If you are struggling with addiction, you might ask, how long does it take to detox from heroin, and how long does heroin withdrawal last?
Anyone who has struggled with heroin addiction understands how challenging it can be to try and recover alone. Withdrawal symptoms can be overwhelming and physically dangerous. But you don’t have to try and quit cold turkey. You can get help from professionals at Total RMH.
How Does Heroin Impact the Body?
Heroin is classified as an opioid. Opioids have a substantial impact on the body, particularly the brain. Opioids are used under controlled circumstances to relieve pain and relax your body. Prescriptions might be used for pain management to treat chronic pain, or prescribed after surgery, accidents, or other medical procedures.
Opioids chemically react with opioid receptors along the nerve cells in your brain and body. When this happens, it gives you pain relief, relaxes your body, and gives you a high.
What are the Symptoms of Heroin Withdrawal?
As soon as you stop taking heroin, you can experience a wide range of withdrawal symptoms that include things like:
- Shaking
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Restlessness
- Muscle pain
- Abdominal cramping
- Nervousness
- Depression
- Cravings
- And more
These symptoms of heroin withdrawal often ebb and flow, with one or two symptoms getting much worse while the rest subside, and then those symptoms subsiding while the rest get worse. The symptoms can start within 6 hours of your last hit, and it can take up to 10 days to completely subside.
How Long Does it Take to Detox from Heroin?
How long it takes to detox depends on many factors, like how often you have used heroin, how much you usually use, your current physical and mental health, and whether you have used other drugs in conjunction with heroin.
To find an evidence-based detox program in Los Angeles, contact Total RMH today.
In general, the timeline is divided into three segments:
| Phase 1 | 6-12 hours | Symptoms begin | Nausea, abdominal pain, muscle spasms, sweating, shaking |
| Phase 2 | 1-3 days | Symptoms peak | Intense cravings, shaking, sweating, nervousness and agitation, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting |
| Phase 3 | 7-10 days | Symptoms begin to subside | Nausea, abdominal pain, muscle spasms, sweating, shaking |
Knowing answers to questions like “how long does it take to detox from heroin” can help you better anticipate your timeline.
Thankfully, there are FDA-approved medications that can be used to treat opioid addiction and manage your withdrawal symptoms.
- Opioid receptor agonists like methadone are medications that attach to the same opioid receptors in your brain, but they actually block your withdrawal symptoms, so you no longer crave heroin.
- Opioid receptor partial agonists attach to your opioid receptors and only partially activate them. Instead of being fully activated, this partial activation makes your withdrawal symptoms and cravings less severe. Some examples include buprenorphine and naloxone.
- Opioid receptor antagonists are medications that actually block any activity in the opioid receptors of your brain. These medications prevent the high from heroin and reduce cravings. Some examples include naloxone and Naltrexone.
- Adrenergic receptor agonists are medications that attach to your adrenergic receptor in the brain and help alleviate your withdrawal symptoms. Lofexidine is one example.
All of these are FDA-approved medications that have to be used at a heroin detox center. You can’t use them on your own. Thankfully you can find heroin detox programs that offer this level of support and relief.
How to Find a Heroin Detox Program in Beverly Hills, CA
Now that you have answers to questions like “how long does it take to detox from heroin” and “how long does heroin withdrawal last,” it might be time to find a heroin detox program in Beverly Hills. Because of the impacts heroin has on the mind and the body, it is crucial to find a heroin detox program that starts with medically supervised detox.
With Total RMH, you get medical supervision throughout the course of your detox. Having someone present to monitor your vitals keeps you as comfortable as possible during the process. We understand just how uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms can be, and there’s a great deal of fluctuation in terms of which withdrawal symptoms you experience, to what degree, and for how long.
Our team is not only here to facilitate a comfortable withdrawal process but to help you successfully detox and move forward into your inpatient or outpatient program, where you can learn how to manage long-term withdrawal symptoms and utilize strategic coping skills that keep you sober. Everyone deserves to live a happy, healthy life. Addiction shouldn’t cripple your future. So don’t let it.
Let Total RMH help you manage your heroin detox and withdrawal symptoms with our Los Angeles substance abuse treatment programs.