Drug addiction can be a complex disease that leaves a person and those they love struggling just to live a normal life. When you’re caught in the cycle of drug abuse, you can feel like there’s no way out, and it can impact all aspects of your life, including your relationships, physical and mental health and your career or school performance. Many people recognize these issues and want to quit, but drug addiction withdrawals and other factors keep them caught in the cycle.
Professional addiction treatment helps you step out of the cycle and find a viable path to a sober and healthier lifestyle in the future. Find out more below about our medical detox and drug addiction treatment options in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Drug Use in Florida
If you’re struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol in Florida, you aren’t alone. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the state has an opioid overdose death rate of 15.8 per 100,000 people, putting it around the middle of the spectrum when compared to other states in the nation. Those are just the numbers for one type of drug dependence.
Why It’s Hard to Quit Alone
Drug dependence is as much physical as it is mental in many cases. That means it’s not simply a “bad habit” you can break with willpower and positive thinking. One of the physical symptoms of drug abuse is that it can actually change the chemical makeup and functioning of your brain. Your brain and body begin to think that “high” is the normal state, and when there aren’t drugs in your system, your brain thinks something is wrong.
This is part of what leads to the withdrawal process. You stop taking drugs and your body and brain react, often in ways similar to how they might react if you were under extended stress or in extended danger. Unpleasant withdrawal symptoms occur, and this often pushes people back to using drugs.
On top of withdrawal symptoms, there are often behavioral issues that can lead someone back to drugs or alcohol even after they decide to quit. Professional drug treatment intervenes and provides solutions for these challenges.
Understanding Drug Addiction Withdrawal Symptoms
The types of withdrawal symptoms someone experiences depend on a variety of factors, including:
The type of substances they’ve
been abusing
Some drugs are more physically addicting than others. Opioid addiction, for example, can lead to severe physical withdrawal symptoms that can put someone’s life in danger.
How much is required to
get them high
If your body has built up a tolerance to a drug so that you need to take more of it to get a result, withdrawal symptoms may be stronger.
How long they’ve used the drug
Typically, the longer someone has been using a drug, the harder withdrawal symptoms may hit.
Overall health, age and other personal factors
One of the things that makes drug rehab complex is the fact that substances affect every person in a somewhat unique way. That’s true for withdrawal symptoms, too. They may be more or less challenging to deal with depending on how healthy you are, your own tolerance for discomfort and many other factors unique to you.
The type of symptoms experienced during withdrawal can include:
For example, people often report flu-like symptoms when detoxing from some drugs.
In the most severe cases, physical withdrawal symptoms can be dangerous and even life-threatening. They might include changes to blood pressure and heartbeat, problems breathing or delirium.
How Long Does Drug Withdrawal Last?
The timelines are different depending on the types of drugs you’re struggling with, how often you take them and how much you take. Typically, withdrawal symptoms can begin from a few hours after you last took a drug to a few days after.
Peak withdrawal symptoms, which are the most consistent and severe, usually occur within a few days and last less than a week or two. But symptoms can stick around for a few weeks in some cases. Symptoms might also “resurge” weeks or months later, especially those that relate to cravings for a particular substance. This is one reason it’s so important to have a good foundation for your recovery, because you might need those coping skills months or even years down the road.
The Benefits of Drug Detox Treatment
All of that information might sound scary, but detoxing from drugs doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re struggling with addiction to heroin, cocaine, meth, benzos, prescription drugs or even alcohol, we can help. Our residential treatment program in Port St. Lucie, Florida, provides the structured environment you need to break the cycle of addiction and begin planning a long-term recovery.
For those facing drug withdrawal, we offer customized treatment plans that help you get through the withdrawal period safely and more comfortably. Our caring clinical staff can offer medication-assisted drug detox that substantially reduces withdrawal symptoms so you can begin to concentrate on the work of understanding drug abuse triggers, identifying and developing healthier coping mechanisms and laying a foundation for future recovery.
Contact Behavioral Health Centers Today
You don’t have to push through withdrawal symptoms alone. In some cases, that may be dangerous to your health! And you don’t have to keep returning to a cycle of drug abuse. Step out of the cycle today and contact Behavioral Health Centers in Port St. Lucie. Call us now or use the online contact form and we’ll get back to you soon. Our admissions counselors will listen to your story and help you understand what the next steps for your recovery should be.
