There’s one thing about treatment for opiate drugs that’s certain: If it sounds too easy, then it probably isn’t a good idea. We think you should be very careful about claims by rapid detox clinics that offer quick cures. You may hear that many of them achieve success with each and every client; but when you ask them for the facts, they get vague and change the subject.
How Does Rapid Detox Work For Opiate Drugs?
The client seeking treatment for opiate drugs goes to the clinic and undergoes anesthesia. The clinic doctor administers a variety of drugs, including Naltrexone is certainly one of the FDA-approved drugs used for addiction to opiates or alcohol, and the clinic utilizes this drug cocktail to accelerate the rate of the client’s withdrawal from addiction. The client regains consciousness at the completion of the rapid detox procedure without experiencing the horrible withdrawal.
Many of these clinics insist that they achieve successful results with each and every client that comes through their doors seeking help. It’s easy to make such an impressive statement, but how relevant is it? You can just as easily say that 100 percent of the people who go to the polls on voting day cast a vote. So what’s the real story?
Treatment for Opiate Drugs Involves Much More
When the person awakens, the doctor says that all traces of the drugs taken have been purged from the system. However, this treatment has done little or nothing to help the client manage his cravings and resist triggers. The client cannot stay clean because people, places, and things have not changed—and you know from 12-step meetings and group counseling how important that is. Even if the person remains clean from the drug he was treated for, he will soon develop another addiction. That’s because substance abuse involves the opioid receptors located in the brain, and they control our sensations of pleasure and reward.
In fact, a person’s brain manufactures very few of the biochemicals such as the endorphins associated with normal daily pleasures, because the brain comes to rely on the person taking drugs to stimulate that production with the drugs. The person will soon fall victim to another addiction because rapid detox treatment for opiate drugs has not taught the brain how to resume production of those endorphins.
You may be desperately eager to enter a rapid detox clinic. You may feel that you simply cannot face the miseries of traditional detox. But what about the high cost—some clinics charge as high as $20,000. Do you have that money, or will you steal to get it? You’ll soon be facing a different type of rapid detox—jailhouse detox, lying all alone on the cold floor of a jail cell.
If rapid detox programs could deliver everything it advertised, then drug courts would be throwing money at them to help people. The judges who run those courts know that addiction is a medical diagnosis, and they are rooting for the person to get his life back on track. But treatment for opiate drugs works best in a medication-assisted treatment program. Methadone can help you control your cravings and withdrawal symptoms. You will learn to resolve personal issues that led to your addiction in the first place and learn how to heal your relationships with others.
If you find yourself ready to get treatment for opiates, pick up the phone and call a methadone clinic. You may not like being the turtle instead of the hare, but just remember that slow and steady wins the race.
