Heroin addiction is a devastating disease that tears apart families and places a heavy burden on communities. Often, individuals who are struggling with addictions want to be free of them, but they lack the means to break free of drug addiction on their own. It’s essential for family members and friends to avoid turning a blind eye to the signs of addiction. There are drug treatment centers in West Palm Beach that can help your loved one, such as by providing Suboxone treatment.

Recognizing the Signs of Heroin Addiction

There are many possible signs of heroin addiction. These include physical changes you may see in your loved one. He or she may cycle through periods of euphoria, followed by periods of excessive sleepiness. Heroin addicts may display confusion, disorientation, unusual sleeping patterns, significant weight loss, and slurred speech. You might notice needle marks on your loved one’s arms or elsewhere on the body, and your loved one may frequently have a runny or itchy nose. Heroin addicts tend to lie frequently, perform poorly at work or school, and steal money and valuable items.

Understanding Enabling Behaviors

Once you’ve recognized that your loved one has been abusing heroin, it’s necessary to learn how to identify your own behaviors that enable him or her. Negative enabling behaviors are those that allow addicts to escape the consequences of their choices and actions. Because heroin addicts tend to spend all their money on drugs, they might lose their job and their home. Some examples of enabling behaviors include giving the addict money and a place to stay. Another enabling behavior is bailing a loved one out of jail after the addiction results in a criminal charge.

Directing Your Loved One to a Treatment Center

Let your loved one know that although you won’t enable his or her behavior, you will provide your ongoing support if he or she seeks treatment. Take the initiative to research drug detox clinics in your area and help your loved one understand that there are options beyond inpatient rehab. Many people have successfully overcome heroin addiction through outpatient Suboxone treatment. Your loved one may be more willing to try treatment if it doesn’t involve becoming an inpatient.

Suboxone treatment in West Palm Beach is frequently recommended over methadone for opiate detox. Suboxone has been proven to be highly effective in helping patients overcome painful and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. If you or a loved one is addicted to heroin or prescription pills, suboxone can ensure your comfort without producing the risky “high” associated with methadone. If you do not want to take any chances with your drug addiction recovery, choose suboxone. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of suboxone over methadone, including that it ensures safe recovery, alleviates painful symptoms, and removes the addictive high.

Ensures Safe Recovery

One of the biggest benefits of suboxone treatment is that it is guaranteed to be safe. While no one who is addicted to heroin or prescription medications ever plans to use again, relapses do happen. With suboxone, it is highly unlikely that a patient will overdose, even if he or she does use a street drug during treatment. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about methadone, which patients can overdose on.

Alleviates Painful Symptoms

Suboxone is also preferred to methadone because it is proven to be effective in alleviating painful withdrawal symptoms. Drug addiction wreaks havoc on the addict’s mind and body. That is why drug detox can be excruciating and exhausting, both physically and psychologically. With suboxone, you can get relief from your symptoms without having to visit a clinic every single day. You only need a single prescription, which means you can accomplish drug detox as an easy outpatient process.

Removes Addictive High

Suboxone is preferred to methadone because it is not accompanied by a euphoric high. When patients drug detox with methadone, they can expect to feel similar effects to when they use heroin. Of course, a methadone high is far milder. Nevertheless, methadone can itself be addictive. Suboxone focuses on easing detox symptoms and provides no high at all. When patients are finished with treatment, they will feel no urge to return to suboxone—or to heroin.

If you or a loved one has an opiate addiction, you might be considering treatment with Suboxone in West Palm Beach. Suboxone treatment is an incredibly safe and effective form of opiate detox that manages opioid withdrawal symptoms, and reduces the likelihood of a relapse. Here is a look at the primary benefits of medication-assisted Suboxone treatment for opiate addiction.

Provides a Gradual Opiate Detox

When Suboxone treatment is provided in a drug treatment center under the supervision of a doctor and substance abuse counselor, it allows the patient to gradually wean himself off of opiates. This increases the likelihood that addiction recovery will be successful and long term, as studies have shown that patients who undergo rapid opiate detox are more likely to retain drug dependence and begin abusing opiates again. A more gradual opiate detox also gives the patient more time to work with his substance abuse counselor on an addiction recovery program.

Lessens Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms and Cravings

The symptoms of opiate withdrawal can be incredibly uncomfortable, and often cause people to begin using again in order to eliminate withdrawal symptoms. Suboxone treatment lessens opiate withdrawal symptoms, allowing the patient to focus fully on addiction recovery. The common symptoms of opiate withdrawal, such as depression, insomnia, fatigue, muscle pain, agitation, anxiety, vomiting, and diarrhea, can quickly discourage a patient from continuing with treatment at a substance abuse treatment center. Without Suboxone treatment, the risk of relapse is much higher. Suboxone treatment also reduces opiate cravings, which further increases the chances that a patient’s recovery will be successful and that he won’t experience a relapse.

Allows for Productivity in Daily Life

Because Suboxone treatment limits opiate withdrawal symptoms and cravings, it allows patients to maintain productivity in their daily lives. Rapid opiate detox is often an inpatient procedure at a drug treatment center, and patients will have to remain in treatment for a set period of time. Suboxone can be administered on an outpatient basis, and patients will be able to maintain a job and family life while in drug treatment.