What is the easiest way to detox from opiates? While there is no such thing as an easy way to detox from opiates, some ways are definitely harder and worse than others. The key thing you must remember is that opiates will cause severe withdrawal symptoms if sudddenly stopped. The most comfortable way to detox from opiates is very slowly.
This gives the brain a chance to adjust and greatly reduces the possibility and intensity of opiate withdrawal symptoms:
- Severe fatigue
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Stomach pain
- Restless leg syndrome
- Bone, muscle and joint pain
- Headache
- Drug cravings
- Anorexia
- Insomnia
Opiate detox is painful and extremely unpleasant. Few people can stand it for long. There’s not a single opiate addict anywhere who doesn’t fear it and will do anything to avoid it. Symptoms from opiate withdrawal start somewhere between 6 to 18 hours after the last dose, peak in intensity at about the third to fifth day and then tend to diminish after that. However, these improvements happen in small increments and very slowly.
Severe weakness and insomnia can persist for months, especially with certain opiates. Withdrawal from buprenorphine, the narcotic in Suboxone, and methadone typically takes longer to appear because these are both long-acting drugs. Buprenorphine and methadone may be even harder to kick, though, because the withdrawal syndrome from both tends to last much longer. Rapid Detox There is a limit to how fast the body can adjust to opioid withdrawal, but so-called rapid detox centers claim to have a workaround to this basic fact. Rapid detox centers use an opioid-reversal drug, usually naltrexone, to strip all opioids from the brain’s mu, delta and kappa opioid receptors.
This causes an instant, full-blown withdrawal reaction that would be severe and virtually intolerable, but the rapid detox procedure attempts to get around this by placing the patient into deep sedation. It would have to be pretty deep to do any good because this kind of withdrawal would be very painful. Not only is rapid detox unsafe because of the vomiting risk while under sedation, but it makes no sense. When you awaken, you will still be in the same phase of withdrawal that you would have been in without sedation. Worse, you’ll wake up confused, nauseated and in pain. Is that better? Suboxone and Methadone There is no completely painless way to detox from opiates. It doesn’t exist, at least not yet.
However, buprenorphine comes close, and methadone comes even closer. Buprenorphine is effective for opiate withdrawal for many, if not most, people who try it. Both buprenorphine and methadone work to ease withdrawal synptoms by occupying the same brain opioid receptors that other opiates and opioids do. However, they don’t activate these receptors in exactly the same way as many other of the common opioids of abuse do, such as oxycodone and heroin. For example, buprenorphine is only a partial narcotic. It cannot fully activate the mu opioid receptor.
This limits its ability to provide a high when taken orally, and the naloxone in Suboxone will prevent any high if the drug is dissolved and injected. Methadone is a full narcotic and activates the mu receptor as completely as heroin does, but it does so so slowly that again, any euphoria is going to be both limited and unlikely. For all its limitations, and it does have many, methadone is one of the best oral anagesics ever made, and it also stops opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings in their tracks near 100 percent of the time. However, this inability to give a high is a two-edged sword. The government allows these drugs for opioid withdrawal and maintenance largely because they don’t give the user a reinforcing high. The problem with this view is that the high is exactly what opioid users want. It’s a main reason why addicts drop out of these programs or more commonly, use both their opioid or opiate of choice and the Suboxone or methadone.
Of course, these programs test for other substances, but a smart addict is way ahead of them. You can believe they’ve come up with multiple ways to avoid detection. While opiate detox isn’t easy, both Suboxone and methadone come the cloeest to being the easiest way. They’re safe when used under proper medical supervision and will effectively relieve withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings in a very high percentage of people who try them. Let us Help If you’re struggling with opiate withdrawal or would like to detox and get help, call us anytime at 833-364-0736. A professional counselor will be happy to help you find the best detox and rehab services in your area.