heroin Rehab

Heroin (diacetylmorphine and diamorphine) is an opioid used for medical and recreational purposes. It belongs to a class of drugs found naturally in the opium poppy plant and boasts pain-relieving properties.

Heroin is typically injected into a vein. However, heroin can also be inhaled, smoked, or snorted.

The onset of its effects is usually fast and depends on the route of administration. While smoking is the fastest route of heroin administration, intravenous injection causes a quicker rise in blood concentration.

When a person takes heroin, they experience a rush of happiness immediately. The person may feel like the world has slowed down for several hours. Some users of heroin describe the feeling as being in a dream.

These effects emerge because the drug slows certain functions of your brain. It blocks your body from receiving pain messages and slows your breathing and heart rate. Overdose of heroin may stop breathing completely and cause death.

Heroin addiction or opioid use disorder is characterized by abnormal brain changes and behaviors resulting from heroin misuse. Intravenous administration of heroin is the most dangerous, as a person can catch a disease from a dirty needle.

Regardless of the route of administration, heroin makes its way to the brain quickly. The neurochemical changes produced by heroin intake can render individuals unable to stop themselves from using it again.

Heroin binds to receptors in the brain and releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine. While the release of dopamine is temporary, as with most drugs, it produces a feeling of pleasure that makes the individual want more of it.

If an individual takes heroin repeatedly over time, the brain stops producing dopamine naturally as it once did. This causes the person to take higher and more frequent doses of heroin in order to achieve the same level of euphoria.

It may be hard to identify heroin addiction at first. However, the symptoms of heroin addiction become more pronounced as they take over the user’s life. Here are the short-term  effects of heroin addiction:

Users experience an acute transcendent state of euphoria shortly after taking heroin. The intense dopamine rush happens as heroin or diamorphine metabolizes into 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) and morphine in the brain.

Some users believe that the effects of heroin are stronger than other opioids. This can be explained by the rapid onset of heroin effects or the presence of 6-monoacetylmorphine, a metabolite unique to heroin.

Other opioids used for recreational purposes only produce morphine, while heroin produces both morphine and a psychoactive metabolite. This perception, however, is not supported by ample clinical evidence.

According to studies comparing the subjective and physiological effects of injected heroin and morphine in individuals previously addicted to opioids, subjects exhibited no preference for heroin over other opioids or vice versa.

As users experience a rush of pleasurable feelings after heroin ingestion, their skin flushes, and their mouth becomes dry accompanied by a heavy feeling in the extremities. Users may also experience severe itching, nausea, and vomiting.

The initial effects are followed by a feeling of drowsiness, lower heart rate, and slow breathing, which may sometimes be life-threatening.

Long-term Effects

When abused for a prolonged period, heroin causes neurological (anatomical and physiological) and neurochemical changes in the brain. This creates long-term imbalances in the neuronal and hormonal system that cannot be easily undone.

According to clinical evidence, prolonged misuse of heroin can deteriorate the brain’s white matter to the extent that the user experiences impaired decision-making ability, the ability to regulate behavior, and responses to stressful situations.

These trouble effects highlight the need for suffering individuals to enroll in heroin rehab as soon as possible.