Heroin Rehab
How our therapy can help your recovery from addiction
Getting help with your heroin addiction, or the heroin addiction of a friend or family member, can seem like a big step. But it doesn’t have to be a frightening prospect.
Our highly-qualified team have years of experience of providing effective therapeutic support and rehabilitation to people with a history of substance misuse.
We’ve compiled this guide to help you understand the risks of heroin use, and to show you how Parkland Place can help.
What is heroin addiction?
Heroin is similar in structure to a strong painkiller and has the effect of slowing down the function of the body. Heroin is highly addictive and people who use it can quickly become very dependent.
Heroin has a strong effect on the brain, causing cravings and a generating strong urge to keep on using. Over time, the body builds up a tolerance to the substance – with users having to take more and more to generate the same effect.
Eventually, dependence on heroin will require the user to continue to take the substance to feel normal and avoid very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.
Street heroin is dealt in varying strengths and is frequently compromised by other dangerous substances.
Am I addicted to heroin?
Even the smallest amount of heroin can be very dangerous.
Because heroin is often cut with other substances and is dealt at varying strengths, its effects on the body can be very unpredictable.
Heroin addicts will use the drug with increasing regularity, or take larger doses to get or attempt to sustain a high.
When used in high doses, heroin can cause a warming of the skin, a dry mouth and a heavy feeling in the arms and legs. After taking heroin, users will be drowsy for several hours, with clouded mental function. Heart rate and breathing in slowed – sometimes by enough to create a danger to life, or the threat of brain damage and coma.
If you suffer any of these symptoms after taking heroin, or if you find your heroin use is increasing in regularity or quantity then you are likely to have a problem which needs treatment.
Risks of heroin addiction
- Overdose can cause respiratory failure – leading to coma and even death.
- If you have been taking heroin regularly you may have built some tolerance, but if you then stop heroin for just for a few days, your tolerance will rapidly drop – and you risk an overdose if you simply take the high dose you previously took.
- If heroin is taken with other drugs, including alcohol, an overdose is more likely.
- Use of heroin may cause you to choke on your own vomit. Because heroin both sedates you and stops you coughing properly, any vomit will remain in your airway and prevent normal breathing.
- Injecting heroin causes damage to your bloos vessels, and has been known to lead to gangrene and infection.
- Sharing needles, syringes and other equipment involved in injecting is risky – it puts desperate people at risk of further health complications from blood-borne viruses like hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS.
- Street heroin is dealt at varying strengths and can be adulterated with other substances. It’s very difficult to predict how one batch of the drug will behave compared to another.
Getting help for heroin addiction
You may have realised that you aren’t in full control of your drug use and that it’s causing problems. The problems could be a lack of money, strained friendships, broken relationships, losing a job, or getting arrested.
If you’re concerned about the drug use of a friend or family member, a good first step is to visit your GP. They will be able to discuss the services and treatments available.
Rehab for heroin addiction
Doctors have developed a number of effective ways to treat heroin addiction. These include the initial use of opiate substitutes to replace the heroin. The most common opiate substitutes are methadone and buprenorphine.
Once you have become drug-free, other drugs can be used to block the effects of heroin – so you can’t get a high. These medical treatments are not a quick fix, and should be used to supplement the rehabilitation and recovery support needed to remain drug-free and to recover from addiction.
Your treatment at Parkland Place
Parkland Place offers unrivalled therapy for people with experience of alcohol addiction, drug addiction, gambling addiction and other harmful behavioural conditions – in the comfort of a stunning, 16-bed mansion and gardens near the coast in beautiful North Wales. The house is situated amidst farmland owned by the National Trust, and offers a welcoming and comfortable haven for your journey of recovery.
Our therapeutic programme is tailored to the needs of each of our guests, and is delivered by friendly, expert staff. This truly bespoke approach allows us to address the social and psychological needs underpinning your addiction, and support you as you make key lifestyle changes.
Guests at Parkland Place are required to be, and to remain, abstinent during their stay with us. Many of our guests require structured medical detoxification before beginning their recovery journey. We offer no-fuss access to our own dedicated detox clinic at Salus Withnell Hall – including transfers – to ensure a seamless therapeutic experience.