Breaking a heroin addiction is not easy to do, but it can be slightly easier if you use methadone as a treatment option. Methadone is a drug that offers similar effects as heroin, but it is not as harmful for your body. Here are a few important things to know about the use of methadone as a treatment plan for breaking a heroin addiction.
What is methadone?
The drug methadone is commonly used to treat heroin addictions, and it is actually an opioid itself. When taken, it triggers the brain in the same ways as heroin, and it has the ability to stop the withdrawal symptoms you normally experience when you are not using. The withdrawal symptoms of a heroin addict can be severe, and this is what makes heroin so addicting. The only way to stop the symptoms is to take more heroin. If you use methadone, you will not have this problem, because your brain will respond to the methadone as it does to heroin.
Is this really a fix for an addiction?
One downside to using methadone is that it appears to be a method that just replaces one drug with another. While this is partially true, there are several key differences that make methadone a good way to treat a drug addiction:
It's safer
The first difference is that you must visit a clinic to get the methadone. When you go there, you can be certain you will be receiving methadone and nothing else, and you will receive the right dosage. If you use heroin, you will have to buy it from a drug dealer and hope it is not laced with anything else. In addition, it is easier to overdose on heroin than methadone, because your methadone dosages are issued by a trained professional. You should also realize that using heroin is illegal, but using methadone is not.
You can wean yourself off
If you are addicted to heroin, you will have no one monitoring how much you use. With methadone, you will be working with trained professionals, and one goal they may help you with is weaning yourself off the methadone. If you can successfully do this, you will no longer have an addiction to either drug, but this process takes time. You will have to make sure you regularly visit the clinic for treatment, and you may need to take other steps to help you mentally prepare and accomplish this. Meeting with a support group is one option, and other option is meeting with a counselor. Over time, you can break your addiction and dependence on methadone and heroin.
If you are ready to take a step in the positive direction, contact a clinic that offers heroin addiction treatment. They can help you break your addiction and stay clean for the rest of your life.
Share28 July 2016
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