Opiate Addiction

What Is Opiate Addiction?Opiates_list

Although typically prescribed for pain after injuries or surgeries, more than 12 million Americans used opiates for non-medical reasons in 2010[1], according to the CDC. This has skyrocketed the need for drug treatment programs for opiates. If you think that you may need opiate treatment, first learn about how opiates affect the body and why it’s so easy to develop an addiction.

What Opiates Do To The Body

Opiates help provide the brain with a euphoric feeling that, before drug treatment, many people say is one of the highest highs they’ve ever experienced. This feeling lasts and when the opiate user comes down from their high, he or she returns to feeling normal. Eventually, the drug’s effect is minimized and the user needs to have the drug just to feel normal.

Why Is It So Easy To Develop An Opiate Addiction?

Opiate treatment is necessary because the drug is prescribed to help with a number of conditions that cause pain. Many people start with a prescribed opiate and end up with a morphine, codeine or opiate addiction. Additionally, it’s easy to develop tolerance to the drug, which means that it takes higher dosages to achieve pain relief. However, this isn’t necessarily an opiate addiction, especially if the person only takes what’s prescribed and doesn’t seek it out.

If you’re concerned that someone you love is facing an opiate addiction, help them seek out opiate treatment. Help is out there — they don’t have to face it alone.