11 Incentives to Get Heroin Detox Now

Heroin addiction may not be as widespread as addictions to other substances like alcohol or prescription medications today, but one in four deaths from overdose are due to this dangerous drug. Rates of heroin use have been rising over the past decade; a SAMHSA report on heroin use in the United States showed that on any given day, approximately 460 Americans try heroin for the first time. Considering how highly addictive heroin is, and how dangerous heroin use is, the more people who try the drug, the more heroin overdose fatalities the U.S. will have to suffer.

Don’t let yourself become another number to add to the death toll; get a heroin detox now, and you will not only save your life, you’ll improve it in ways you haven’t even imagined.

This article will present you with 11 reasons to get a heroin detox now, followed by advice on how to find the best detox treatment for you. The sooner you start to recover from addiction, the better off you’ll be.

How long does it take to detox from heroin?

Detoxing from heroin is not easy, but the withdrawal symptoms don’t last forever, and once detox is over, if you go on to receive quality addiction treatment, you won’t have to endure it again.

So how long does it take to detox from heroin? The short answer is between ten days and two weeks, with the worst part occurring in the first few days. But let’s take a closer look at what happens while you are detoxing from heroin.

Six to 12 hours since last dose:

Withdrawal symptoms begin, usually with muscle aches, insomnia, runny nose, watery eyes, agitation and restlessness.

One to three days since last dose:

More withdrawal symptoms appear, increasing in intensity as time goes on. The most common withdrawal symptoms experienced during heroin detox are: intense drug cravings, mood swings, depression, anxiety, fear (especially fear of withdrawal), stomach cramps, diarrhea, sweating, chills, fever, joint pain, tremor, muscle spasms, nausea, vomiting, and elevated heart rate and blood pressure.

Three to five days since last dose:

Withdrawal symptoms peak between three and five days after the last time you used heroin. This is the worst part, so if you can get past this phase, you’ll know that you have it in you to conquer the rest of your withdrawal. Very few people are able to get through heroin detox without the help of medications, however, so your best chance of success is to check into a medical detox center for a professionally guided and monitored detoxification. This will also safeguard your health against any medical complications that could develop during withdrawal.

Five to ten days after last dose:

The heroin withdrawal symptoms are greatly reduced, and drug cravings are far less severe. With a medical detox, almost all of the withdrawal symptoms should be over in ten days to two weeks at the most.

Ten days and beyond:

Some patients do continue to experience certain symptoms, such as anxiety, insomnia, impulsivity, or depression, for months after quitting heroin, but medication and counseling can help you manage and minimize these symptoms, and the symptoms do improve over time, rising and falling, and coming and going, but gradually going away entirely.

11 Incentives to Get Heroin Detox Now

1. It will cost you less to get a month of detox treatment than it will to keep using heroin.

Let’s face it. Drug use is expensive. Not only does the heroin itself cost money, but getting into legal trouble, missing work, losing jobs, health problems, and various other things that usually go along with heroin addiction have a high financial cost as well. Don’t let the cost of treatment hold you back from getting a heroin detox. Heroin use costs more than a heroin detox, and besides, there are lots of ways to reduce the cost of detox and addiction treatment by taking advantage of insurance coverage and low or no-cost detox programs.

2. You’ll set yourself free.

It may not happen immediately after heroin detox, but sooner or later, your body and brain will get back to normal. You’ll be able to wake up in the morning and feel steady and secure and pain-free without any chemical help. You’ll be able to think about work, or going out with friends, or seeing a movie, instead of instantly craving heroin, and worrying over ways to obtain or maintain your supply. You won’t need drugs to make yourself feel okay anymore, because you’ll be able to feel that way all on your own, naturally.

3. You’ll be a better person.

Consider the many benefits of living a heroin-free life!

Addiction drives you to do all kinds of things that you never would have done if you weren’t hooked on drugs. You manipulate, you hurt people you love, you take frightening risks, and you find yourself becoming a person you don’t recognize or like. When you need drugs and you need them now, you will lie, cheat, and steal to get what you need. Getting hold of heroin or the money to buy heroin can be difficult, and when your body and brain is addicted, you can’t take the time to find safe and legal ways to earn those extra dollars, and you probably aren’t in good enough shape to handle the work, anyway. Desperation, and the chemical changes that heroin inflicts on your brain, transform you into an unlikable stranger. Heroin detox and addiction treatment will help you become a better person who can be trusted again—someone you can be proud to be.

4. You’ll have time and energy for something other than heroin.

Addiction is obsessive by nature, and being hooked on heroin means that everything in your life revolves around getting, using, and recovering from the drug. Anything that doesn’t help perpetuate your addiction gets neglected and ignored, and the hobbies and activities you used to love the most eventually fade out of your life. Heroin detox will restore your energy and free up your time so that you can start doing the things that you really want to do instead of the things that your addiction tells you to do.

5. You’ll find the clarity you need to guide your life.

Detoxing from heroin lifts the fog from your brain and allows you to start seeing what you really want. When you are no longer driven by drug use, and have the clarity of mind to see the possibilities in yourself and in the world around you, you can start dreaming dreams and setting goals. You can discover a purpose that drives you forward and gets you out of bed every day. The satisfaction you can get from progressing towards, then achieving a goal, is an incredible feeling that sticks with you, and builds up your confidence in a way that lasts.

6. You can reconnect to your family.

Drug abuse isolates you from the people you love. Sometimes you pull away because of shame, or because they try to prevent you from using heroin. Sometimes you push them away by hurting them, lying to them, and creating conflicts that are much more a result of your drug use than they are about anything real that happened between you. Addiction treatment will give you opportunities to repair these connections, heal old wounds, and start over with a healthier, more loving relationship. The unconditional love of a supportive family is a great motivation in addiction recovery, and for anything else you want to achieve in life as well.

7. You’ll be able to have quality experiences with real friends.

You probably don’t have much in common with the friends you hang out with while using heroin other than a compulsion to use heroin. And even if you’ve managed to hang onto a few genuine friendships while using heroin, it’s probably been a long time since you’ve had a really good time with them that you both enjoyed. Heroin detox and treatment can improve friendships and allow you to experience the time you spend together in a more direct and meaningful way. Addiction treatment itself can also help you make new friends who will understand what you’re going through, and who are uniquely qualified to support you in your recovery and your new, sober life.

8. You will stop exposing yourself to dangerous situations.

The heroin you can buy on the street now is not the same heroin you would have bought ten years ago. In fact, it may not even be heroin at all. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 100 times more powerful than morphine, is being mixed into all kinds of drugs to amplify the high they produce, and sometimes, like with heroin, fentanyl is replacing the drug altogether. In most areas now, you can’t buy heroin that doesn’t have at least some fentanyl mixed in, and often, what is sold as heroin is just fentanyl mixed with other substances to dilute it—no heroin included. That’s because fentanyl is very cheap, easy to make if you know how, and so potent that it would take a suitcase full of heroin to get the same number of doses that you can mail in an envelope full of fentanyl. And because there is no way to evenly mix fentanyl into heroin or other substances, you have no way of knowing if you’ll get your accustomed high when you use, or suffer a fatal overdose.

9. You’re tired.

Heroin addiction dominates and rules you. It pushes you past your breaking point and drains you down to nothing. Continuing to use heroin means continuing to be exhausted and depleted all the time. Detoxing from heroin can set you free and wake you back up to life. If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, you can change your whole life with detox and addiction treatment.

10. You will be able to regain responsibility and control of your life.

Drugs negatively impact your performance at school and work, and get in the way of you fulfilling professional and personal responsibilities. Caring for children or other loved ones who need you becomes impossible, and even if you manage to stay in school or hang onto employment, you aren’t able to progress and achieve in the ways that would move you forward to a better future. Heroin detox will not only help you become capable of fulfilling your obligations, it can help you to feel good about it, building up the self-esteem that has no doubt been decimated by drug use.

11. You will give yourself a future.

Heroin robs you of your future. It drags you down and keeps you from building the life you want. It controls you and keeps you from making and meeting goals. It damages relationships and keeps you from engaging with people and experiences. And eventually, if you continue to use, it will simply end your life altogether. Detoxing from heroin, on the other hand, is the first step to saving your life and restoring your future. Addiction treatment can renew your hope and give you the motivation to journey into a healthy, happy future that belongs to you, and not your addiction.

Find the Right Heroin Detox Program for You

At Detox.com, we have the resources to help you find convenient, affordable, effective heroin addiction treatment options. The best rehab programs should begin with a medical detox to safely see you through the withdrawal process, then follow up with counseling, behavioral therapy, and lifestyle interventions that help you discover the motivations behind your drug use and construct a new way of living that prevents relapse.

Heroin detox is the first step to a better life, and our treatment specialists can help you sort through your options to choose the best facility for your unique needs. If you’d rather start by researching facilities on your own, visit our directory, and find lists of rehab centers near you.