Opiate Addiction: How It Occurs

Everyone who has an opioid addiction story has a unique take on a common thread. It begins as a need to relieve pain, and it ends with wanting to recapture the good feelings that were experienced in the earliest stages of taking the prescription drug.

It doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you an addicted person, and you need medical treatment to get past your opiate addiction and feel like yourself again.

Opiates are drugs that are derived from opium, which binds to the cell receptors in the central nervous system and the digestive tract to block pain. Anyone who takes opiate drugs or opioids can become addicted.

So how does one develop an opiate addiction in the first place, and why does it often lead to overdose?

What Makes Opioids Addictive

Addiction is a compulsive, chronic, physiological, and psychological need to do something. In this case, it’s for a habit-forming substance – and what initially was helpful and pleasurable becomes something you cannot live without.

When opiates bind themselves to the opioid cell receptors, it produces physiological effects and activates powerful reward centers in your brain. There is a release of endorphins that make you feel good and creates feelings of well-being.

If you were treated with prescription opioids for severe pain due to injury or disease, then you experienced immense relief from it – and it made you feel great. This is why it’s very easy to descend into addiction.

Same Dose, Weaker Effects

This is how the addiction starts: Over time, the repeated use of the same dosage of opioid drugs will produce fewer and fewer endorphins. What once triggered a massive release of endorphins that fills you with good feelings no longer produces the same effect, and this produces a very strong urge to take more and more to have the same original effect.

When this occurs, there is a risk of overdose.

A skilled psychiatrist can provide you with immediate and effective help with your opiate addiction as long as you want to participate in treatment. The patient always has to be motivated to receive treatment – no one else can do it for you or force you into it. If it is forced by others, it doesn’t work.

Opiate Addiction Treatment in New York and Connecticut

Psy-Visions provides superior substance abuse treatment and addiction treatment in our New York City and Southbury facilities. If you need help with a growing addiction to opioid medication, Dr. Mark Stracks can help you with his specialized training and experience in treating medically and psychologically complicated patients.

If you have any questions about the services we offer or would like to schedule a consultation with Dr. Stracks, contact our caring staff today by calling our New York City office at (718) 887-2918, or our Southbury, Connecticut office at (203) 405-1745.

You can also fill out our easy-to-use appointment request form online now, or feel free to click here to send Dr. Stracks a private message. We look forward to helping you get back to your normal, wonderful life once again.

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