Heroin addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Programs
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Heroin Addiction Treatment

Heroin addiction treatment is similar to the recovery of most addictive drugs. Recovery from heroin addiction is a long process and requires help from trained professionals. People recover from heroin addiction every single day, but they rarely do it alone. The highest documented success rates for heroin addiction recovery are through long term drug rehabilitation treatment lasting at least 3 to 6 months. This gives structure and support to provide long term recovery from heroin addiction.

Heroin TreatmentThere are a wide range of programs for heroin addiction treatment. For many, attending a rehab program is the best choice. Other forms of treatment include methadone, LAAM, and buprenorphine. These other forms of heroin addiction treatment have found some success. However, they are simply replacing the addict’s heroin addiction with another form of drug use. As silly as it sounds, this is a common approach for many rehabilitation programs. The point here is that a heroin addiction treatment program should be found that uses no replacement drug treatment of any kind. These programs are very scarce so it is important to ask whether the rehab program you are interested in makes use of these techniques.

Science has caught up with the problem of addiction. The 'Biophysical" program or "Science" based heroin addiction treatment program has been proven to be the most effective treatment today because it handles the 3 major aspects of addiction.

  1. Detox: A complete heroin detox that removes drug residues from the body and eliminates cravings. Initially the heroin addict will go through a detoxification process as part of their heroin addiction treatment. This is only part of the initial steps of recovery; many individuals misinterpret this vital step as the "only" step and feel that they have accomplished their goal of heroin addiction recovery. After detoxification the recovering heroin addict must learn life's lessons and come to an understanding of why they began to use heroin.
  2. Education: The client receives the missing life skills needed to live without drugs and alcohol. Underlying issues are addressed, discovered, confronted and discarded. Again social skills are addressed and the individual is given back control of their lives. One learns common sense solutions for dealing with a sometimes hostile environment trying to push the latest "wonder drug".
  3. Relapse prevention training: One of the biggest mistakes often made by people in recovery is to go to treatment for 30, 60 or even 90 days only to graduate and return to their old friends old job and old environment. Hence the saying "If you hang out in the barber shop long enough, you will probably get your haircut". The individual has to learn how to spot negative influences in their life to get rid of them. They also have to spot the positive influences so that they can pick new friends and join new groups that embrace their new pro-survival activities. It is naive to believe that one will never face temptation again, therefore the solution is to drill how to handle these situations so that when they do arise, one acts without having to "think about it".

There are many steps in one’s recovery and each heroin addiction treatment center will go through them at a different pace. The recovering addict needs to be willing to participate in the rehabilitation program and continually apply themselves daily. The appropriate duration for an individual in addiction treatment depends on his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that for most patients, the threshold of significant improvement is reached at about 3 months in treatment. After this threshold is reached, additional care can produce further progress toward recovery. There are no quick fixes for heroin addiction. The knowledge and life skills one learns during intensive heroin addiction treatment must be integrated into everyday life.


Heroin addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Programs
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Heroin Facts

  • Heroin users who inject the drug expose themselves to additional risks, including contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C, and other blood-borne viruses. Chronic users who inject heroin also risk scarred or collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and liver and kidney disease. Heroin facts show that in 1996, it was reported that heroin was the primary drug of abuse related to drug abuse treatment admissions in Newark, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston, and it ranked a close second to cocaine in New York and Seattle.
  • In some areas, "shabanging" - picking up cooked heroin with a syringe and squirting it up the nose - has increased in popularity. Heroin facts have found that street heroin carries prophetic names: "DOA," "Body Bag," "Instant Death," and "Silence of the Lamb." Rather than scaring off young initiates, the implied danger seems to actually increase the drug's allure.
  • In the mid-Nineties, heroin facts show this drug seemed to be suddenly staging a comeback. The reality, however, was that heroin had never left. While overall drug use in the U.S. dropped sharply through the Eighties, heroin use remained relatively steady. During the Nineties, it started to rise, as the addict population grew and changed. Heroin facts show that heroin on the street became purer; the price stayed the same; and more young and middle-class Americans began using the drug.
  • Generally, street heroin is rarely pure. Heroin facts have found that a "bag," or single dose, may contain 50 milligrams of powder. In the past, very few of those milligrams were likely to be heroin—most of the bag was filled with such additives as milk sugar, powdered milk, or quinine. In 1980, the average bag was only 4 percent pure heroin. By the mid-Nineties, however, purity was generally 40 percent or higher. In the Northeast, it averaged between 60 and 75 percent!
  • Nobody will deny the heroin facts that show heroin to be one of the most destructive and addicting substances in the world. However, there is still a great deal of misinformation floating around about heroin. Heroin facts show that heroin is a highly refined drug originating from the poppy plant. Opium is taken from the poppy which is commonly grown in the Middle East, South Asia, and Mexico for production of morphine and heroin.
  • Heroin is a highly addictive opiate, coming from opium. A little known heroin facts is that Laudanum, or heroin mixed in with alcohol or other tonics, was sold by pharmacies, doctors, and 'snake oil salesman' as a cure-all to Americans and Canadians in the early 1900's. Bayer, manufacturers of aspirin, produced medicines or tonics containing heroin for children with sore throats. Codeine, a synthetic opiate, is used widely in cough medicine today. Another little known heroin facts is that codeine is often used by heroin addicts when they are unable to obtain heroin on the street.
  • Who is abusing heroin? Heroin facts show that for many years a large percentage of heroin users were aged 30 or older, but that number is changing. Heroin users are beginning to skew younger – and the average age of heroin users is now 21 years old. As heroin users get younger and younger, education about the dangers of the drug becomes more important, and needs to be introduced at a younger age.