Rehab can help you build your support network – a vital thing in recovery.

5 Benefits of Opiate Rehab

Heroin and prescription pain pills rank second only to alcohol in the number of people addicted to these substances. The availability of opiates in both legal and illegal markets has opened up an easy access means for feeding an opiate addiction.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, opiates disrupt nerve signal transmissions throughout the central nervous system, which accounts for their pain-relieving properties. This mechanism of action can cause considerable damage within a relatively short period of time.

Opiate addicts well know the types of effects this type of damage brings. In addition to the widespread deterioration of brain and body functions, opiate addictions strip away at most every aspect of a person’s life. Opiate rehab programs specialize in helping addicts overcome the effects of long-term opiate use.

Without needed opiate rehab treatment, many addicts remain at the mercy of opiate’s effects. For those thinking about getting help, here are five benefits of opiate rehab to consider –

1. Physical Health Benefits

Opiates act as central nervous system depressants, which easily slow down cognitive, digestive, cardiovascular and respiratory processes. Opiate effects on digestive processes in particular work against the body’s ability to properly digest food nutrients.

Over time, the body reaches a malnourished state due to the lack of nutrients supplied to muscle and tissue materials. Under these conditions, a person becomes more prone to sickness and can even develop chronic medical conditions. Through opiate rehab treatment, recovering addicts can maintain long-term abstinence, which greatly enhances their overall physical health.

2. Psychological Health Benefits

Opiate addiction become ingrained once a person develops a psychological dependency on the drug. This type of dependency affects a person’s drive, motivation and priorities. After so long, addicts create an addiction lifestyle that centers around drug use.

Through opiate rehab, recovering addicts work through the underlying issues that drive addictive behaviors, while developing healthy coping strategies for managing daily life stressors. Over time, a person sees improvements in his or her outlook on life and relationships with others.

3. Support Network

A big part of the opiate rehab process centers on the importance of building a health support network. As the addiction lifestyle brings with it its own set of like-minded friends and associates, it becomes especially important to develop a support network made up of like-minded, recovery-focused people. Over time, a healthy support network takes on increasing importance as a person progresses through the recovery process.

4. Managing Drug Cravings

For chronic opiate addicts, drug cravings may persist long into the recovery process, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. For many, ongoing cravings can increase the likelihood of relapse and continued drug use. Opiate rehab programs administer medication therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine to help reduce the severity of drug cravings over the long-term.

5. Reduced Withdrawal Effects

Much like persistent drug cravings, people coming off long-term addictions may well have to deal ongoing withdrawal effects for months and even years into recovery. The medication therapies made available through opiate rehab work to reduce or eliminate persistent withdrawal effects. In the process, recovering addicts are better able to take an active role in the recovery process.