Drug use can be recreational or therapeutic. Addiction, however, is a cycle, especially when it comes to opiate use. That cycle can lead to chronic relapse unless you break it. An opiate addiction treatment program will not only help stop drug use but, hopefully, will break the cycle that puts recovery at risk.
Our Atlanta Detox Center team proudly offers an opiate addiction treatment program to help you or someone you care about begins recovery. First, however, it is important to know more about breaking the cycle of opiate addiction.
What Is an Opiate Addiction?
Opiates and opioids are drug terms used interchangeably, although opiates are typically prescription medications. An opiate is an opioid drug made from opium. It is a naturally occurring opioid like morphine or codeine.
Opiates are highly addictive. They bind to receptors that trigger the release of neurochemicals in the brain that make you feel good. Over time, the body develops a tolerance to the opiate and dependence on it. Both are critical parts of the opiate cycle.
What Is Tolerance to Opiates?
Tolerance means it takes more of the drug to get the same effect. Tolerance is a crucial factor for two reasons. First, someone who takes prescription opiates for pain will need more of the drug to manage their pain. Second, it also means those taking the drug recreationally will require more to get the same high.
The build-up of tolerance to an opiate is part of what makes them so dangerous. Someone who stops using a drug like heroin may relapse and take the same dose. Over time tolerance declines, though, so what used to be a normal dose is now an overdose.
What Is Dependence on Opiates?
Dependence refers to the brain’s reward system. The brain releases feel-good neurotransmitters as a reward for doing good things for the body, like exercising. Since opiates trigger that same response, the brain may start to depend on them to release the chemical over time. When someone stops taking the drug, the brain triggers cravings that can play a critical role in the addiction cycle.
What Is the Cycle of Opiate Addiction?
Cravings and withdrawal are two things that keep the cycle of opiate addiction going. That cycle includes:
- Cravings
- Drug-seeking behavior
- Drug use
- Gratification
- Withdrawal
It is a pattern of drug use triggered by cravings. With the withdrawal, the cravings begin again, and the cycle starts over. The path to breaking that cycle starts with detox and substance abuse treatment.
How Opiate Detox Can Break the Cycle
Detox is typically the first stage of opiate addiction treatment. A detox center provides a safe place for someone experiencing the last stage of the cycle, withdrawal, to go.
Withdrawal triggers cravings that start the cycle over again. Detox treatment provides supervision, withdrawal management, and therapy to break it.
Staff provides security that prevents drug-seeking behavior and use. At the same time, an opiate detox center can offer medication that helps ease the withdrawal symptoms and strategies to manage cravings.
Services at Atlanta Detox Center
Atlanta Detox Center has an inpatient opiate addiction treatment program that provides managed care during withdrawal. Breaking the cycle allows the client to maintain sobriety. That sobriety helps them to move on to a primary opiate addiction treatment program.
Services at Atlantia Detox Center include:
- Medication
- Comfort care
- Behavioral therapy
- Family therapy
- Gender-specific treatment
Our goal is to help our clients find long-term recovery by helping to break the cycle of addiction. Once clients complete the detox program, they can move onto primary treatment sober and ready to work towards recovery.
Break the Opiate Cycle at Atlanta Detox Center
The cycle of opiate addiction doesn’t have to take over your life. So give us a call at 470.450.2355 or go online and fill out our contact form. The staff at Atlanta Detox Center is ready to answer your questions.
