Heroine Detox: What Does Heroin Detox Look Like?

If you have just found out that a family member is addicted to heroin, you are having a lot of conflicting emotions. There is surprise, anger, shock, frustration and confusion. Truly the people closest are the last ones to recognize what has been right in front of them for years. As he or she gets clean, you need to understand what is happening physically. Detoxification can look really scary and understanding what the symptoms are and how the process works will give you the strength you need to be a part of the recovery process.

First, these symptoms can also describe other opiate withdrawals. Drugs like morphine and oxycodone are basically opiates so their detox will look similar. The average heroin detox begins about 12 hours after the last dose was administered. The time needed to fully flush the drug from the system is 5 days. This is much shorter than many other drugs, most notably alcohol, which has a 4-6 week detox time frame.

Many people want to try home heroin detox. While that is understandable, you as a concerned loved one, should do your best to get them to a clinic or drug treatment center. Some of the heroin withdrawal symptoms are not life threatening but they are messy and if prolonged could become dangerous. Some of the symptoms are: vomiting, diarrhea and fever. That sounds like a case of the stomach flu, right? How can that be dangerous? Well, if your loved one has an history of heart disease, the increased pulse and blood pressure that happens during detox could be worrisome. Of if there is the possibility of HIV, the fever and dehydration are serious concerns.

If the addict is not in good health, perhaps he or she has been on the street for awhile, the detox should happen in a medical facility. The danger of HIV, hepatitis and abscesses is going to be very high, so having medical care is paramount. In addition, the detox is going to cause any old injuries to flare up. People experience back aches, tooth aches and worse during the withdrawal.

Of course all of these conditions can be treated with medicines, and that is great news. Everything that can be done to make the detoxification easy should be done. We hope that he or she is only going to have to detox once and then be able to stay clean going forward. It is scary to face the fact of addiction, but once the detox has happened, true recovery is possible. Then you both have the rest of your lives ahead of you to enjoy, drug-free.

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