part of a political battle, isn’t it? Yet at a time when the epidemic of opiate addiction has skyrocketed beyond belief, when the numbers of people addicted to heroin have doubled between 2011 and 2013, state governments are challenging pharmaceutical companies for inflating the price of naloxone.

Battle Lines Are Formed

On a website that describes what’s going on among Washington lawmakers called The Hill, Sarah Ferry has written about President Obama’s 2016 budget that directs 100 million dollars toward the battle against opiate addiction. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has identified this as a three-pronged focus to fight heroin addiction that teaches healthcare providers better practices in prescribing opioids, expands the use of medication-assisted treatment programs, and increases the availability and use of naloxone.

Most of the sudden and significant jolts in the price of naloxone have been traced back to a company called Amphastar Pharmaceuticals. With many wondering if this is tantamount to price gouging, just as naloxone has been successfully integrated into use at the grass roots level, why does Amphastar’s pricing suddenly rise beyond double the previous price?

In Massachusetts, naloxone cost $18.50 back in February 2014. Now it costs city and county governments over $37 per dose. In Baltimore, Maryland, officials report pricing that increased from $9.70 to $37 per dose. Treatment of heroin abuse in Georgia was affected when prices rose from $20 to $35 per dose.

New York lawmakers fought back against this unwarranted price increase and wrangled a deal from Amphastar that gives them a six-buck rebate on every dose they’ve purchased, and also an agreement not to raise prices so drastically again in the future. The Ohio attorney general insisted on the same deal. Other jurisdictions are using money from drug arrests to offset the costs of naloxone.

An Amphastar spokesman whined—er, pointed out—that this life-saving medication costs them more because of the pre-filled syringe used in the formulation for the kits distributed. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for many to believe that the costs of simple syringes would account for such radical new pricing.

Moore Medical of Connecticut, McKesson Corporation of California, Southeastern Emergency Equipment of North Carolina, and Bound Tree Medical of Ohio have also received queries about their naloxone prices. However, those companies maintain that the price of naloxone is set by its manufacturer, and they point back to Amphastar. And oh yes—Amphastar netted some 103 million dollars in profits in 2014 from its product line called “other” containing naloxone.

The History of Naloxone

Just how does naloxone work? It’s not a new drug. It was introduced to the medical public in the Annals of Internal Medicine by W.R. Martin way back in December 1976. Researchers worried about reviving surgical patients who received too much pain medication and discovered that naloxone could run interference with the brain’s ability to interact with the pain medication. At the same time, the naloxone worked not as an opiate agonist, like heroin or pain medication, but as an antagonist. So, it could occupy the brain’s receptors and block access by harmful medications, but it did not, itself, provide any of the euphoria sought out by people who can’t stop their heroin abuse in Georgia.

The Journal of Emergency Medical Services printed an article written by Karen Barker back in 2008 about this drug judged to be an amazing lifesaver. The article explains, for those who want to kick heroin abuse in Georgia, how it interferes with the brain’s ability to produce dopamine, the endorphin that makes any addiction so compelling.

Naloxone proponents have engaged officials state by state who opposed making naloxone available to first responders such as police, fire fighters, or paramedics. Many people felt that the easy availability of naloxone encouraged continued use of heroin because it would be too easy to reverse an overdose. Nah, let people die, said many, That’ll teach ′em to use heroin. Fortunately, saner minds prevailed, and the drug’s efficacy has also resulted in kits formulated for distribution to and use by the public.

It’s important to point out, if you worry about someone who admits to heroin abuse in Georgia, that anyone who receives naloxone for overdose should still be seen by a doctor afterward. The effects of opiates taken can remain in the system for hours, while those of naloxone wear off after about 45 minutes. If you revive a person, they can very well be overwhelmed by their heroin or pain pills once those 45 minutes pass. They can still die without medical care.

Help for Heroin Abuse in Georgia

People have been eager to get their hands on naloxone, not just the ones who are plagued by heroin abuse in Georgia but also their families. State by state, the fight has gone on, with stories of parents seeking naloxone kits from underground sources or arguing with law enforcement officials who didn’t believe it should be available to addicts.

The Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC) was formed in 1994 out of a concern that those who abused heroin in Georgia showed increasing rates of infection from HIV/AIDS. With organizations like the AHRC advocating for use of naloxone, Georgia legislators signed House Bills 965 and 966 into effect in 2014, which permitted the distribution of naloxone and also waived prosecution of those who sought medical treatment for overdose. The AHRC took the treatment ball and ran with it, creating an opioid treatment program involving the use and distribution of naloxone.

That’s where this political battle involving addicts diagnosed with heroin abuse in Georgia comes in, because there are no convincing reasons to raise the cost of naloxone. If you are battling heroin abuse in Georgia, or if you love somebody who is dealing with this terrible medical disease, you may be all too familiar with the need for naloxone. It’s the one drug that can reverse a person’s heroin overdose. It can pick somebody up by the scruff of the neck and drag them from Death’s doorstep, kicking and screaming, back to life.

Medication-assisted treatment in local programs provides possibly the best option for helping a person stay clean once they decide they want to live. Methadone and buprenorphine are both approved by the government for their use in treating heroin abuse in Georgia. They stop the cravings and withdrawal symptoms so that the addict can regain control of his or her life. If you want to find out more about naloxone or help someone get into treatment, call your local methadone treatment program and ask for information.

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