Heroin addiction

Heroin addiction is a very serious addiction that has a high rate of mortality. There are many severe health concerns that coincide with heroin addiction, including the worst, fatal overdose, as well as collapsed veins, from injecting heroin, AIDS disease, from unprotected sex and sharing needles with many other people who have heroin addictions, and hepatitis, from needles and unprotected sex as well. A person who has a heroin addiction, when asked about the feelings that heroin gives them, usually will say that the immediate feelings of the drug give a sense of euphoria, causes a feeling of heaviness in the limbs, dry mouth, and sporadic exchanges of felling sleepy, and then feeling alert. Heroin acts as a depressant on the central nervous system, which then causes the body to experience lowered mental capabilities.

When a person who has had a heroin addiction for an extended period of time continues to use, there are detrimental long-term effects will begin to set in. These long-term effects associated with heroin addiction can include, collapsed veins, cellulites, which are bacterial skin infections, an infection in the heart lining and valves, liver disease, and abscesses, which are pockets filled with pus inside infected tissue. Pneumonia is also a complication linked to heroin addiction that can occur due to bad health resulting from a weakened immune system, or continued depression on the person with a heroin addiction’s respiratory system.

The drug heroin is considered to be not only a psychologically addictive drug but a physically addictive substance as well. When a person who has a heroin addiction stops using heroin, either by choice or force, they will immediately begin to feel the onset of painful withdrawal symptoms that usually include anything from nausea and depression to convulsions, increased heat rate, and even heart attacks. While the person who has a heroin addiction usually uses heroin to feel good and to lift up their spirit and feelings toward life and others in order to get them through the day, continuing this detrimental behavior will, without a doubt, lead to an increased tolerance of the drug, and a heightened heroin addiction. This higher tolerance for heroin makes the heroin addiction and the dependence on the heroin even more dangerous for the user, as its effects become more prominent, and the warning signs will often begin to appear more noticeable to family, friends, and other close ones around them. There are some important warning signs of heroin addiction to look for that anyone should know who knows someone suspected of having a heroin addiction.

Some of those signs include, but are not limited to:

- falling asleep at abnormal times, sometimes mid-conversation
- wearing long shirts or pants at inappropriate times to cover up track marks left by injection
- syringes used for injection
- burnt spoons used to melt the powder into injection form
- razor blades, rolled up dollars or other tubes used to snort heroin
- baggies with a powder residue,
- unused balloons tied off, which are used to transport the heroin
- tourniquets used to tie off blood flow to inject the heroin

Even though there are so many different drug treatment centers and programs offered all over the world for heroin addictions, even if they successfully succeed at completing the rehab program, there is still always that very real possibility for relapse for anyone who has ever been addicted to any drug, particularly those who have ever had a heroin addiction. Relapse prevention programs were created as a part of the rehabilitation therapy at many drug rehab centers, and some of the relapse prevention programs even extend longer, even after the patient has left the drug treatment facility. These programs were created to give those with heroin addictions and other drug and alcohol addictions more tools and ammunitions to prepare themselves for the temptation to use again, and the ability to successfully fight it once they return to their lives on their own.

Through studies and experiments, experts have recognized a pattern of certain life situations and psychosocial factors that they have determined can be linked to increasing the likelihood or risk of a relapse of someone with a heroin addiction. Some of these factors include:

• Mental stress or anguish – Many doctors believe that stress is the leading predictor of heroin addiction, as well as other drug addiction relapse. It’s been identified that in opiate addicts, those with high stress levels were strongly predictive to continue to use drugs. There have also been studies done on animals that have confirmed the idea that heightened stress, anxiety, or pressure can lead to a relapse of the behaviors of the previous heroin addiction, or other drug addiction.

• Negative emotional states, such as depression

• Interpersonal problems

• A lack of support from family or friends, or simply a lack of family or friends

• Underdeveloped coping skills or problem solving abilities

• Loss of the desire to stay sober, or giving up

There is really no clear cut way to determine how likely it is for someone with a heroin addiction to relapse, or someone with another type of addiction. What is known is that any one of the above factors listed, or a combination of them, have the potential to cause, or lead to the start of a relapse. It’s important that if you know anyone with a heroin addiction or any type of addiction that you remember that they need your support.

Let them know that you are always there for them and that you care whether or not they beat the heroin addiction and choose to stay sober. Knowing that they’re not alone can really make a difference, because a drug rehab center alone may not be enough.