PHP for Heroin Treatment: Are you a Candidate?

What is a Partial Hospitalization Program?

Partial Hospitalization Programs are often a good choice in detoxing and recovering from heroin addiction as well as other addictions. In partial hospitalization, unlike starting in residential treatment or going through intensive outpatient care, you spend a lot of your time detoxing from heroin and any other addictive substances in your body.

Detoxification is necessary. These drugs cannot just stay in your body. They are making you sick. Our residential treatment is almost always only after the partial hospitalization detox. Some information on our partial hospitalization treatment program can be found here.

The First Step of PHP: Detox

The first step of detoxification from heroin includes medical tapering. In medical tapering drugs such as methadone are used to gradually wean the patient off heroin. This takes some time. The average length of detoxification is nine to fourteen days.

The first stage of heroin detoxification occurs six to twelve hours after your last dose of heroin, the peak of detoxification occurs after one to three days, and then symptoms subside for about a week until detoxification is over. Proper detoxification can lessen the chances of relapse and helps the patient feel less of the withdrawal side effects.

Please do not try to detoxify your body from heroin on your own without proper medical supervision. It can be deadly. Attempting to taper off of heroin at home can lead to the temptation to mix different recovery drugs that might be available whether they are legal or illegal. This is very dangerous. Drug interactions can be very bad even in the most innocent situations like trying to boost your anti-depressants with ‘natural’ remedies like Saint John’s wort.

Many people addicted to drugs have underlying medical conditions like mental health conditions making the chance of bad reactions to mixed medications very likely. Especially if they are already taking any medication to control their symptoms. If your medication is not out of your system it could cause a reaction even if you are not currently taking your prescribed medication.

Here at DreamLife Recovery, we believe in healing the whole person. This includes mental wellness programs as part of our therapy. Drug abuse is often, but not always, linked to emotional trauma, and/or mental illness.

Mental illness is not a sign of weakness and there are many successful people who deal with mental illness like John Nash who has done great things. Robert Downy Junior, the famous actor, has struggled with addiction. Addiction nearly ruined his career until he recovered, committed to sobriety after rehab, and went through drug rehabilitation and treatment.

You can still go on to do great things. This doesn’t have to be the end.  Treatment like ours sets you up for success in the future. Let us help you find help here.

Medical Tapering: Understanding the Treatment

One of the most helpful medications used to combat detoxification symptoms is methadone. Methadone is not available at a physician’s office. Its use is highly regulated, and it can only be legally obtained and distributed by certain medical professionals with a special allowance to use it in their practice. However, it can be distributed in hospitals as well.

Here at DreamLife Recovery, we are certified to use both methadone and naltrexone in our clinic. Naltrexone is different than methadone. Methadone lessens painful symptom withdrawal from heroin and blocks the euphoric effects of heroin. Naltrexone competes with heroin for use of the parts of the brain that heroin stimulates. Because of that, it crowds out the pleasurable effects of heroin. Therefore, heroin cannot activate the brain to feel pleasure because it is crowded out by the Naltrexone.

A Deeper Look at Withdrawals from Heroin

People going through even supervised detoxification go through negative symptoms as the drugs leave their bodies. Here at DreamLife Recovery we help lessen your suffering. Some side effect of detoxification are:

•    Drug cravings

•    Trouble concentrating

•    Tremors

•    Sweats 

•    Abdominal cramps

•    Difficulty feeling pleasure

These symptoms don’t have to be as bad as they sound. Some people have likened it to the symptoms of a very bad flu. Here at DreamLife, as stated earlier, we help your process and recovery with methadone and other tapering medications to make the process of detoxification easier.

What to Expect After You Make the First Step Towards Recovery

Here are the steps once you reach the admissions stage at the start of your commitment to recovery.

•    Admissions

This seems like a scary process. Your weight, height, and gender are all taken into measured and recorded so that DreamLife can assess the proper amount of medication to give you to start you tapering off of drugs. We do all that we can at DreamLife Recovery to make you feel more at home and keep you calm and confident.

•    Medical Care

In our Partial Hospitalization Program, we monitor you around the clock for your safety and comfort. Our trained staff is very responsive, and we care about you and your needs

•    You are Introduced into a Group Setting

We place you in a community of individuals who are also on their path to recovery. Recovery doesn’t have to be a lonely road

We Offer a Plan for Healing

Often addiction will drive a wedge between the victim of addiction and their loved ones. This wedge can be started with undiagnosed mental illness. People want to understand you. We care.  We offer family counseling as well as individual and group counseling to bring families back together and help the family as a whole heal from the effects of addiction. Our heroin addiction treatment program is ready for your next step, you don’t have to do this alone.

You can get in contact with us by calling us at: (844) 402-3592 or contact us here.

Reference:

https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/combine/faqs.htm

https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/63091/which-patients-partial-hospitalization