opioid treatment Archives | Harmony Treatment & Wellness of Stuart

How to Help a Loved One with an Addiction to Opioids

Do you have a loved one who is addicted to opioids? If so, you may notice certain personality or mood change with them. Your loved one may also have legal, financial or relationship issues.

Sometimes, people who struggle with an addiction are more likely to get treatment when they have family members or friends who encourage them to get treatment. If you follow the tips noted here today, maybe your loved one will enter into an opioid addiction treatment program here at Harmony Stuart Treatment and Wellness Center.

Opioid Addiction Education

If your loved one has an opioid addiction, one of the first things you should do is learn more about this type of addiction. There are many things that can cause someone to abuse opioids. There are also many triggers that can lead to drug use. These are just a couple of the things that you may need to learn about, so you can better help your loved one. After learning about these things, you may want to learn about the various treatment options available to your loved one.

Observing Your Loved One

Another way that you can help your loved one if they have an opioid addiction is to observe them. Some of the things you should look for include:

Mood swings
Drug abuse habits
Symptoms of addiction
Relationship issues
Withdrawal symptoms

After observing your loved one for a while, you can learn more about their lifestyle and what drugs they may be abusing. The more information you have, the more you will be able to discuss with them about the addiction and what treatments may be best for them.

Intervention

Many people who struggle with opioid addiction won’t get clean on their own. They often need their loved ones or friends to talk to them about how they are behaving. Sometimes, ultimatums need to be given before a person will agree to enter a treatment program. If needed, you can even have an intervention specialist help with the intervention for your loved one. The purpose of this meeting is to have everyone share how the addiction is affecting them and to let your loved one know they need to get treatment.

It is crucial to make sure your loved one isn’t under the influence of drugs while holding the intervention. Everyone who is attending the intervention should be clean, as well.

Using Naloxone

Unfortunately, many people who abuse opioids do overdose on the drug. Even though you may not want to think about it, it is imperative that you are prepared for an overdose. If your loved one does overdose, you should be able to administer naloxone right away. The longer you wait, the less likely it is that your loved one will survive the overdose.

If you did have to use naloxone on your loved one, it is still important that they get immediate medical treatment. There may be other symptoms of the overdose that need to be managed and treated.

Supporting Them in Treatment and Recovery

If your loved one has an addiction to opioids and they agree to get help, it is important to support them as much as you can throughout their treatment program and in their recovery, as well. Some of the many ways you can support them include:

Don’t take any prescriptions or drugs in front of them
Don’t take them to places where drugs or alcohol are being used
Let them vent or talk to you about anything they are going through
Attend meetings with them and go to meetings for family members of addicts on your own
Create a calm, peaceful home environment
Do activities with them that don’t involve drugs or alcohol
Visit them if they are staying at a treatment center (there are often visitor hours)
Attend family therapy to work through relationship and trust issues with your loved one

These are just some of the many ways that you can be there for your loved one if they have an opioid addiction. If you want to know more about the treatments your loved one will be receiving, you can talk to our Harmony Stuart team.

Get Help for a Loved One Who Has an Addiction to Opioids Today

Does your loved one have an opioid addiction? If so, there are numerous ways that you can help and support them. From learning about opioid addiction to holding an intervention and offering support in recovery, you can be there to help your loved one in each part of the journey to living a better, substance-free life.

Ever Wondered How Opioids Affect The Brain?

Perhaps you’ve wondered, “how do opioids affect the brain?” It seems like every time you turn around, you see news about opioids. You hear words like “opioid epidemic” and “opioid crisis.” The news talks a lot about addictions. They frequently mention the deaths. But how does a person get real information about opioid effects on the brain?

In this post, Harmony Treatment & Wellness assesses the following:

What are opioids?
How do opioids affect the brain?
What is opioid use disorder?
Do treatments exist for opioid use disorder?
What if I want more information about opioids and the brain?

What Are Opioids?

Opioids occur naturally in your body. Your brain makes them. Researchers call these endogenous opioids. When we hurt, our brains release these opioids to make us feel better. Opioids have the function of easing pain.

What’s The Difference Between Opioids And Opiates?

We can also find opioids in nature. They come from the poppy flower (papaver somniferum). 3 natural opioids we get from the poppy plant include:

Opium
Morphine
Codeine

You may see the terms “opioid” and “opiate” used as synonyms. But they don’t mean the same thing. The word “opioid” refers to both natural and artificial substances. We apply the word “opiate” to natural substances.

Opioids have legitimate medical uses. But when news reports refer to an “opioid crisis,” it makes opioids sound terrible. You may hear the word “synthetic” used in this context. It means that a human being created it. Find a few examples of synthetic opioids below:

Heroin
Fentanyl
Hydrocodone
Oxycodone

How Do Opioids Impact The Brain?

We learned that our brains manufacture opioids. So, what happens if we consume an opioid? Our brain rewards us. It releases chemicals that make us feel good. Imagine the feeling when you spend time with a loved one. Or when you eat a good meal. Now, imagine that you could amplify that feeling. That represents a glimpse of what opioids can do in the brain.

Our brain becomes accustomed to this feeling. It views this heightened sense of pleasure as its new normal. Over time, the brain begins to require opioids. Without them, it will not function properly. We use the term dependence to describe this state. If a person dependent on opioids stops using them, withdrawal may result.

What About The Body?

We know that opioids help ease pain. They also slow down the brain’s processes. This can make our bodies feel heavy and sluggish. Opioids cause us to get sleepy. We might experience a sense of calm. Therein lies much of the problem with opioids. They slow things down too much.

Opioid overdose can lead to a condition known as ”hypoxia.” It happens when the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen. Opioids slow down the brain and the body. Therefore, they reduce our breathing. If we don’t breathe enough, our brains don’t get enough oxygen. This condition of hypoxia can prove fatal.

What Is Opioid Use Disorder?

Humans like to feel good. And opioids give us good feelings. We should not feel surprised by the fact that people become addicted to opioids. They make pain go away. They provide relief. And they do it well.

But, abusing opioids can lead to opioid use disorder (OUD). The CDC has published a wealth of literature on the exact definition of OUD. For your purpose, you need only keep one thing in mind. Someone struggling with OUD keeps using opioids. And they cannot quit. They keep consuming opioids despite the presence of negative consequences.

Do Treatments Exist For Opioid Use Disorder?

If you struggle with OUD, do not respond with fear. If you love someone with OUD, hold fast. One must not OUD as a life sentence. Harmony Treatment & Wellness knows that people can (and do) recover from OUD. So, inhale. Below, you will find some examples of treatments for OUD.

MOUD/MAT

Treatment providers might treat OUD with a method called medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). You could hear it called medication-assisted treatment (MAT). MOUD/MAT offers someone with OUD an opioid prescription to help the recovery. Treatment centers have used methadone for such purposes. More recent innovations in MOUD include buprenorphine and naltrexone.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Humans don’t inherently know how to think about our own thoughts. We just assume that we have thoughts. We (quite erroneously) believe we cannot change them. Enter cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT teaches people to evaluate their own thoughts. It helps them to question their thoughts. With CBT, we learn not to take our thoughts at face value. Particularly when used with MOUD, CBT has proven effective in treating opioid use disorder.

What If I Want More Information About Opioids And The Brain?

Thank you for reading this far. Help exists at Harmony Treatment & Wellness. If you’d like more information about how opioids affect the brain, reach out to us. We believe information empowers people. Contact us today to learn more.