Opiates and Heroin Addiction Treatment Troy New York

 

The city of Troy covers an area of 14 square miles and has a population of 49,876. It’s located just 3 miles away from New York City in Rensselaer County, New York State. Its neighbors are Albany and Schenectady. If you or someone you know is struggling with opiates/opioids and want to speak with someone from a drug rehab in Troy NY that can answer recovery options please contact the number listed.

 

 

Opioid Dependence in Rensselaer County

Rensselaer County, like other areas of New York, is struggling with opioid addiction.  The National Survey of Drug Use and Health found 3 percent of Rensselaer’s residents to be drug dependent, and 2 percent to be requiring treatment but not receiving it. It found that Rensselaer’s ratio of visits to the Emergency Department (ED) were 194.7 per 10 000 people which was lower than the state average of 349.5 but the rate grew by 25 percent between 2009 and 2014.  The substance abuse death ratio was at 4.8 per 100,000 people as compared to the state average of 9.3 but it registered a 113 percent increase between 2009 and 2013. ED visits related to opiate poisoning were 13.4 per 10,000. This figure was lower than the state average at 15.2 but it represented a 26 percent increase in rates between 2008 and 2013. In 2016 alone, opioid-related deaths in the county increased to 33—up from 25 in 2015. In 2017 there were 30 deaths. To locate a residential inpatient drug rehab in New York that can help with substance abuse, call and speak with a recovery specialist.

Opioid Dependence in Troy

Troy also has its fair share of opioid addiction problems.  In 2015, a gang of 8 and its associates were arrested for availing heroine and other illegal drugs to Troy residents. In 2016, the Troy Police Department recorded 89 overdoses, and the 5 deaths were heroin-related. The County’s Department of Health revealed that compared to the rest of the state in terms of opiate abuse, the Troy/Lansingburgh area had twice the ED drop-in rate, and twice the hospitalization rate.

Response to Opioid Addiction

Rensselaer County has been coordinating a response to the opioid addiction problem. In March 2016, the Rensselaer County Heroin Coalition was formed and it comprised various county units including Mental Health, Social Services, Probation and the Department of Youth.  It has a day-night hotline to assist people seeking treatment or harm reduction help. The Coalition gives literature to bereaved families on how they may safely get rid of remaining medications.

The County Heroin Coalition also works hand in hand with community partners such as Troy’s Drug Free Community Coalition (DFFC). For instance, it helped to organize training on the use of Narcan within Troy. Troy’s DFFC which brings together police, education officials, and community members, tries to assist in efforts to lessen the use of drugs and alcohol among the youth, by helping them acquire scholarships, for example. And in a combined effort with its City Council, the Troy DFFC helped bring about a law stopping the consumption and sale of drugs and alcohol to people below 21. Violations of this law incur a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment of 15 days.

Opioids and Opiates

The words opiate and opioid are often used in addiction treatment vocabulary and it’s important to know what they mean when you seek drug addiction treatment. They refer to groups of drugs that are meant to ease pain in patients, but when misused, can invoke a high which often leads to dependency and overdose. They often require drug addiction treatment.

1. Naturally Made

Opiates/opioids can be made wholly and directly from opium, a chemical that exists naturally in the poppy plant. Painkiller drugs such as codeine and morphine, come directly from the opium poppy. They are often used in a medical setup to ease chronic pain and induce high calm. They are prone to abuse.

2. Partly or Wholly Synthetic

Opiates/opioids can contain part synthetic elements and part natural opium elements. Heroin is made from morphine, a natural opium element but it also has additives that are not natural. Another group of opioids are wholly synthetic. That is, they contain no natural elements. There are a number of prescription drugs that fall into this category including methadone used in drug treatment.

So some opioids are made naturally, while others are not. The problem is that they are addictive when misused and they do tremendous physical and mental harm. Opioid dependence treatment is often needed to try to arrest the damage.

Why Heroin is Illegal

Opioid painkillers, whether synthetic or not, can legally be prescribed and taken. But heroin which is also an opioid with painkiller properties and which is derived from the legal opiate, morphine, is illegal. No doctor will prescribe it in Troy and other cities. You will be arrested for possession and distribution. The reason is that heroin production is not regulated. It contains numerous additives such as starch and quinine. People often have to seek treatment for heroin addiction even if they’ve taken it for a short while. It has thrice the strength of morphine and is extremely potent and addictive, and dangerous to the health. It may be mixed with fentanyl a potent synthetic opioid which often leads to overdose. If you’re struggling with heroin dependency, then you’re in luck because some of the best heroin addiction treatment centers are in Troy.

Effects of Heroin

Heroin addiction has disastrous consequences. The brown and white heroin powder is normally dissolved in water and then injected.  It may also be snorted. Or it may be heated to produce a vapor that may be inhaled or smoked. Here are some of the serious health consequences of taking heroin:

• It can slow down breathing to the point of coma or death
• Needle-sharing can lead to infections such as HIV, and hepatitis
• Injecting may result in vein collapses and infections and abscesses along the padding of the heart.
• Being unregulated, it will have numerous toxic elements that may further compromise your organs.
• Since it goes swiftly to the brain it can cause drowsiness lasting several hours and inducing a state of confusion and mental fogginess.

If you are experiencing any of these effects, it’s time to seek heroin addiction help.

Effects of Prescription Drugs

Opioid painkillers are essential for pain relief in many patients. They are regulated and therefore safe if taken as the doctor prescribed and for a given period of time. But increasingly they are taken for longer periods and in larger quantities. But opiates such as hydrocodone and oxycodone have similar chemical elements to heroin and can produce a similar high while others need to be taken in great amounts to produce the same high. Luckily Troy offers some of the best pain pill addiction treatment.

The prescription pills are often crushed and then injected or snorted. Like heroin, they can stop you breathing and cause coma or death, or impaired brain function. When injected, they have the same effects as injected heroin. There are many treatment centers in Troy that will help wean you off your habit.

Painkillers are a Pathway for Heroin

Heroin is often an alternative to abused pain pills because it’s cheaper and easier to get hold of. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration, in 2013, announced it was restricting the number of refills each patient might have, in between visits to the doctor. A study in 2013 revealed that 4 in 5 heroin addicts had been opioid painkiller abusers. There are more overdoses nationally from opioid painkillers than heroin.

Heroin Treatment in Troy, NY

If you live in Troy and you’re grappling with the effects of heroin and prescription opioids you must know that these effects become worse the more you delay treatment. And if you’ve survived an overdose, you need to seek opioid addiction treatment today. The good news is that there are a number of pain pill addiction and heroin drug rehab treatment facilities available in and around Troy.

1. What are the necessities of treatment?

Treatment for heroin addiction and for opioids takes place at outpatient or inpatient treatment centers. First there’s an assessment to determine the direction your treatment should take. Then there’s a heroin detox, for example, followed by drug rehab at a live-in or outpatient facility where the psychology of your addiction will be dealt with. Then there’s post-treatment support whose objective is to help you stay abstinent for the rest of your lifetime

2. What should I weigh up when selecting a treatment center?

You’ll want to choose a treatment center that will give you value for the money you’ll be spending.

To choose from the best heroin addiction treatment centers, you need to consider the following:

• Is the detox procedure the best detox for heroin or other opioids?
• Do they offer the best treatment, in general for opiate addiction?
• Are medications used as required?
• Are staff optimally trained, and are they licensed?
• Will your employer allow you time off for opioid addiction treatment?
• What would best suit your needs—a live-in facility or one you commute to from home?
• How much will treatment for heroin addiction or other opioid addiction cost and how far will insurance cover it?

Assessment

Before you even start treatment for opioid addiction at your selected facility, you have to be medically assessed to establish your depth of heroin use. So you would need to provide information about your lifestyle, and your family and work history. Once they have all your details, a treatment pro can put together for you, an individualized plan that will hopefully involve the best detox for heroin and the best rehab. Also, if you absolutely need a pet to assist you in your rehabilitation process, you will need to find a pet friendly drug rehab that will allow you to bring your cat or bring your dog to rehab.

1. What will they want to know about me?

So often the best heroin addiction treatment centers will seek to find out the following from your evaluation:

• The amount of time you’ve been a heroin user
• Whether you’re taking additional drugs
• Whether or not you drink alcohol and to what degree.
• Whether you’ve previously had treatment for your addiction
• If you have other disorders—mental or physical

So the treatment specialist assigned to you will engage you verbally, and get you to fill in a questionnaire. You’ll also get a physical checkup and some tests to ascertain your health condition to date.  All this information will influence the direction of your opioid addiction treatment which may or may not include meds.

Medical Detox from Opiates Troy NY

Detoxing off opiates will most likely be the first step in your treatment journey. It should take place in a medical setting. Inpatient heroin treatment centers are good setups for this. They offer pain medication and other good detox facilities.

1. Is heroin detox a must?

Detoxing off opiates will only be waived for mild addiction. But if you’ve been taking strong drugs like heroin, even for a short period, medical detox will likely be mandatory because of the extreme damage done to your body and mind. Detox is the best way to get all traces of the heroin or other opiates withdrawn from your body.

2. Can I detox on my own?

Detoxing on your own can be life-threatening. Heroin detox is usually accompanied by extreme and painful withdrawal symptoms that may be deadly. Seizures have been known to occur. Symptoms of opiate withdrawal happen within 6 hours of you abruptly stopping your heroin or prescription opioid addiction. They reach their peak within 2-3 but can go on for longer depending on the nature and duration of your addiction. The opioid withdrawal symptoms may be so unbearable that you give up on any further attempts to get clean, which would be a mistake. The best form of detox is at a safe environment such as a hospital or heroin detox center where there is to-the-minute monitoring of your progress and where meds may be given to control the opioid withdrawal symptoms and reduce the risk of relapse.

3. Am I done with heroin treatment once I’ve detoxed?

A heroin detox is not the be-all and end-all of addiction treatment. It deals only with the physical side of the issue. Now you need to go a step further and treat the psychological nature of the addiction—why you began using in the first place and why you continued to use. That’s the only way to remain sober in the future. So if you’ve had a heroin detox, you’d likely need to seek treatment at inpatient heroin treatment centers where you’ll get intense treatment. A lot of treatment centers offer inpatient rehab as a follow on from your medical detox from opiates. If your detox happened at a hospital, you will need to find an inpatient facility to enroll in.

Residential Inpatient Rehabilitation Troy New York

So if you had moderate or severe heroin or other opioid addiction, or have relapsed a few times, you would do well to seek heroin treatment at an inpatient center. Some of these treatment centers are free while others go upwards in cost to several thousands of dollars. The upscale ones are usually peopled by executives and celebrities but they offer much more in terms of treatment for heroin addiction.

1. What can I expect from inpatient care?

You take up residence within the facility and you follow the personalized care plan worked out for you during your assessment. The process is structured and you get constant medical and psychological care. Duration can be as short as a month or it can go on for a year. It depends on how far gone your addiction was. Those recovering from heroin addiction and opiate addiction, in general, can expect:

• Individual behavioral therapy with a trained therapist who helps you to identify the causes and elements of your opioid addiction. They will also help you avoid relapse by working out healthy ways to cope with trials in your life.
• Group counseling to help you develop social skills that will help maintain your sobriety after heroin treatment. Opioid addiction has often been linked to poor social skills. So here, you’ll engage with your peers and provide reciprocal support.
• 12-Step Fellow-ship programs. These are an essential part of group counseling. Examples are Heroin Anonymous and Pills Anonymous.
• Medication if it will help to further reduce the effects of withdrawal symptoms, before and after detoxing off opiates, and cut down your cravings.

Treatment centers offer both short and longer periods of stay. Short-term heroin treatment is typically 28 day while long-term treatment may go on for anything between 60 days to a year. It may go on longer still. For patients in a relationship that want to go through recovery together, a couples drug rehab allows married or unmarried couples stay together during their recovery process.

 

 

Outpatient Rehab Troy NY

Outpatient therapy is normally not recommended as the first form of rehab for those with heroin addiction or those with deep-seated opiate addiction. But those coming out of inpatient heroin treatment centers, may find it useful as a supplementary measure. It helps if you have a strong, supportive home environment. There are different tiers of heroin treatment depending on your needs. Individual and group counseling is given as in an inpatient heroin setup and pain medication too, if required. Patients don’t live in.

1. Standard Program

It’s for those who want to carry on with their home and work commitments as usual but need just a little help in reaching their recovery goals. They would normally attend addiction treatment a few days a week and at times that are convenient to them.

2. Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP):

It’s for those wanting much more support than standard therapy can give. They spend more hours at the center and their opioid addiction treatment is more structured and grueling.

3. Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP):

It’s for those needing still more intense therapy following the end of formal heroin treatment. Patients are there almost the whole day, on most days, only going home for the night. Some treatment centers can arrange housing for patients, off-campus, if they don’t yet have a stable home environment.

Pain Medication

1. What meds are used during opioid addiction treatment?

If required, medication is given during heroin detox and rehab, and during your life following treatment. They help to lessen the acuteness of the symptoms of opiate withdrawal and have been associated with fewer relapses. Here are the main ones:

Methadone

This synthetic opioid is normally given to those who don’t take to the other drugs easily. It helps stabilize a patient with opioid withdrawal symptoms. Its effects are long lasting. One dose can see one through 20 to 36 hours. Patients have to visit a clinic regularly to receive it. It’s administered orally and is slowly weaned off the patient as recovery goes on.

Naltrexone

This is an anti-opioid drug that stops in its tracks, any further damage from heroin addiction or opiate overdose or intoxication. It’s non-addictive and it discourages the misuse of opiates because it blocks off the pleasure feelings linked to them. To be able to do its work effectively, it has to be taken thrice daily through the mouth or, if your schedule is tight, once monthly through injection. Injectable drugs such as Vivitrol are ideal for the latter and they’re long-lasting. There is also an implant that blocks opiates effects to further assist in relapse prevention.

Buprenorphine

It’s also a synthetic opioid and is one of the ways to ease opiate withdrawal. It helps to stop cravings by copying the effects of opioids but without their powerful high. So misuse is unlikely. Its use is gradually decreased overtime.

Suboxone

This is said to reduce overdose risk and to deter further opioid addiction. It’s also weaned off the patient overtime.

Aftercare

Staying the course of treatment is not enough to achieve sobriety from opioid addiction, however. Heroin cravings may go on for years even after you’ve formally stopped taking the drug, like when you unavoidably come into contact with people, places, and objects that remind you of your drug use. You need an aftercare program that includes attendance at support group meetings and possibly regular contact with a heroin addiction therapist. You may also want to find a sober living home which is a transitional phase between treatment and resuming your former life. Its run by your peers and you provide each other with further reciprocal support before you have to resume your normal life. It’s important to make sure your Troy drug addiction rehab facility helps to accommodate you in support programs that will shore up your recovery and help prevent relapse once heroin treatment is over.