Residential Treatment for Heroin Addiction: A Recovery Timeline

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Recovery from heroin addiction is hard work and it can be very scary to admit that you have a problem and that you need help. What’s most important is the realization that you want help and you want to commit to sobriety. At DreamLife Recovery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we are committed to making your dream of recovery a reality through our heroin addiction treatment.

A person can easily become addicted to heroin. There have been 300 opioids death in Allegheny County alone in 2015. The numbers are slow to come out because there is no central data structure for collecting death and addiction statistics. This takes into account the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.

Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs there is. Heroin is also cheaper and easier to get than other opioids. Heroin is a schedule one drug and has no valid medical uses. Addiction is a medical problem and not a sign of weakness. Addiction is a disease. The first priority of our treatment is helping you get well.

Lets’s take a look at the timeline of recovery with residential treatment for heroin addiction.

DreamLife Recovery Admission

This can be very intimidating. You are in a new place ready to take on the biggest challenge of your life. We will be here every step of the way. After admissions, we will put you into our Detox Program. Things like taking your weight, height, and gender down might seem like just needless busy work but it will help us assess how much medication to give you during the medically assisted tapering off of heroin.

We will also need other information like your prior drug history and we need to know of any “co-occurring” conditions (medical conditions that happen occur together in a certain person like major depressive disorder and heroin addiction or OCD and heroin addiction). Please contact us to make sure you have a list of everything you need to bring to admission. 

What to Expect for Detox

You are admitted to our Detox Program where we prepare you for Medically Assisted Detox. Six to twelve hours after your last dose of heroin withdrawal symptoms will start to occur

Withdrawal symptoms include:

•    Muscle and joint pain

•    Nausea and vomiting

•    Cold Sweats

•    Insomnia

•    Diarrhea

•    Craving for heroin

These symptoms will peak between 48 and 72 hours. After that, they will start to subside. This process will take about sixteen days. After the detox program, you will move to our residential program.

Residential Treatment Program and Recovery Timeline

Our Residential Treatment Program combines holistic treatment with the best of modern medicine. During residential treatment, we will help you through our individual, group, and family counseling programs. There is where and when we will address any issues that have promoted or triggered your drug use like trauma and mental illness.

Non-Traditional Therapy:

Equine Therapy is one of the most useful holistic tools in heroin addiction recovery. The horses and patients interact with the support of our addiction recovery professionals. The responsibility and love the patients receive from the horses is a big factor in healing and recovery. Interactions with the horses can also prompt useful interactions with the mental health professionals as the patient and recovery professional work as a team to recover the emotions that the addiction victim had been losing to the drugs. At DreamLife Recovery, our horses are specially trained to be patient provide quality therapy and express love in ways that the victim of addiction can best accept at the time.

Adventure Therapy, also known as wilderness therapy, is also beneficial, especially to people who lived in urban communities. The change of space and peacefulness of the outdoors helps break the addiction victim of some of the trains of thought that were going through their minds. Our health professionals closely supervise our patients do group activities like, collect firewood and help patients rebuild things like teamwork skills to solve puzzles like pitching a tent. 

Yoga is popular around the world to align the mind-body bond. Focus on breathing and special asanas helps our patients deal with the stress of therapy and battling addictive patterns. Yoga helps a recovery patient develop inner peace. You can find out more 

After about 90 days you will be reintegrated into the world using our Aftercare Program.

Aftercare Program

In our Aftercare Program, we work with you to make sure that recovery lasts. Our aftercare heroin recovery program takes about 130 days. Before your discharge into outpatient care, we set up a strong aftercare plan which besides our established programs takes into account your needs and concerns transitioning back into your community. During our aftercare we offer these programs to help you succeed:

•    Group meetings

•    Family sessions

•    Organized social or recreational activities

•    Individual sessions

•    Drug testing

•    Case management

Heroin is a destructive drug and has long-ranging consequences. We hope that you will let us help you recover. In the end, the most important thing in recovery is you. Addiction is a medical problem. It is often a way to cope with things, like mental illness, that can seem like much more than what one person can handle. Drugs are not the answer. You are. You are enough.

During your whole course of treatment for heroin addiction, we monitor your progress and make changes to your regime as needed. We do not put you in a single serving plan where you are just seen as another patient to be milled through. We care about you and we want to see you succeed. There is no quick fix to this. A run through a detox program and then immediate and complete discharge without any outpatient treatment will almost always lead to relapse. 

Addiction is one of the most formattable and diverse problems in the medical world. Here at Dreamlife Recovery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania we are specially educated, trained, and highly motivated to find your cure. Every person is unique and our program adapts to meet your mental, addiction, and family support needs. 

References:

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2017/05/this_is_the_high_cost_of_opioi.html

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