You are here:

Heroin Treatment

Heroin Treatment at Hope Rehab

A large proportion of the clients who come to us at Hope Rehab are seeking treatment for heroin addiction. If you, or somebody you care about, is suffering because of this type of substance abuse, we can help. We use an evidence-based approach to promote recovery from opiate abuse. We don’t claim to have any miracle cures, but the transformation many of our clients’ experience could easily be described as miraculous.

Heroin detox and why it’s important to be in a safe environment

The first step for most our clients is the Heroin/Opiate Detox which Hope specialises in and has extensive experience at administering. Our aim is to get you through with the least pain and as comfortably as possible. To a large extent we allow clients to lead their own detox regime in a timeframe that suites them. We require a minimum of two months commitment for safety reasons and sound therapeutic reasons.

By the end of the first months treatment you will start to feel healthy and have normal emotional responses. This can be challenging for someone having taken opiates for a prolonged period as heroin is a painkiller. Difficult emotions can be a trigger so it is important to be in a safe place and learn the coping skills to manage life on life’s terms.

How the Hope program supports you on the road to recovery

Heroin and opiate addiction creates chaos and destruction in everyone’s life including family and friends so a long healing process is required. Relationship and trust can be restored over time and with work.

The Hope program includes Mindfulness which helps you manage triggers and cravings and can be used to regulate difficult emotions and thoughts. Our fitness program will build your physical health back up and reintroduce a sense of satisfaction with life. In group and counselling you will address the issues that set you on a path of self-medication and self-destruction. Many of our clients identify the early trauma or struggles that have led you into this debilitation life.

What is Heroin?

Heroin (diacetylmorphine) is refined Opium or the latex sap that is collected from the poppy seed pod. First, it is broken down into basic morphine and then further concentrated into, what was branded Heroin one hundred years ago by a German pharmaceutical company. It is a white or brown powder depending on where it is sourced. There are believed to be around 9.5 million heroin users globally.

Neuroscience of Heroin Addiction

Heroin or Morphine works by binding to the brain’s receptors for endorphin, a natural pain response in the brain similar to opiates themselves. They are natural feel-good chemicals when the body is under pain or stress. However, the drug is far more powerful than our natural supply. Endorphin has another quality and in certain doses can excite and produce feelings of euphoria and a high, this is usually lost after long-term use.

In other words: Opioid drugs like heroin trigger a class of neurotransmitters, the brain’s natural opioid-like neurotransmitters, endorphin and encephalin, leading to euphoria and a desire to repeat the experience.

How heroin hijacks the brain

This increases analgesia and decreased alertness, slowing respiration. Prolonged opiate use may cause the brain to change and come to depend on the presence of the drug just to function. Then the opposite of pleasure – anxiety, irritability, and low mood happen in the absence. Immediate negative symptoms start, which are called withdrawal (see futher below).

Hijacked Brain: the human reward system is designed for survival, but hijacked by the chemical payoffs provided by heroin. The reward circuitry normally bookmarks important things: food, nurturing children, education, work and friendships. However, now it has been corrupted by heroin.

Understanding Dopamin

People with addictions are low on dopamine, causing addiction, depression, loss of satisfaction, poor focus and other symptoms. Low dopamine levels cause us to consciously and unconsciously seek out dopamine raising substances or behaviours. All substances stimulate dopamine release or increase its activity and produce the hedonic response “I like that.”

Impulse Control: STOP-GO Systems in the Brain

The dopamine pleasure pathway is the Go system, and the prefrontal cortex is the Stop system. When we anticipate and experience something good like food or sex, alcohol or drugs, our brain experiences a surge in the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

The Effects of Heroin Use

Heroin is either smoked (“chasing the dragon”) or can be sniffed, and many users progress on to injecting. The effects range from relaxing to numbing and euphoric, an escape from reality, an emotional detachment or a safe, warm bubble to hide in. In addition to these rather pleasurable sensations following effects can be experienced: A rush to the brain, drowsiness, pain suppression, slow breathing, nausea and vomiting, skin itchiness, vein collapse, blood born diseases, constricted or pinned pupils, loss of appetite.

Why stopping to use is the addict’s worst fear

The drug produces a profound sense of satisfaction for most users and is highly physically and psychologically addictive. This is because Heroin changes the brain circuitry when it is consistently used over time. However when use is stopped suddenly neural transmitters that have been suppressed start pumping brain chemistry again, and this is very uncomfortable for the addict.

Stopping is often an addict’s worst fear, this is because every addict has experienced the time when they could not get their dose and suffered forced withdrawals (cold turkey) a sense of torture and panic sets in, maybe this can explain why Heroin addicts will do almost anything for the drug.

The Risks of Heroin Use

Death is usually caused by an overdose. The reason: Too much heroin slows down the respiratory system (breathing) so much that it stops with fatal consequences unless an antidote is administered quickly. Blood Bourne Virus is also a risk factor as well as Hep C which is very common amongst injectors with HIV in second place.

Extreme behaviour change is noticeable by loved ones and family, such as lying and cheating, stealing to buy the drug, changing and losing friends, loss of interest in healthy activities, illegal activities and self-neglect.

Heroin is known by many different street names, such as:

The effective behavioral treatments available for heroin addiction are best delivered in residential settings. Approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and twelve step have been shown to effectively treat heroin addiction, especially when applied in groups.

– NIDA

Common Misunderstandings Around to How People End Up as Heroin Addicts

The way heroin is demonised in the media can lead to misunderstandings as to how people end up developing a habit. It isn’t that this drug causes people to become addicted right away that makes it so dangerous – it is the fact that it usually doesn’t. Most first-time users enjoy the pleasurable effects without developing a compulsion to use again, and this gives them the confidence to dabble in the drug as an ‘occasional user’. It is only when they wake up one morning ‘junk sick’ that they realise they have become hooked.

Play Video about Youtube video Pete

The people who are at the highest risk of becoming addicted to heroin are those who have a need to escape some type of pain in their life. This discomfort may be due to emotional trauma, or it could be due to uncontrolled anxiety or the feeling of having ‘a hole in the soul’. Heroin can feel like the perfect medicine for this pain initially, and it can take a long time before the unacceptably high cost of this relief becomes obvious.

Heroin addiction can be hard to escape, as quitting involves physical and psychological discomfort. Substance abuse also damages your self-esteem, and it can mean you feel powerless to change your life.

It transforms a tight, white fist into a gentle, brown wave… it fumigated my private hell and lay me down in its hazy pastures and a bathroom floor in Hackney embraced me like a womb.

– Russell Brand (My life without drugs, Guardian Newspaper)

How to Overcome Heroin Addiction

Before we go onto discussing heroin treatment, it might be best to get the obvious question out of the way: Do you need rehab to recover from heroin addiction? Especially if you have managed to come off heroin previously without the help of an inpatient treatment program, you may be unsure about whether you actually need this type of help now. The reality is, even making a small change in our life can be an unsustainable struggle unless we have sufficient support and access to the right resources. Giving up heroin is a major life change, and for a recovery plan to be successful, it will need to reflect this. The benefit of rehab for heroin addiction is that it not only provides you with the right environment for recovery, but it also gives you a strong foundation on which to build a better future.

The benefits of inpatient heroin addiction treatment

There are never any guarantees, but if you are sufficiently motivated, and you combine this with the right resources, you are highly likely to succeed. So, if you are serious about changing your life, you probably do need to go to rehab. The benefit of an inpatient treatment program for heroin addiction is that for a couple of months, you will be able to put all your efforts into changing your life. You will often hear people in recovery talk about how ‘half-measures availed us nothing’, but by going to rehab you will be putting all of your attention where it needs to be.

Some of the reasons why you may need rehab for heroin addiction:

Giving up heroin is the easy bit – it is staying free of the drug that is hard

In some ways, giving up heroin is the easy bit – it is staying free of this drug that is hard. This is why it is so important that you have the right tools that will allow you to build a good life away from addiction. Therefore, the goal of the program at Hope Rehab is not just to get you to stop using heroin because this only gets you back to square one. There has been a reason for why you desired the pain-relief properties of opiates, and this reason is still likely to be there when you stop. Even if you do manage to stay clean, your mental discomfort could push you towards new maladaptive behaviours such as alcoholism.

There is no hero in heroin

When I think about my own addiction, there’s one moment that will always be etched on my mind. I was in my 30s and I had been using crack and heroin for almost 20 years. I had accidently overdosed yet again. This time, I woke up alone on the kitchen floor with the syringe still hanging out of my arm. I realised how close to death I had come and if that had been the dose to kill me, my mother would have probably been the one to find me. I imagined her seeing me dead on the floor of my sad, messed-up apartment that hadn’t been cleaned for months. I knew that was something she would never be able to get over, and it filled me with fear and shame.

– Simon Mott, Co-Founder of Hope Rehab

What kind of treatment is best to achieve long-term recovery from heroin addiction?

Choosing an appropriate treatment center is going to be important now, that you are serious about breaking free of addiction. This is a precious chance for you to turn your life around, but you are going to want the right resources in order to make the most of this opportunity. As we have already mentioned above, the secret of success in recovery is to combine your full commitment to change with the most suitable resources. Entering a rehab program is definitely a step in the right direction, but it needs to be the right type of program or else you might not have access to the resources and support you need. At the very least, the rehab needs to have a good understanding of heroin addiction and the process of recovery from this drug – if the approach is too general in nature, it might just miss the mark.

Things to consider when choosing a heroin rehab:

The team at Hope Rehab Thailand understands what you need to recover from this type of addiction. Our founder, Simon Mott, not only overcame his own addiction to heroin but has also helped hundreds of other people do the same. Our treatment program is designed to get to the root or your addiction problem. During therapy, you can begin to gain insights into the distorted thought patterns that have been holding you back in life. You can then use tools from CBT to help you regain control over your thinking. Our mindfulness program provides a path towards the mental serenity you were yearning for when you began abusing heroin. You will also learn how to use the 12 steps to build a better life free from addiction.

The initial period of withdrawals is what heroin users tend to dread most when they decide to break free of the drug. These symptoms can be uncomfortable, but there is a lot that can be done to ease your transition to drug-free living. The tranquil environment here at Hope Rehab Thailand can make the process much easier, and you will be supported every step of the way. You will also be under medical supervision and treatments will be offered to ease your symptoms as required.

I entered Hope Rehab as a shell of a human being addicted to Heroin and methadone. Life had turned to shit. Each day was more painful than the last. I couldn’t hold down a job, I had no relationship to speak of with my family and the only thing my day to day life was about was scheming, lying and manipulating people to get more drugs or money for drugs. Eventually, enough was enough, and I decided I couldn’t go on living in this dysfunction. After lots of research I found Hope Rehab and decided it was time for me to sort myself out.

One week later I landed in Bangkok and started on my journey towards a better life. I learnt simple things at first, how to interact with people, how to speak with complete honesty and openness, how to listen to others and how to empathize with their personal stories. The more involved in each group I became the more I realized that I wasn’t alone. I realized these guys were onto something. I wasn’t special or alone. There were people that had been through the exact same thing as me, their circumstances may have been different, their drug of choice may have been different, but their similarities far outweighed the differences. I found strength in the support of others.

– Mark

Heroin Treatment at Hope Rehab Center Thailand

Detox

For some clients, there is a withdrawal process. Coming down – loss of sleep or sleep disruption due to unhealthy life patterns. Psychologically, Cocaine cessation can be painful for a period of time.

Counselling

You will build a healthy relationship with your counsellor and explore your life history – unearthing reasons why you use or why you can’t stop using.

Group Therapy

Here we share our painful experiences and help each other find solutions.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – short-term therapy with long-term results – helps with positive thinking.

Mindfulness

Sessions and practice help calm your thinking and relax the mind.

Fitness

We get up early and go for 40 minutes exercise to help restore health and ingrain a healthy behaviour pattern. I say “get up before your addiction wakes up”.

Assignments

The Hope Workbook is 100 pages long – full of exercises to complete in group, with your counsellor and as homework in the evenings.

Activities & Excursions

Weekend activities include many new sober fun things to do – this gives you a chance to practise having clean and sober fun.

Relapse Prevention

Relapse Prevention will raise your awareness and teach you to manage triggers and cravings.

Aftercare

We begin your aftercare plan before you leave rehab.

Twelve-step facilitation therapy is an active engagement strategy designed to increase the likelihood of a substance abuser becoming affiliated with and actively involved in 12-step self-help groups, thereby promoting abstinence. Three key ideas predominate:

(1) acceptance, which includes the realization that drug addiction is a chronic, progressive disease over which one has no control, that life has become unmanageable because of drugs, that willpower alone is insufficient to overcome the problem, and that abstinence is the only alternative;

(2) surrender, which involves giving oneself over to a higher power, accepting the fellowship and support structure of other recovering addicted individuals, and following the recovery activities laid out by the 12-step program; and

(3) active involvement in 12-step meetings and related activities. While the efficacy of 12-step programs (and 12-step facilitation) in treating alcohol dependence has been established, the research on its usefulness for other forms of substance abuse is more preliminary, but the treatment appears promising for helping drug abusers sustain recovery.

– NIDA