Archive for category: For Patients

With the heroin epidemic on the rise and overdosing becoming more and more common, the race to find a solution is more critical than ever. Traces of fentanyl can be found in many street drugs which raises the risk of overdose.

Treatment facilities are battling every day with trying to treat the overwhelming amount of people coming in the doors. There are many medications that are aimed at detoxing patients and reducing the risk of relapse. Suboxone is one of those medications that come in sublingual pills or strips. Luckily now, there is a newer form of Suboxone that doesn’t have to be taken every day.

The Suboxone implant is four small rods that are placed underneath the skin in the upper arm and can last for up to six months. The rods are fairly safe and can be easily removed at any time. This new advanced technology can potentially save thousands of lives and prevent overdoses.

What is the Suboxone Implant?

For many, getting off heroin and staying off can be a challenge. The problem isn’t only going through the initial week-long detox process, it’s continuing to abstain afterward. The drug has a very high psychological dependence and a lot of people experience post-acute withdrawal symptoms or cravings for months after they have stopped using. The Suboxone implant, or Probuphine, was created for people who have a difficult time staying sober on their own.

Unlike Subutex or Suboxone, which have to be taken daily and are absorbed into the bloodstream quickly, Probuphine is a one-time implant that automatically releases the daily dose of medication over the course of several months. The slow absorption rate of the medication allows for reduced side effects, if any at all.

Why Was the Suboxone Implant Created? 

One of the main concerns with the pill form of Subutex is that patients will end up abusing the medication the same way they abused their drug of choice. The US National Library of Medicine concluded that the drug was almost impossible to abuse.

This is due to its subdermal placement in the body and the fact that rods use a matrix system instead of a reservoir so even if the patient was able to remove the rod, they wouldn’t be able to disperse the medication in mass doses.

This medication was created in order to allow recovering heroin addicts to go through their everyday lives without having to worry about a pill and all the potential side effects that accompany the pill. The reason this medication is considered so revolutionary is that it may be a cure for “chronic relapsers” or people who have a very difficult time achieving any sort of long-term sobriety.

A lot of chronic relapsers may not necessarily have a difficult time remembering to take the pill every day. They also might intentionally stop taking their prescription so that they can use and feel the effects.

Who Should Consider the Suboxone Implant?

The fact that the Suboxone implant doesn’t have to be taken daily gives the user a sense of freedom that they didn’t have before. The recovering addict can now travel without having to worry about having enough medication or trying to fill this script out of state.

In the first few months, Suboxone may be dosed multiple times a day, which means the user has to take multiple pills. According to their website, the Probuphine implant can deliver the same dosing variation because the medication is measured by the number of bars that are implanted in the user’s arm.

Instead of having to take a pill three times a day the recovering addict is simply implanted with more rods, which deliver a higher dose. The good news is that instead of tapering down on the pills the rods can simply be removed to allow for a similar taper.

One reason that people don’t opt to get the implant is the cost. A lot of times insurance companies don’t cover medications that are newer on the market. However, this medication is considered preventative and since it is an alternative to rehab or a trip to the hospital due to an overdose, many insurance companies are slowly beginning to consider it. While the price may vary depending on your coverage you can always call and check to see if it is covered.

Alternatively, if your doctor can explain to the insurance company why you would greatly benefit from this medication the odds of it getting covered increase substantially.

Even if the medication isn’t covered under your insurance it’s worth looking into. What is a couple of hundred dollars compared to the cost of your life? Also, it’s a six-month investment, not a thirty-day supply so you have to think of the benefits over a longer period of time.

Find a Doctor Near You

You can search for Suboxone doctors in your local directory or search the web for a doctor near you. Some things to look for are how long they’ve been practicing and if they can perform the implant procedure.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of this medication, there is no way to test it out or sample it. Although, if you do have a hard time staying sober and the pill just isn’t working out for you, this may be the next best thing. The procedure is a simple thirty-minute-long process.

The patient doesn’t even need to go under anesthesia, they simply numb the area and place the rods and you can go about your daily life. The patient is scheduled for follow up visits where the doctor can assess the amount of medication that is being administered and dose the patient up or down accordingly.

There is no hassle, no waiting at the pharmacy, no monthly fights with your insurance company, and no worry about remembering to take your medicine. Find a doctor today and see if this medication can potentially change your life for the better.

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Opioid addiction is running rampant across most of the United States. People experiencing massive amounts of pain after an accident, injury or surgery are prescribed pain killers to help treat the pain.

When the dosage they were prescribed no longer squelches the pain that they feel, some people tend to take the medication more frequently or in larger doses to help treat the pain. Taking prescription pain killers can be a slippery slope because you don’t have to take them for too long to become addicted to them.

Nearly 2.5 million people in America are currently battling an addiction to opioids. Being able to get clean from them can be difficult to do on your own, especially if you are still in a lot of pain.

Fortunately, there are options when it comes to getting clean from your addiction though. Walk through the ins and outs of drug addiction treatment and how it can be beneficial to you.

Detoxing from Opioids Can be Difficult

Many people feel ashamed of their addiction and attempt to overcome it on their own only to fail. This is due to the extreme withdrawal symptoms that they experience. When you stop using opioids, your body craves them for quite a few days. During the first few days, you will detox from the drugs.

This means that the number of drugs you have in your body will slowly decrease over time. As this happens, your body starts to react in unpleasant ways.

During the detox period, many people have muscle cramping, nausea, dizziness and even vomiting. It can be hard to function because your entire body can feel as though it is revolting against you.

At the same time that your body is going through the symptoms, you may start to feel emotional symptoms of withdrawal too, such as paranoia, depression, anxiety, and even anger.

You Don’t Have to Fight Your Addiction Alone

There are many great treatment facilities available that you can go to when you are ready to quit using drugs. You can take suboxone while you are in the treatment facility to help you with the withdrawal symptoms that you experience.

Suboxone is created with two main ingredients, buprenorphine, and naloxone. The combination of these substances creates a drug that helps to minimize the overall withdrawal symptoms that you have to incur as you detox.

Suboxone Should be Taken in a Controlled Environment at First

It’s important to know that when you first stop using drugs, you will still have an emotional attachment to them. Many people assume that the only reason they take drugs is that they are physically addicted to them, but that isn’t always the case. There are many times when the tie to drugs is emotional, as well.

Suboxone can help reduce your cravings for opioids for the most part, but it cannot stop you from wanting them psychologically. You need to go to drug treatment counseling in order to determine if you have a psychological or emotional addiction to the drugs as well.

Many people battling opioid addiction have a co-occurring disorder and need to be treated for their mental or emotional disorder, as well as their addiction.

When you first quit using drugs, taking suboxone on your own may not be the best option to consider. You will still be surrounded by all of the temptations that you had before and there is a good chance that you could still be around drug abusers that you hung out with when you were getting high.

There are many drug addicts who steal suboxone because it can create a euphoric state if it is taken in excess.

How will suboxone get you high? Suboxone is designed to block pain receptors to make getting clean from drugs easier. The euphoric feeling that it creates when you are taking it in a controlled setting, as prescribed is so minimal that most addicts don’t even recognize it as being high.

On the streets, addicts know that taking suboxone outside of its intended use can get them a similar feeling to the high that they get on opioids, but it will last much longer than it does when they take other drugs.

The high that suboxone causes isn’t as intense as the high opioids cause, but due to the long duration of the high that it causes, it is still very sought after by addicts across the United States.

Avoiding a Suboxone High Isn’t Difficult

If you really want to get clean from drugs, you shouldn’t try to get high from suboxone. Taking the medication in a controlled setting prevents you from being able to abuse it and allows you to learn how to take medications properly so that you don’t abuse other drugs again in the future.

While you are within the facility, you’ll be taught important things that you need to know about drugs and addiction.

There are many addicts who don’t realize that they are susceptible to become addicted to other drugs again in the future. The education that you receive from the drug treatment facility arms you with the necessary tools you need to be able to avoid addiction in the future and to seek help right away if you feel that there is a chance that you may be relapsing.

Nearly half of all addicts who try to quit do end up relapsing again at some point or another. Avoiding a relapse requires hard work and dedication on your part.

After your initial treatment in a drug treatment facility, you may be able to seek outpatient care. This could mean that you could be prescribed suboxone to take at home. You need to be sure that you always take it as prescribed and that you store it properly.

You need to be sure that no one can get their hands on the prescription without your knowledge and that it isn’t within reach of pets or small children.

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Find a Suboxone Doctors – What to Look for

An addiction to opioids can take over your life very quickly. Many people start taking opioids for the right reasons and become addicted to them accidentally. They may have taken them more frequently than their doctor advised them to or taken more of them than they were prescribed. Being able to give up the drugs can sometimes be harder than people think.

Many addicts find that it’s more than just mind over matter that they need in order to overcome drug addiction. The physical and mental addiction to the drugs often have such a tight hold on people that quitting on their own isn’t possible. Fortunately, there is help available to them. Suboxone is a medication that people can be prescribed to help minimize the withdrawal symptoms that occur as they detox.

Suboxone mainly contains naloxone and buprenorphine and must be prescribed by a doctor to ensure that it is taken properly. Finding the right doctor is important, though. Learn the steps to take to find the right suboxone doctor if you need to overcome an addiction in the guide that follows.

Where to Start if You’re Looking for a Suboxone Doctor?

In order to gain access to suboxone, you need to work with a doctor who has been certified to prescribe. Just because someone is a licensed doctor, it doesn’t mean that they can prescribe suboxone. You need to consider if you want to go for inpatient or outpatient treatment before choosing a doctor to see. Some doctors specialize in outpatient treatment with others specialize in inpatient treatment. A few factors need to be considered to determine which option is right for you though.

Inpatient Treatment

• Ideal for addicts who face a lot of temptation to do drugs in their daily life.
• Ideal for addicts who have easy access to opioids.
• Ideal for addicts who have tried to quit in the past unsuccessfully.
• Ideal for addicts who don’t have access to suboxone treatment locally.

Outpatient Treatment

• Ideal for addicts who feel they can resist the presence of opioids during their recovery.
• Ideal for addicts who have already been through an inpatient treatment program.
• Ideal for addicts who had a momentary relapse but are trying to get their life back on track.

How to Use Our Order Directory to Find a Doctor

When you are ready to get help for your addiction, you need to find the right doctor to provide you with the care that you need. You aren’t going to go to a doctor, get prescribed suboxone and be able to go on your merry way. There are other treatments that must be used in conjunction with suboxone in order for it to be as effective as possible.

You can use our order directory to find local doctors who can give you the treatment that you need. You need to consider where you want to go for treatment before choosing a doctor though. There are some people who choose to move to a different area in order to get treatment because they are fearful that they will release when they finish the treatment if they are surrounded by the people that they hung out with when they did drugs. You could go to stay with friends or family in a different area where you don’t know anyone if you want to try to get clean without all of the emotional triggers or temptations from your past surrounding you.

Once you know where you want to go for treatment, you need to know what form of treatment you want to get. You can use our directory to find out what type of treatment each doctor specializes in and set up an appointment to meet with one or many of them to discuss your specific situation. There are many times when people go for addiction treatment that they don’t realize the severity of their addiction and assume that they can go for outpatient treatment when in reality they need inpatient treatment in order to be as successful as possible.

Things to Consider When Finding a Doctor

When it’s time to choose a doctor, you need to be sure that you choose someone who you feel comfortable talking to. There will be times when you will need to discuss intimate things with the doctor and if you don’t feel comfortable with him or her, you won’t be able to be as open and honest as you need to be.

It’s important to realize that the doctor isn’t there to be your friend. They are there to provide you with the support you need to get clean. When you meet with him or her, you need to feel like you can trust them enough to talk to them about important things, but you shouldn’t expect them to talk to you like you are best friends. They aren’t required to sugar coat things with you or try to be delicate with you. Tough love is often the best approach when it comes to addiction treatment and having a doctor that is persistent, confident and trustworthy is going to be far more beneficial for you in the long run.

Conclusion

Only you can really choose to make a change in your life. Nearly half of the people who get clean from drugs end up relapsing because they don’t take the time to treat their mental addiction to drugs. You aren’t just addicted to the way that the drugs make you physically more than likely. You will need to go for continuing treatment long after you are no longer physically addicted to the drugs. You want to be sure that you create a support system that allows you to talk about the way that you are feeling and provides you with advice when tough issues arise in your life. Being able to take suboxone will make physical addiction easier to overcome, but the long-term effects of drug addiction require intense mental and emotional care.

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Many people make the mistake of assuming that a pregnant woman can stop using drugs the second she finds out that she is pregnant because a maternal instinct takes over and her body automatically no longer craves the drugs she is addicted to. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. It’s important to learn about suboxone and pregnancy.

There are many women who try to stop using drugs but aren’t successful with their efforts because their addiction is too strong. When this happens, babies can be born addicted to the drugs and the mother will need to go through treatment in order to be able to overcome her addiction. Suboxone is often used to help make battling an addiction easier.

Below is some useful information to know if you are battling an addiction and want to use suboxone while you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Suboxone and Pregnancy: About the Medication

Suboxone is a controlled substance that must be prescribed by a medical professional. It contains Buprenorphine and Naloxone. The Buprenorphine helps to reduce an addict’s urge to use, while the Naloxone reverses the effects the opioids cause.

When the two are taken together, they help to minimize or even prevent the withdrawal symptoms that are common when detoxing from opiates. Buprenorphine is classified as a Category C medication by the FDA because of the chances of their being adverse effects from taking it.

It’s ideal for anyone who has wanted to quit using opioids but hasn’t been able to overcome the addiction on their own.

Studies About Suboxone and Pregnancy

Many people avoid taking suboxone while they are because they fear that it will have an adverse effect on their baby’s development or cause mental defects. If you do drugs while you are pregnant, the chances of your baby having something developmentally wrong with them are very high.

Studies have shown that babies who were exposed to suboxone while they were in the who had no significant differences when tested from babies who were not exposed to it. There are cases where babies who were exposed to suboxone neonatally did go through neonatal withdrawal though.

Neonatal withdrawal typically becomes obvious within up to eight days of birth. Some infants suffer from neonatal agitation, tremors, seizures, respiratory depression, bradycardia, apnea and more. Doctors closely monitor any babies who are going through neonatal withdrawal to make sure that they are given the care that they need.

Many babies who are suffering from withdrawal symptoms do stay in the hospital longer than infants who are not going through withdrawal because they need to be monitored so closely.

Suboxone and Breastfeeding

Studies have shown that breastfeeding is of the best ways to provide your baby with the nutrients that they need early in life. It’s important to ensure that your diet is safe for your baby. Mothers who are taking suboxone to overcome addiction are often fearful to breastfeed while they take the medication because they are worried that it will cause adverse side effects for their breastfeeding children. It’s important to know that suboxone is ingested through breast milk.

Less than 1 percent of the dose that the mother takes is passed through her breastmilk though. It’s important to monitor your baby closely when you are breastfeeding and taking suboxone though. You want to be sure that he or she is eating well, gaining weight, not lethargic and not sleeping constantly.

If you notice any of these symptoms, you should talk to your doctor right away.  Suboxone doesn’t inhibit to lactate either. You can still produce the same amount of milk when you take suboxone as you would if you didn’t take it. Freezing the breastmilk is also safe when you are taking suboxone. The suboxone will not become more potent from being frozen.

Please Discuss Suboxone and Pregnancy with Your Doctor

Suboxone has been shown to be very beneficial for many pregnant or breastfeeding mothers because it helps them regain control of their life and be the best mother that they can. It’s important to talk to your doctor about your particular situation so that he or she can help you develop a plan for overcoming your addiction.

You want to be sure that you talk about any worries that you have and discuss what side effects are possible so that you can make an informed decision about if suboxone treatment is right for you.

Once you start using suboxone to treat your opioids addiction, it’s important to take the medication as prescribed. If you are fearful that you may take it improperly, you may want to try to enroll you in an inpatient treatment program so that you can get the help you need to stay on track and reach your overall goal of sobriety.

You cannot stop breastfeeding abruptly while you are taking suboxone. Even though Suboxone is ingested in such small amounts by your infant, stopping abruptly could cause the baby to go into withdrawal and experience symptoms that you don’t want them to experience.

If you feel that you are ready to stop using suboxone or that it is time to stop breastfeeding your little one, talk to your doctor about the situation.

He or she can help you learn how to wean your little one from breastmilk in a safe way or walk you through the process of how to minimize the doses of suboxone that you are taking over time so that you and the baby can slowly stop taking it.

If Suboxone Can Help You, There is No Need to Be Ashamed

Living with a drug addiction can be very difficult. Trying to take care of a baby and overcome drug addiction can be even harder. Getting professional help for an opioid addiction while pregnant or after having a baby can help you to provide yourself and your baby with the life that you both truly deserve.

It’s best to find out what options are available to you as quickly as you can. The longer you take drugs while you are pregnant or breastfeeding, the more damage you could be causing to your little one. The long-term side effects of infant exposure to opioids can be severe and life changing so getting help right away could save your baby from a lifetime of complications.

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Heroin withdrawal symptoms are an agonizing ordeal–if you try to handle them by yourself, that is. If you’re willing to accept the help of others, your withdrawal period will be far more bearable and how long does it take to sober up.

If you’re wondering where to start, we can help. We’ve listed the 3 major tips for managing heroin withdrawal in detail below. Specifically, it’s a list of all the help you’ll need when recovering from a heroin addiction.

You may disagree with these steps or have your own ideas of how you’d like your treatment to go. But isn’t going it alone what got you into this in the first place?

If you truly want a successful recovery, it begins with giving up control and relying on others. Start by seeking the help you need according to this list.

1. Get Professional Help

The first thing you must do to get clean is to get an assessment by drug rehab professionals. Licensed medical professionals who specialize in drug rehab are the only ones who can prescribe a proper withdrawal management strategy.

They’ll describe your various treatment options, their predicted rates of success, and which strategies are best for your situation.

Outpatient Care

Even if you’re set on detoxing at home rather than an inpatient setting, you must still go in for an intake assessment. There you can negotiate a personalized treatment plan with the doctor.

Further, you must keep medical professionals in the loop regardless of if you decide to detox at home. You’ll still need their ongoing help as you voyage the uncharted waters of life without heroin.

Rehab professionals will track the treatment’s success, monitor your mental and physical health, and assess your fluctuating needs during this life readjustment.

Inpatient Care

It’s always best to detox in an inpatient setting.

Inpatient care provides the cleanest, safest environment for detox. You’ll have no heroin available during inpatient care so there’s no chance of relapse while detoxing. You’ll have a much higher chance of a successful detox in a professionally controlled inpatient setting.

If you do need anything at all during your debilitating withdrawal period, it will be provided for you. You’ll be offered medication that can relieve your physical symptoms and cravings. And you’ll be provided expert counseling or therapy for mental or mood-related symptoms.

Most of all, this makes inpatient care your safest option. If the mental or physical symptoms of heroin withdrawal put you in any kind of physical danger, the surrounding doctors and healthcare professionals will immediately come to your aid.

Ongoing Treatment

By checking into a rehab center, you acquire a team of dedicated health professionals who will monitor the progress of your treatment and offer personalized assistance through the entire process.

Most importantly, full recovery from heroin addiction takes more than detox treatment. That’s only the first week. Learning how to cope without heroin and how to prevent relapse may require additional treatment for months or years to come.

After detox, you’ll likely need training on coping strategies through cognitive behavioral therapy or other psychotherapeutic treatment. You may also benefit from long-term medication-assisted treatment with drugs like methadone or naltrexone. And most recovering addicts enjoy the understanding and encouragement that comes from engaging with a support group.

Checking into a rehab clinic links you to all the services you’ll need for ongoing recovery treatment.

2. Get Support

As we’ve just pointed out, heroin detox should never be managed alone. And, in addition to medical professionals, it’s also important to get support from more personal relationships.

When you know someone cares about you personally, you truly believe they want what’s best for you. Because of this, you’ll care about their feelings as well.

The support of such a person during your recovery adds meaning and significance to this struggle. Their love and compassion will carry more weight than the impersonal words of your physician.

Friends and Family

Ideally, the deep personal connections you’ve already made (i.e., friends and family) are the best choice for personal recovery support. Unfortunately, a history of drug abuse often makes this problematic.

It’s very often that one’s drug abuse habits have a hurtful impact on one’s family. An addict may steal from their family to pay for a fix.

They may lie to their family and say they’ve cleaned up and need a place to stay. Then they continue the abuse and bring their dangerous habit with them into the home.

Such family relationships may be too damaged for the time being to offer appropriate detox support.

Any of your friends who are still abusing heroin or other drugs are also not a suitable choice for personal support. Even if they’ve already cleaned up or are receiving detox at the same time you are, your memories of past drug use with this person can trigger cravings and make staying clean more difficult.

Like it or not, this person is now automatically associated with your past drug abuse habits in your mind. Seeing them during detox or other early stages of your recovery may make things more challenging.

But if you do have any sober friends and family you’ve never used with before, and they’re willing, invite them to support you.

Support Group

If you know no one who fits the above description, there’s still hope.

Narcotics Anonymous and other support groups like it exist to help recovering addicts make new relationships that can support them. And since the members of these groups share your struggle, they may be more understanding than any of your friends or family anyway.

You will all help each other and share genuine care and compassion for one another. Together, you will belong to something significant, something even bigger than your own recovery. And that’s a big deal.

3. Assess Co-Occurring Disorders

Here’s another reason why professional help is essential to the success of your recovery. And it’s one that’s far too often overlooked.

When receiving your intake assessment, the doctors may discover an underlying mental health disorder co-occurring with your heroin addiction. This phenomenon is usually referred to as a dual diagnosis. And knowledge of any such co-occurring disorders is crucial in providing you effective treatment.

For one thing, the underlying mental health disorder could be the main reason you were self-medicating with heroin. The separate conditions of a dual diagnosis both feed off of and strengthen each other in this way.

If the addiction is treated while the other disorder remains untreated, any progress you make in addiction recovery is unlikely to last. The other condition will continue to cause cravings to self-medicate and usually result in relapse.

Secondly, certain heroin withdrawal treatments could negatively affect the other condition.

If you have or suspect you have any co-occurring disorder, make sure you get co-occurring treatment for it as well. Talk to your rehab doctor about dual diagnosis treatment.

Get Help For Heroin Withdrawal

Maybe you can detox without help. But why would you? Why wouldn’t you accept the help that’s offered you?

There are so many of us who want to help you. You have no reason to try and do this alone.

If you truly want to be clean, you’ll take any steps necessary to increase your chances of success. If you’re ready to quit, seek the above help for heroin withdrawal.

For related help, read your guide to understanding addiction treatment options.