Effective Heroin Addiction Treatment in Thailand
Residential heroin reliance treatment also provides counsellors and support workers round-the-clock, meaning that no matter what time of day, there is someone to speak tor for support. Completely confidential inpatient treatment allows addicts the ability to remove themselves from all regular life stressors while focusing completely on addiction recovery.
Is Medically Supervised Detox required for Heroin Addiction?
Heroin withdrawal symptoms are often felt within a couple of hours after the last high wears off, and include the following:
- Yawning
- Uncontrollable crying
- Insomnia
- Cold sweats/chills
- Severe muscle and bone aches
- Nausea/vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Cramps
- Fever
- Sweating
- Anxiety
- Depression
Although withdrawal symptoms for heroin can be incredibly painful and physically and psychologically uncomfortable, they are not life-threatening and thus a medically supervised detox is not required. However, it is suggested that during this period of withdrawal, a heroin addict is monitored by an addiction counsellor or support worker.
Because of the severity of these withdrawal symptoms it is very common for addicts to give up on recovery at this point. In severe cases, methadone may be administered to help soothe the withdrawal symptoms and ease body off the drug.
What Types of Heroin Addiction Methods Work Best?
Heroin addiction is one of the most disabling drug addictions. It is rare to see a high-functioning heroin addict – meaning that they are able to maintain work, family and social obligations during their addiction. However, especially in the case of different opiate addictions such as opium or prescription drugs, outpatient treatment is an option for those who have not yet hit ‘rock bottom’.
For those who have difficulty maintaining day to day responsibilities, or who have completely lost everything due to their addiction, inpatient addiction treatment is recommended.
Why Choose The Cabin Chiang Mai for Your Heroin Addiction Rehabilitation?
The Cabin Chiang Mai is globally recognized for their unique, affordable and effective addiction treatment programme. Our Western-trained counsellors employ a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), 12 Steps methodology and mindfulness therapy to help clients successfully free themselves of their addictions and learn coping skills necessary to live a long, healthy life in addiction recovery.
Our comfortable private villas sit amidst sprawling tropical gardens. If not for the counselling sessions and medical staff, one might mistake The Cabin Chiang Mai for one of Thailand’s famous luxury resorts.
Heroin abuse, addiction and overdose have been on the rise in recent years around the globe. In the U.S.A. alone, deadly heroin overdoses climbed from approximately 2,000 deaths in 2001 to over 10,000 deaths in 2014. And those numbers do not take into account any overdoses which did not result in death, or those suffering from heroin addiction who have not overdosed. These statistics also make no mention of other opiate addictions or overdoses. It probably won’t surprise you that Heroin addiction treatment continues to grow annually in Thailand.
Heroin and Opiate Addiction
Heroin is a type of opiate drug derived from the opium poppy. Other drugs in this family include opium, morphine and codeine. Used medically to relieve pain, opiates have a high level of abuse due to their ability to make users feel incredibly calm and euphoric, especially in larger doses.
In recent years, there has been a surge in addiction to prescription drugs in the opiate family, with OxyContin sitting at the top of the list. Originally marketed as a strong painkiller with little to no addictive possibilities, it was later found that indeed it is very addictive, and many people who had been prescribed this drug for pain had begun abusing the drug and/or had become addicted.
Buying prescription drugs on the street is quite expensive however, and so many people turned to the cheaper alternative, heroin, to get their fix. Prescription opiates and heroin have the same effects on the brain, the difference between the two lays in the strength of the drug and how they are taken. For the purpose of this page, opiate addiction will further be referred to simply as heroin addiction.
Heroin Addiction and Its Effects on the Brain
An extremely addictive drug, heroin use changes the physical structure and physiology of the brain which not only makes the users crave more and more of the drug (active addiction), but studies show that heroin promotes the deterioration of the brain’s white matter as well. This can affect a person’s decision making abilities as well as the ability to regulate behaviour and responses to stressful situations.
Long-Term Health Effects of Heroin Addiction
Heroin addiction can lead to many severe and dangerous long-term effects which include:
- Addiction/heroin dependency resulting in extreme withdrawals when ceasing use
- Contracting HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, and other blood-borne diseases
- Collapsed veins
- Contracting bacterial or fungal infections
- Kidney failure
- Death
- Infection of the heart lining and valves
- Rheumatologic problems such as arthritis
- Poisoning from contaminants added to cut/dilute heroin
Death is the final stage for approximately 50% of all heroin users with the major cause of death being overdose. Heroin overdose is incredibly common because tolerance to the drug develops quite quickly in the body, causing users to seek more and more of the drug to achieve the same effects. Eventually, a user takes more than the human body can handle, even after developing a tolerance, and overdose occurs.
Addiction recovery takes work, and even the decision to get clean can be a scary thought. But at The Cabin Chiang Mai we have decades of combined experience helping heroin addicts move towards a healthy, happy life in recovery. We want you to succeed, and we will be there for you every step of the way.
If you or someone you know is suffering from heroin addiction, and requires heroin addiction treatment, please contact us today for a free, no obligations assessment to see how we can help you free yourself from heroin addiction!