Something very crazy happens. If you search in search engines for different types of drugs, such as coke and heroin, you will see that there is more news about heroin than about coke. Is this drug that was very popular in the 1990s back on the scene? This drug was incredibly out, but apparently there is enough demand for it because police manage to catch dealers on a daily basis.
Do you suffer from heroin addiction? Or do you know someone who doesn't have heroin use under control (anymore)? Then read on.
What is heroin?
Heroin is a drug that is 10 to 15 percent morphine. It was once developed in 1898 as a means for people to get rid of opium addiction, but the drug proved even more addictive than opium itself. In addition, heroin was intended as a cure for tuberculosis.
Heroin is a white, gray or brown powder, depending on its quality. For most people who know heroin from movies and television series, heroin is something you inject, but you can also snort it.
If you have used the drug you may feel more extroverted, more able to communicate with other people and feel that sex is better, yet ejaculation can be a bit more difficult.
Why is heroin addictive?
Heroin is incredibly addictive. Even 1 use of heroin can cause addiction. So this is definitely not a drug to experiment with.
This is because it affects parts of the brain that also cause addiction. The receptors that signal that you are being rewarded and that cause you to feel less pain are stimulated by heroin.
People who use heroin therefore feel no pain or discomfort at all, and because the reward receptor is also affected, you also have all kinds of good memories of using it. This is why it is difficult to leave it at 1 time of experimentation.
When you are addicted to heroin, these cells in your brain become depleted, leaving you needing more each time. In addition, this drug saps your immune system, making you experience more pain when you are not under the influence, which in turn makes you want to use more.
This wrecking of the immune system also explains why heroin users are often incredibly thin and over time develop very bad and unhealthy-looking skin.
In the process, there is no need to inject heroin. The image of a stumbling heroin addict need not be true. Someone on heroin can also just play games and listen to music.
People do not necessarily have to have traces of needles poked into them.
Stages of heroin addiction
Precisely because you really don't start injecting heroin right away, addiction can creep in. According to an expert by experience, you have no idea you are addicted until you get sick the first time and only the heroin makes you feel better again.
Only then do you realize you are addicted.
The moment you start injecting heroin, you are also no longer concerned with work or other life goals you actually wanted to achieve.
How do you quit heroin addiction?
Because you become physically dependent on heroin, you can't quit all at once, like quitting smoking or other addictions.
Like alcohol addiction , it is important to stop using heroin under the supervision of a doctor. You are often given a derivative of morphine to make it easier to wean off heroin. This is very crude though if you know the genesis of heroin. It could be methadone, for example.
This is necessary because withdrawal symptoms when quitting heroin use can be very intense, such as:
- Pain
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Braken
By using a replacement drug, withdrawal symptoms are less severe and the chances of success are greater.
In addition, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is used to change expectations and beliefs about drug use. Hypnosis can play a role in this as it often enhances the effects of CBT.
In the process, CBT also gives you techniques to deal with stress in a different way than reaching for drugs.
Figuring out the problem
Drugs are generally used to escape daily reality. So there is probably a high-stress problem that has not yet been resolved.
This could be a problem such as debt building up, or it could be unprocessed trauma from the past that keeps bothering you in your sober state.
If you don't have an obvious problem, you can get regression therapy under hypnosis. With this form of therapy, you go back to a memory that created beliefs that now cause heroin to be truly irresistible.
Then you can work on steps to solve this problem. Like solving financial problems or processing a trauma so you suffer less.
Trauma processing can be done, for example, with neuro linguistic programming. The emotion associated with a traumatic memory is then disconnected. The memory does not disappear, but you deal with it differently and you no longer need to escape it.
For example, most people who use heroin suffer from:
- Fears
- Concerns
- Depressive symptoms
- ADHD
- Bipolar Disorder
In addition to the physical withdrawal symptoms, you also have to deal with all the fears and problems you started using for in 1 time. This can be a scary prospect, but CBT will provide you with tools to deal with those fears so that you suffer less without turning to drugs.
Making heroin unattractive
Another way CBT combined with hypnosis helps stop addiction is to make heroin unattractive.
Just knowing what heroin does to your body can provide this. In addition, you can receive post-hypnotic suggestions that will cause you to deal with these drugs differently.
Breaking the Ritual
Drug use often has a ritual. For example, before taking drugs, make sure you are in a pleasant environment and that people you don't want to see can't bother you.
Maybe invite friends to use drugs together and always have the same actions before the use actually begins.
These are small ritual acts that make you automatically turn to heroin at the end of the ritual.
During hypnotherapy, you can visualize and reverse this ritual. This also allows you to break this ritual at home, reducing your drug use.
Rewarding instead of punishing
Because heroin stimulates the reward system in the brain, it is important to reward yourself when you stay off heroin. Punishment creates negative feelings that actually cause you to turn back to heroin to escape those feelings.
While rewarding actually has a positive effect. You may still be in pain, but your reward system is also stimulated. With heroin, a reward may be that you get to take home methadone. In some rehabs, you also get gift certificates or other fun goodies if you manage to stay off heroin.
According to experience experts, going off heroin is not fun, but neither is going off methadone. So check for yourself whether you want to use this to support withdrawal or not. Otherwise, consult with your doctor about your options for withdrawal from heroin without methadone.
Rewarding helps long-term addictions to opiates and cocaine better than rewarding an addiction to smoking.
Talk to peers
Because heroin is an addiction that can haunt you forever, it is wise to be able to talk to peers for a long time. Then, when you are in a difficult phase of your life, they can help you cope with those problems and resist the urge to use heroin.
What happens if you don't stop?
If you don't quit heroin you will die prematurely. Because habituation occurs, most addicts end up using heroin by injecting. This increases the risk of disease if you share needles. Because your immune system is wrecked by heroin, you can literally become deathly ill from this.
Using heroin also slows your breathing and heart rate. This can cause you to die of an overdose.
Before you die and at the time you can still stop, you may also suffer from:
- Heart infections
- Skin infections
- HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C (especially if you share needles)
- Pulmonary diseases
- Miscarriages
What should you do if you think someone is using heroin?
It is not always clear if someone is using heroin. Sometimes that person can appear drowsy. If someone is using heroin, it is important to intervene immediately. The sooner treatment to stop begins, the better.
After all, you can get off heroin.
Do check with a doctor, though; withdrawal from heroin on your own is unwise and can also be deadly. Therefore, withdrawal should always be done under the supervision of a doctor so that the addict receives substitute medication.
If you think someone is overdosing on heroin, it is important to call 911 immediately. Ambulance personnel will then make sure the addict gets help as soon as possible to counteract the effects of the overdose.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and mental techniques? Then check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses or come to a playshop.
Sources:
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/heroin/what-does-heroin-look-like.html
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/what-are-treatments-heroin-addiction
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/heroin-use#1
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1306-5-unexpected-things-i-learned-from-being-heroin-addict.html
