WHITE COUNTY UNITED WAY, INC.
  • home
  • Who We Are
    • Board of Trustees
    • Volunteers
    • Awareness
    • Contact Us
  • What We Do
    • Programs & Initiatives >
      • ALICE
      • Winter Programs
      • CAP
      • White County Cares
      • UCO >
        • Teen Cafes
        • recovery
        • AmeriCorps Blog
        • Workplace Resources
      • JR Board
    • Events >
      • trivia
      • Insight Symposium
      • Duck Race
  • Get Help
    • Intake Form
    • recovery
    • support groups
    • Resources >
      • families & Children >
        • Winter Programs
        • Parents Night Out
        • Boys and Girls Club
        • Girl Scouts Central Indiana
        • Sagamore Boy Scouts
        • Council on Aging and Public Transit
      • Housing & Utilities >
        • Area IV
        • Energy Assistance
        • HUD Section 8
        • Homeless Services
        • YWCA DVIPP
      • Nutrition & Healthcare >
        • Family Health Clinics
        • Food Finders
        • WCFoodPantry
      • Education & Workplace >
        • Literacy Volunteers
        • Workplace Resources
  • Donate

Lynn's Notes

#15 Detox

5/31/2019

0 Comments

 
When people involved in opioid misuse are ready to stop using, they often enter into recovery/treatment/rehab.  The next few articles will discuss the stages of recovery: detox, treatment and long-term recovery.  Recovery is defined as living life without the addictive substances.  Treatment is the initial stage of that process.  With many addictive drugs including opioids, the first step is detox.
Once a person has developed physical dependence/addiction to opioids, stopping opioids will cause a condition called withdrawal. Some people compare substance withdrawal to ‘the worst flu in your life’ but that does not accurately captures the agony, depression, hopelessness, pain and despair. Symptoms start with anxiety, yawning, sweating, eyes tearing, goosebumps, runny nose, and  hot/cold flashes, the progress to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, and may even include hallucinations, delirium, seizures,  altered sensory perceptions, psychosis, suicidal thoughts and more. Specific symptoms and severity differ for each individual. But, withdrawal and fear of withdrawal are definitely reasons why some people continue to use opioids despite wanting to stop. https://www.smartrecovery.org
Detox is the process of ridding the body of the addictive substances.  It is painful and can be dangerous. The purpose of detox is to safely manage the withdrawal symptoms and stabilize the individual to proceed to further treatment. 
Detox looks different depending on the drug used.  Benzodiazepines and alcohol require medical supervision to safely detox as seizures, severe dehydration and death can occur.  Detox from opioids is generally not life-threatening, but the anguish and misery of the symptoms make it difficult to do ‘cold turkey.’ Under medical supervision, the worst of the symptoms can be minimized.
Detox can take days, weeks, or months depending the substance used, length of use, severity of the addiction and underlying medical conditions.  Even after the physical withdrawal is over, psychological desire for the substance continues.  It can take up to a year for the person to recover brain function and overcome the effects of addiction. Because addiction is both psychological and physical, patients benefit from therapy and counseling to address the i changes made in the brain resulting from substance abuse. Detox alone might help the patient to stop abusing drugs and alcohol in the short term, but without follow-up care and therapy, the risk of relapse back into substance misuse increases greatly.
Travis Reider, research scholar at Johns Hopkins' Berman Institute of Bioethics, recently shared his experience of  opioid withdrawal in a Ted Talk.  He describes the physical and mental anguish of withdrawal and the struggle of getting accurate medical advice and treatment.  It is an interesting view offering insight into the difficulty of untreated withdrawal. https://www.ted.com/talks/travis_rieder_the_agony_of_opioid_withdrawal_and_what_doctors_should_tell_patients_about_it?language=en
​
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Lynn Saylor is the AmeriCorps member working with the United Against Opioid Abuse Initiative alongside the White County United Way. She is a major facilitator of the United Council on Opioids serving White County and a regular contributor to local media. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019

    Categories

    All
    Community Collaborations
    Stigma
    United Council On Opioids

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Services

Contact

Donate Now
DONATE from DAF
Copyright © 2018-2025
All rights reserved to White County United Way,
​or their original content creators.
  • home
  • Who We Are
    • Board of Trustees
    • Volunteers
    • Awareness
    • Contact Us
  • What We Do
    • Programs & Initiatives >
      • ALICE
      • Winter Programs
      • CAP
      • White County Cares
      • UCO >
        • Teen Cafes
        • recovery
        • AmeriCorps Blog
        • Workplace Resources
      • JR Board
    • Events >
      • trivia
      • Insight Symposium
      • Duck Race
  • Get Help
    • Intake Form
    • recovery
    • support groups
    • Resources >
      • families & Children >
        • Winter Programs
        • Parents Night Out
        • Boys and Girls Club
        • Girl Scouts Central Indiana
        • Sagamore Boy Scouts
        • Council on Aging and Public Transit
      • Housing & Utilities >
        • Area IV
        • Energy Assistance
        • HUD Section 8
        • Homeless Services
        • YWCA DVIPP
      • Nutrition & Healthcare >
        • Family Health Clinics
        • Food Finders
        • WCFoodPantry
      • Education & Workplace >
        • Literacy Volunteers
        • Workplace Resources
  • Donate