Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the considered the essential tools necessary to succeed in any recovery program by most in the 12 step community. For women entering heroin addiction treatment, this holds true. But what exactly do these three things mean and what does it look like in action when a heroin addict takes those first strong steps into a new life without heroin addiction?

Heroin Rehab and Women: Willingness

Obviously, if you are over the age of 18, no one can drag you kicking and screaming into a heroin rehab program. You have to agree. You have to be willing to walk through the doors, sign the papers, and prepare for a new way of doing things. It may sound simplistic but that is exactly what heroin addiction treatment is made of: a series of simple steps in the right direction. These simple steps and decisions never stop and the first one is the willingness to conceive that there is hope for you outside of heroin.

Heroin Rehab and Women: Honesty

Honesty is an interesting characteristic of successful heroin addiction treatment for women. Most people define honesty as the simple act of not lying, but honesty in recovery means also being honest with yourself. There are lies that everyone tells themselves to help them make dealing with certain things easier. Most heroin addicts, for example, may downplay the level of their heroin addiction for years in order to make it easier for them to continue living the way they do. Even with the willingness to enter heroin rehab, they may not fully be honest with themselves about the extent of their heroin addiction. For a real shot at success in heroin rehab, it’s very important that women are not only honest with their therapists, their counselors and their doctors but with themselves and each other as well.

Heroin Rehab and Women: Open Mindedness

This is arguably one of the most difficult of the three characteristics of a successfully heroin rehab stay. Willingness will get you through the door and you have to make the decision to be honest every time you open your mouth but open mindedness, that is what happens inside your head where no one else is there to hold you accountable. Are you open to hearing what your counselors have to share? Are you open to trying out the new coping skills in your everyday interactions and thought processes? Are you open to putting in the work it will take to learn how to live a life without heroin addiction? Are you open to the possibilities that will come your way as come across new ideas, new people, new opportunities?

No matter how wonderful the idea or opportunity or person that crosses your path, if you don’t have an open mind, it won’t benefit you in the slightest.

If you think you have the willingness, honesty and open mindedness necessary to succeed in heroin rehab, contact The Orchid for more information today.

In some states, if you were a heroin addict who held up a grocery store with a toy gun like Marisol Rodriguez-Ritter of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, you might end up getting sent to drug rehab by the judge. Not so for Rodriguez-Ritter: she was sentenced to 33 to 83 months in prison.

Rodriguez-Ritter claims that she went to the criminal extremes she did because of a heroin addiction. She lost her child due to her addiction and was trying to pay the child support payments by robbing the grocery store. She tried to define herself as a victim of heroin addiction in need of help, but the DA wasn’t buying it.

Robert Eyer was the assistant district attorney assigned to Rodriguez-Ritter’s case. He says: “I’m not going to suggest that she does not have a drug addiction. But I’m going to suggest this is way more than a drug problem.”

He may be right: after obtaining a warrant, police searched the home where Rodriguez-Ritter lived with her boyfriend and found 140 bags of heroin. Hardly the stash of someone who is solely a heroin addict. More likely, Rodriguez-Ritter and/ or her boyfriend are heroin dealers and the courts don’t look too kindly upon that.

Drug Rehab or Prison?

When possession of drugs like heroin is a small enough amount to be for personal use only, the courts are more likely to prescribe drug addiction treatment as opposed to a prison stint, especially if there is one or no priors and that is the only charge. Unfortunately, when you add in a violent charge to the mix, few courts will risk putting you back out on the street without at least a short stay in jail and a probation officer to make sure that you’re staying in line.

Jail Plus Drug Rehab

More often than not, in the case of multiple drug possession charges or cases of a drug possession charge coincides with other charges, the judge will order a stay in jail or prison, depending upon the severity of the crime and the priors. But the sentence won’t end there. Rodriguez-Ritter, for example, is required to attend drug rehab while she is in prison and is further tasked with getting her GED. The hope is that while she is inside, Rodriguez-Ritter will be able to clean up her act and get a foundation for a successful recovery when she gets out of prison. Her daughter may be older by then, but if she does well inside, she likely won’t serve the full seven years and she’ll be able to show a family court judge that she is stable and dedicated to giving her daughter the life she deserves.

Drug Rehab Before the Prison Sentence

If you are living with heroin addiction, cocaine addiction, alcohol addiction and other addiction issues that are putting you in a position to commit crimes in order to maintain your habit, the best thing you can do for yourself is get the help you need before you find yourself standing in front of a judge. Women who are ready to turn their life around can find help at The Orchid. Call today for more information.

Can you imagine craving something so strong that you’d skip your job, steal money, leave your kids alone at home, even meet with dangerous people just to get it over and over?  This is what a heroin addict might do to keep up their supply.  Heroin is so dangerous because it can be quickly addictive and have permanent effect on a person’s mind and body.  Drug rehabs often use medication such as buprenorphine to help with the heroin detox process. 

How Buprenorphine Helps With Heroin Addiction

Opioids are drugs that act much like the neurotransmitters in our bodies.  These chemicals include endorphins, adrenaline, and dopamine, all of which control many different behavioral and emotional responses.  The neurotransmitters travel back and forth between neuron receptors, fitting together like locks with keys. 

Opioids can lock into these same receptors, only the effect they have is enormous and overwhelming compared to what the body can normally produce.  When opioids are carefully used as painkillers, they can be effective.  However, heroin use is never regulated and the risk of overdose is high. 

Buprenorphine is an opioid that is enough like heroin and other potent drugs, but it’s chemical fit to receptors isn’t perfect.  It can make cravings more tolerable and the body more comfortable while the heroin use has been stopped.  However, it generally doesn’t fit well enough to give an addictive rush or high.  This can also help with psychological addiction, giving the person a chance to develop healthy coping skills with fewer effects from the physical withdrawal process.

Subutex for Pregnant Heroin Users

Apparently, mono buprenorphine (also called Subutex) has been deemed as safe and effective as methadone for pregnant heroin users.  Currently, methadone and buprenorphine are Category C drugs.  These drugs have only been through animal trials, no solid human trials, and have caused known problems for animals fetuses.  However, there can be enough benefit to the mother to warrent use in spite of these risks. 

In other words, methadone and buprenorphine have enough risk to be strongly avoided in nearly all cases.  However, if it will ensure that the mother stays safe and healthy to take the baby to full term, some risk to the fetus may be the lesser of two problems to deal with. 

Buprenorphine Not The Perfect Solution

At this summit, experts from the National Institute of Drug Abuse reported findings about the usefulness of Buprenorphine.  They stated that it was actually more helpful with painkiller addiction than heroin addiction.

Buprenorphine is a legal prescribed drug.  However, some people abuse buprenorphine by crushing and injecting it.  The very drug that is supposed to help them with their heroin addiction becomes the replacement drug.  This method of crushing and injection the drug is very hazardous because shared or dirty needles can spread disease among users.  This is a true testament to the psychological and psychological power of opiate addictions.  Even drugs meant to be helpful can get turned around and abused.

Heroin Rehab at The Orchid

The professionals at the Orchid Recovery Center for Women do everything possible to assist women with the sometimes difficult process of drug detox.  But detox is just the first of many steps of growth in drug treatment.  The supportive community of women, the holistic therapies, and research-based treatment methods combine to provide an environment of healing at the Orchid.

Heroin is a pretty mean and dirty drug.  It doesn’t let you live the charade of  ”I don’t have a problem” for very long.  It sucks you in, beats up your body, and drags you around by the nose within a very short time.  Heroin attacks your body and mind, keeping you hostage until you either die or fight tooth-and-nail to break free.  It’s no wonder there is such a great need for heroin rehab for women. 

Heroin In the Body

The big problem is that once the body becomes accustomed to the presence of heroin (which can take as little as a few days), it quickly takes more of the drug to get high.  Before long, the body literally needs it to feel just normal.  The body forgets how to use its own neurotransmitters and relies on the heroin instead.  If the user tries to cut down or suddenly can’t get their supply, they are in for real physical agony.  The “withdrawal” experience usually prompts users to get a new supply as quickly as possible. 

Heroin triggers the release of three neurotransmitters - dopamine, norepinephrine, and endorphines.  These three have a direct effect on emotions, responses, and physical behaviors.  Heroin gets these neurotransmitters way off-kilter, causing a person to constantly “chase the high” and become very sensitive to their own fight-or-flight response. 

Heroin And the Mind

Heroin gives users a rush of excitement, euphoria, and sense of comfort.  It is nearly immediate whether smoked or injected.  This rush of pleasant sensations and calm emotions quickly becomes the user’s desired state.  It is unrealistically wonderful and all-consuming. 

Once the physical tolerance begins to set in, the regular user begins to think they can’t feel normal without the artificial sense of calm.  They have stopped seeking calming effects through healthy activities because nothing beats the instant heroin rush.  They pursue their drug use and drug supply above nearly anything else that may need their attention.  This includes such basic activities as personal care, going to work, paying bills, and getting food.  This can be especially dangerous when a heroin addict is a parent or has others depending on them for their safety and shelter.  Their heroin cravings for heroin take top importance, making it hard for a user to stop or even reduce their drug use. 

Heroin Detox

Heroin detox is pretty serious business.  It is a medical process that usually involves one or more detox drugs like buprenorphine or methadone.  These drugs make the detox process easier on the woman’s body, but it doesn’t take away every discomfort.  As it was mentioned earlier - heroin is a mean dirty drug, both going in and out. 

Detox is one of the biggest obstacles for heroin addiction recovery.  The withdrawal symptoms can be very difficult to endure, even when given treatments to increase comfort.  These can include sweating, chills, nausea, abdominal pain, headaches, and other problems.  No one single detox treatment has been shown to be more effective than another.  Helping the heroin user to the “other side” of the detox process is a tremendous journey for everyone involved.

Heroin Treatment for Women

Heroin treatment is no picnic - it can be physically uncomfortable, emotionally wrenching, and fraught with obstacles.  However, there is a true ray of hope for women addicted to this terrible drug.  Heroin destroys many lives every year, but there are also many hope-filled stories of women who have escaped the clutches of heroin.  The Orchid Recovery Center for Women helps women with drug addiction face the drug rehab process together.  The Orchid offers a strong network of women to be there for every courageous step.