Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

How Does Heroin Addiction Begin & When Does it End?

The Beginning of Heroin Addiction

Heroin is highly addictive and is one of the most abused drugs in America. Not only is heroin highly addictive but it also creates rapid dependency levels to form in a person and a person’s body develops tolerance levels quickly to the drug. Due to all of these factors a person will have numerous problems occur once they begin using and abusing heroin.

Heroin is created from morphine and people who use heroin experience intense euphoria while feeling utterly sedated and relaxed. The pleasure that a person receives from heroin is the highest on their first use, which is why many people form addictions to heroin after the first use. Every use after the first use will be spent trying to receive that initial high they first felt when they took heroin.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, heroin produces intense degrees of tolerance and physical dependence in a person that are powerful motivational factors for people to compulsively use and abuse heroin. In addition, heroin abusers will begin to spend more and more time and energy obtaining and using the drug as time continues. Once a person is addicted to heroin their primary focus in life will become finding and using heroin. Heroin will change and alter their brain’s chemicals and their behavior causing numerous problems to occur.

The End of Heroin Addiction

A heroin habit is easy to start, but very, very difficult to stop.

A person’s heroin addiction will come to an end at some point and unfortunately, no matter the ending it will most likely be unpleasant. Given heroin’s highly dependent tendencies and high abuse tendency, a person coming off of heroin will have intense withdrawal symptoms that will include both physical and mental symptoms.

Different ways that a person may stop taking heroin can include…

An individual admitting themselves into a rehab or treatment program willingly
A person being arrested for using heroin, since it is illegal, and has to go through a detox in jail
A person being hospitalized due to a heroin overdose; this can cause many people to get help for their heroin addiction due to near death experiences
If a person does not get help for their addiction they may end up overdosing on the drug which can lead to death or a coma

Heroin is a dangerous drug for a person to take and especially abuse and most assuredly it will lead to a person having health problems if they do not get help for their addiction.

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Was It OK to Insist That He Receive Alcohol Treatment?

If an employer requires an employee to complete an inpatient alcohol treatment as a condition of keeping his job, does it regard him as an alcoholic? What happened. “Clark” worked for Seward County, Nebraska, from 1981 until 2005. He was a Vietnam veteran who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and took medication to control….

Drinking to death, one glass at a time

Middle-Aged drinkers are consuming alcohol at unprecedented levels, with many unaware their “social” drinking is killing them. Using increased stress as a justification for a tipple, many are downing more than three standard (100ml wine, 280ml beer) drinks each day, which can more than double their risk of diseases such as liver cirrhosis and heart….

Understanding Dual Diagnosis

When two mental disorders or illnesses occur at the same time, or in sequence, in the same person, it is known as comorbidity; when these conditions are diagnosed, it is called a dual diagnosis. Mental disorders are defined by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as “A mental condition marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of….

Cabbie reveals binge-drinking nightmare

Adelaide cabbie Avel Aretas reveals in this graphic account our city’s binge drinking nightmare: Adelaide is the Festival City, but there is one event we should not be proud of – the Adelaide Binge Drinking Festival. It is held every Friday and Saturday night and doesn’t discriminate, involving everyone from 12-year-olds to 60-year-olds, from the….

Women, are you at risk for alcohol abuse?

Most people think they know what a woman alcoholic looks like –a fall-down drunk whose life is littered with DUI convictions, or maybe the sad lush acting a fool at every office party. In truth, women struggling with alcohol often look just like everybody else. An estimated 5.3 million American women either are alcoholic or….