How can you Manage Alcohol and Heroin Addiction?

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

How can you Manage Alcohol and Heroin Addiction?

What is heroin?
Heroin is a powerful drug which is processed from a chemical called morphine. Morphine is extracted from poppy plants. It is a powdery substance which appears to be white or brown. Heroin gives high pleasuring sense to its users. Of the entire drugs heroin is highly addictive because it develops a tolerance causing intense euphoria and strong physical dependence.

How is it used?
Heroin can be taken in different ways; the effect on the body depends on the methods of administration. It can be administered orally which gets metabolized to morphine in the body. It can be smoked, which will have immediate heightening sense of pleasure. It can be injected which results in rush and euphoria in 7 to 8 seconds.

Why does a person get addicted?
When a person succeeds in something he/she experiences intense feelings of pleasure due to the limbic system because it is flooded with dopamine. So he/she is naturally driven to seek these feelings again. So likewise when a person uses a drug he/she experiences intense feelings of pleasure and the limbic system creates an appetite which drives us to seek those things again and again. Once a person stops using these drugs, it makes him feel lifeless and depressed and the only way is to use the drug again and again which makes him addicted. Drug addiction is a sort of disease. It makes the natural pleasuring sense of our brain to decrease. It is called as down regulation.

What are the Problems of Using Alcohol?
The teenagers may find it difficult to follow their studies.
They may commit crimes than those who don’t.
Those who have drunken may be sexually active and have unsafe, unprotected sex. This may result in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS.
Use of alcohol may be cause for car crash, homicide or suicide.
It may affect the health also such as making to get high blood pressure. It is damaging your organs such as the liver, heart and brain.

How to avoid your bad habit?
In an unavoidable circumstance, you can leave that place at once. Otherwise you can drink some other beverages which do not contain any alcohol. You must have full self-confidence in that situation.
If you think you have drinking problem, get help soon. You must get treatment from a good doctor. These treatment centers help a person to gradually overcome the physical and psychological dependence of alcohol.

Binge Drinking
The habit of drinking over several days is known as binge drinking. This may lead to alcoholic poisoning. The symptoms of alcohol poisoning include
Extreme confusion
Inability to be awakened
Vomiting
Trouble in breathing
Low body temperature
Pale skin

People who have impaired judgment may have unprotected sex leading to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) or unplanned pregnancy. Their physical and mental health may get upset.

Abuse and Addiction
Using the legal drugs or illegal medicines in a wrong way is known as abuse. Addiction means a person has no control over whether he or she uses a drug or drinks. Addiction can be physical, psychological or both. Overcoming addiction is not easy. Get help right away so that you can find recovery.
What is the treatment?
There is no cure for addiction, but it is a recoverable disease. The person must undergo drug addiction therapy and it takes time and moreover strong desire to get rid of it.

What are the effects?
Heroin enters the body rapidly and affects the regions of the brain like cerebellum and basal ganglia which are responsible for physical dependence, memory, actions and reaction time. It also affects the way one thinks. To get the same effect, the abuser must have or intake higher dose. Usage of heroin is always associated with crime, violence, fetal effects, AIDS, tuberculosis and also long term effects like disastrous personal life both physically and mentally. Of all the other drug abuse deaths, heroin tops the list.

What are the withdrawal symptoms?
Withdrawal symptoms can occur from a few hours to 72 hours after the dose and which can include drug craving, restlessness, bone and muscle pain, nausea, insomnia, vomiting and involuntary twitching or kicking movements.

What are the addiction treatments?
Medical drugs like methadone and buprenorphine administration have proven to be successful in treating heroin addiction. There are different opiates which can be used for heroin addiction. Methadone, a synthetic opiate is administered for blocking the effects for about 24 hours but it has more risk when being used in private office. Buprenorphine is also an opiate which is the most recent medication for the treatment of heroin. It also offers less risk and can be dispensed in the privacy of a doctor’s clinic.

There are other medications such as naloxone and naltrexone, which also block the effects of heroin and other opiates. There are also behavioral treatments available for heroin addictions which are designed to help and modify the patient’s thinking and behaviors to increase the skills in coping up with various life stresses. Moreover addiction can be overcome only by hard work and pure determination of the patient himself/herself.


If you need help with alcohol or heroin addiction we can help you by offering you support in overcoming these issues.

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