In a typical year, millions of Americans misuse an opioid substance. Some of these people take heroin or another illegal drug. However, the vast majority take prescription opioid medication. Opioid misuse can easily lead to opioid addiction. This is true no matter the particular substance you take. To recover from addiction, you first need help from an opioid detox program. This kind of program has multiple benefits. Included among those is effective support as you go through opioid withdrawal.
Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms at the Start of Detox
When you start to withdraw from opioids, you are not exposed to all potential symptoms at once. Instead, you experience symptoms associated with early withdrawal. The most common of the possible problems during this timeframe include:
- Excessive sweating
- Increased production of mucus and tears
- Uncontrolled yawning
- Achy muscle tissue
- Rising anxiousness
- Feelings of irritability or agitation
You will also likely experience worsening cravings for more opioids as withdrawal progresses.
Later-Stage Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms
Later-stage opioid withdrawal happens because it takes time for opioids to leave your system fully. Some of the common symptoms at this stage include:
- Continuation or worsening of some of your early symptoms
- Insomnia or other sleep disruptions
- Extreme opioid cravings
- Nausea with or without vomiting
- Pupil dilation
- Loose bowels or constipation
- Cramps in your abdomen
- Goose flesh
- A sense of being unusually hot or cold
- Depression
- Mood swings
- You may also feel like you have a bad case of the flu.
Factors That Affect Your Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms
Regardless of the opioid in your system, you can expect to go through early and late withdrawal. However, the timeline for these withdrawal stages varies from substance to substance. Withdrawal from some opioids begins within half a day or less after your last dose. In contrast, it can take a full two days to start withdrawing from other kinds of opioids.
A number of other factors may also have an impact on withdrawal. These factors include the length of time you’ve been using opioids. They also include the amount you usually take per dose. In addition, they include the span of time between individual doses.
How Supervised Drug Detox Helps
Drug detox provides crucial support during opioid withdrawal. As a rule, this support includes medication. The medications of choice are buprenorphine and methadone. These medications act as temporary substitutes for your opioid of abuse. You receive just enough of them to keep your withdrawal symptoms under control. They’re no longer needed when the withdrawal process comes to an end.
Another goal of detox is making sure that your health is stable at all times. Monitoring of your vital signs is standard. You may also receive nutritional support or IV fluids for dehydration.
Other forms of IV treatment may be used. One modern option in this category is NAD+ therapy. This therapy increases your supply of an essential brain chemical often depleted by addiction.
Doing so helps your brain restore some of its critical functions to normal. The result can be an easing of your discomfort during withdrawal.
Turn to Springfield Wellness Center for High-Quality Drug Detox
At Springfield Wellness, we specialize in various forms of drug and alcohol detox. That includes detoxing from opioid drugs or medications.
Our customized plans take a multi-pronged approach. You not only have access to widely used treatments for opioid withdrawal. You also have access to NAD+ therapy, which is not available through most detox providers. Our goal is to help ensure that you have every opportunity to successfully complete the withdrawal process. For more information on how we can help, call us today at 844.334.4727. You can also reach us through our online information form.