Pain and opiate addiction is a big fear factor for many people. For people who have been experiencing chronic pain, opiate addition can become a very serious concern. Opiates are often times used to treat pain. Some people are so fearful that they can become addicted to opiates when in pain that they opt out of treatment. Pain and opiate addiction dont necessarily have to be a worry. If a treatment plan for pain is managed the right way, the worry of pain and opiate addiction can go away. If not, and an addiction to opiates happens to you or someone you know, an inpatient rehab facility is the best option for treatment.
Health Hazards of Pain and Opiate Addiction
Opiate abuse has many health hazards. Serious health conditions can occur for an opiate abuser such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, fatal overdose, collapsed veins, abortion and other diseases. The shorter term effects of opiate abusers show up immediately. The user will feel a rush and warm feeling on the skin. They will have a dry mouth and their arms and legs will feel very heavy. Then the abuser will go into a very sleepy or drowsy state and their mind becomes clouded. After a long period of using opiates, there are long term effects that can occur. The heart linking and valves can become infected, the veins in the body can collapse, cellulites and liver disease can develop. As well, pneumonia can develop and other pulmonary complications. Respiration can be decreased.
Abusing Opiates While Pregnant
If a pregnant woman is abusing opiates it can result in all sorts of problems for the baby. A low birth weight has often been seen in
women taking opiates while pregnant as well as other delayed developments the baby may experience.
Street Opiates
Using the street opiates can also cause major problems to health as it can have other additives that wont dissolve and could cause the blood vessels to become clogged. This can affect the lungs and liver as well as the brain and kidneys. This can lead to several major infections.
Inpatient Rehab Facility
Addiction treatment preferably at inpatient rehab facility is needed for someone addicted to opiates. Because the addiction is a behavioral issue, it can be treated with support, therapy and rehab. When in a rehab facility, the detoxification process is the first step. Withdrawing from opiates without being supervised by a medical expert is dangerous and can even cause death. After about 10 days, the dependency on opiates is happening and more treatment can begin. The goals here are to understand why we abused the drug and how we can manage the pain without the opiates. Therapy is a big part of the focus for treatment. Patients learn how to use tools to keep the pain and opiate addiction behind them and to manage the pain. Willpower to stay straight can be tough and sometimes someone else will have to supervise your medications.
There are several signs that a person might have a pain and opiate addiction.
- Taking more of the drug then the prescription calls for them to do. This is because the drug might not be working for them like it is suppose to be working.
- Spending more time than they should focusing on the drug. This means that they are going to need to take the drugs a lot more than often.
- Showing a lot of signs that they might be depressed about the things that are going on in their life. Therefore, a person might have some thoughts about suicide and might have threatened to commit suicide.
- No longer care about their appearance. A lot of times, this is going to mean that a person is going to be losing a lot of weight very quickly for no reason.
- No longer wants to hang out with people that they used to love to hand out with. The person might also stop doing some of the things that they used to find a lot of joy in doing like going to any type of social events like parties or family events.
- Behavior starts to change dramatically. This means that a person is going to have a lot of mood changes.
- Having any issues with their sleep. These issues could be insomnia or restlessness. When a person is suffering from a lack of sleep then they are probably going to be very irritable around the people that they love.
- Having any problems concentrating on certain things. This means that a person might also have some problems with their coordination and slurred speech when they are talking about certain things.
- Having trouble making decisions about certain things in their life. This means that a person is also going to make a lot of poor judgments when it comes to the actual decisions that they have made in their life. This is one of the worse signs that a person who is suffering from a pain and opiate addiction can experience. This is because it can effect their work life along with some aspects of their personal life.