Opiate Addiction

Opiate Addiction & Withdrawal

Opiates can produce a quick, intense feeling of pleasure followed by a sense of well-being and a calm drowsiness. But they can also become an addiction. If someone uses opiates again and again, his or her brain is likely to become dependent on them.

What happens to make a person and his or her brain become addicted to an opiate? Long term opiate use changes the way nerve cells in the brain work. These cells grow so used to having the opiate around that they actually need it to work normally.

If opiates are taken away from dependent nerve cells, many cells become overactive. Eventually, these cells will work normally again, but in the meantime, they cause a wide range of symptoms in the brain and body. These are known as withdrawal symptoms.

Have you ever had the flu? You probably experienced symptoms such as aching, fever, sweating, shaking or chills. These are similar to withdrawal symptoms, but withdrawal symptoms are much worse.

Addicted to Prescription Painkillers

In any case, your physician is likely to prescribe a painkiller to help you manage the discomfort. Yet weeks or months later - long after the initial injury may have healed - you're still taking Vicodin, OxyContin or other opioid painkillers. In fact, with pain and discomfort becoming more frequent, you're taking an alarmingly higher dosage than you were in the beginning.

Unfortunately, the very drug that was supposed to help you is now hurting you. The pain of injury or the fear of medical treatment has been compounded by the painful discomfort of withdrawal. Rather than easing your pain, you are experiencing intensified pain levels. Patients suffering at pain levels of two or three often jump to levels of eight or nine after one year of painkiller usage.

This scenario is increasingly common. Today, approximately 75% of our patients suffer from a dependency to painkillers, whereas in years past dependencies to heroin were the most common. We recognize that all patients who are physically dependent on prescription pain killers as well as other opiates such as heroin became dependent through no fault of their own. Their disease is a chemical imbalance that requires expert medical treatment in a safe, humane and effective environment.

Pain Management Traps

The underlying problem is not only the drug, but also the pain management specialists who often indiscriminately prescribe painkillers without considering the long-term effects of dependency. Focusing primarily on eliminating the symptom (pain), some physicians overlook the potential consequences (dependency).

Research indicates that every year nearly two million Americans use prescription opioid painkillers, and in some communities, abuse of prescription painkillers has overtaken cocaine and marijuana use. The 2002 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) showed that approximately 9% of the U.S. population has used pain relievers illegally in their lifetime. An estimated 1.6 million Americans used prescription-type pain relievers non-medically for the first time in 1998. This represents a significant increase since the 1980s, when there were generally fewer than 500,000 new users per year.

Among youth ages 12-17, the incidence rate increased from 6.3 per 1,000 potential new users in 1990 to 32.4 per 1,000 potential new users in 1998. For young adults age 18-25, there was also an increase in the rate of first use between 1990 and 1998 (from 7.7 to 20.3 per 1,000 potential new users).

Opiate Addiction Treatment

In response to these challenges, the Waismann Method^sm offers patients a highly successful rapid detox procedure for the treatment of painkiller dependency. Not only does this procedure reverse opiate dependency, it also eliminates the cravings that often accompany traditional detoxification treatments. The Waismann Method^sm has been clinically proven to be effective for a wide range of opiates including OxyContin, Vicodin, Norco, methadone, heroin, Stadol, LAAM, Lortab, Percocet, Dilaudid, Darvocet, Percodan, Lorcet, MS Contin and others.

If you or someone you know suffers from a dependency to opiates, get help now with the Waismann Method^sm and break the chain of opiate dependency.

>> Get Help Now