Opiate Dependency
Posted by Official Intervention Help | Filed under Official Intervention
A narcotic sedative which slows down the activity of the central nervous system is called an opiate drug. Opiate drugs lessen pain and stimulate sleep. Like every drugs prescribed by physicians, this drug gives benefits to our body. However, the drug has the capacity to allow the body to become too dependent on it, leading to addiction.
Getting dependent to opiate is a disorder in the body’s central nervous system. Nonstop and extended opiate use can cause the nerve cells in the brain to discontinue functioning as usual and stop producing natural endorphins. Opiate substitutes endorphins in the body. In return, the nerve cells start to degenerate and the body becomes physically dependent on opiates. Studies show that the brain has its own opiate and opiate receptors, which are concentrated in the parts of the brain that control pain and emotions. The nucleus accumbens is a region in the brain that enhances the release of dopamine. Dopamine gives an individual a high feeling of pleasure and relaxation which can lead to addiction.
Normally, a substance dependent would take actions to conceal the addiction. However, the addiction will always show on the person’s attitudes and behaviors. Some symptoms of opiate addiction include obsessing over medications, obsessing over doctor appointments and the need to get more medicine, being restless, irritable, and angry when not getting enough opiates, being preoccupied with getting more drugs, lying about how much they have used or when they got the medicine, and lying to doctors or faking injuries or illnesses in order to get more medicine. Opiate addicts can go out of their way to the point of inflicting injury to one’s own body to get medication.
This type of addiction is treated the same as any other type of drug addiction. All treatments always start with the addict willing to overcome the addiction. To recover quickly, professional help is always needed. First step of the treatment is the process of detoxification. In the process of the treatment, withdrawal symptoms could occur. Opiate detox and withdrawal can occur when one suddenly reduces the amount of opiates after intense use. Opiates could be an illegal drug or prescription drugs. Actually, it is the occurrence of withdrawal syndrome that pushes an individual to continue using the drug. Furthermore, opiate users often experience drowsiness, vomiting, nausea, muscle soreness, constipation and dry mouth.
Before, getting addicted to opiate is seen as a helpless condition. Patients with opiate physical dependency were considered to have inherited an addictive personality or psychological disorder or to have suffered with a dysfunctional family life. However, studies have been made on how to cure this kind of addiction. After more than a decade of NIH-supported animal and human research, buprenorphine was discovered to help stop opiate dependency. The discovery of the opiate receptor determined that buprenorphine worked like a treatment already available, termed methadone, by activating opiate receptors and mimicking opiate drugs of abuse. Receptor-activating medications can help relieve drug cravings and control a person’s addiction. Medications should also be paired with behavioral therapy such that the patient is encouraged to think positively and be hopeful that the addiction would later on subside. To help deal with the addiction, behavior should be modified.
Opiate is a drug usually used to alleviate severe and chronic pain. Prescription drugs may be safe to take but exploiting it could always lead to danger. Small things can always lead to dependency where treatment is the only way out.
