How Withdrawal Symptoms Can Drive People Back to Using Drugs
Many experts believe that relapses are just a part of a person’s recovery in the world of alcohol and drug rehab, meaning it’s a matter of when and not if someone will go back to using drugs. Whether this is true or not is a topic for debate, but what everyone in the field will tell you is that addiction treatment tries to prepare you to work through the tough times of withdrawal without using drugs or drinking again.
Many substances that people become addicted to often present withdrawal symptoms that are difficult to work through, even with the best rehab treatment. There are many reasons why withdrawal symptoms can drive people back to using drugs. These can range from simply getting relief from the immediate symptoms to thinking they can go back to using and be more in control this time. Regardless of the reason, taking part in a medical detox program is one way to increase your chances of successfully entering and staying in recovery.
What Is Withdrawal?
Withdrawal occurs when a person who has developed a dependency on a substance stops using or notably curtails how much of the drug they are taking each day. No matter what substance the person has become addicted to, including alcohol, withdrawal symptoms can begin as soon as within hours of the last time an individual drank or used drugs.
Withdrawal symptoms can be both physical and psychological. They are caused by the lack of a substance that the body and mind have become accustomed to regularly having, and the withdrawal symptoms are the reaction to the absence of that substance. Outside of more serious drugs and alcohol, coffee drinkers and smokers can experience withdrawal symptoms from caffeine and nicotine, respectively.
Common Withdrawal Symptoms From Mild to Severe
Withdrawal symptoms can affect many areas of the body as well as general changes to a person’s mood, behavior, and mind. They run from mild to severe, with the former often being similar to typical symptoms.
Beginning with some effects that can impact a person as a whole, drug addicts often experience hunger or loss of appetite, fatigue, lethargy, night sweats, shakiness, clammy skin, and feeling hot or cold in a typical temperature environment.
Another set of common symptoms impacts a person’s Gastrointestinal system, including gagging, nausea, vomiting, flatulence, or stomach cramps. This is one way an individual often denies their drug use: by pointing to the fact that their symptoms are from something much more ordinary. This goes for behavioral factors, too, like agitation, crying, excitability, irritability, and restlessness, which a person can explain away by pointing to everyday stress. In this same realm, people can also experience boredom, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, or nervousness.
During withdrawal, an individual’s sleep can also be affected. Insomnia, nightmares, sleepiness, or sleeping difficulty all can come into play. Other straightforward symptoms similar to some experiencing seasonal allergies are congestion or runny nose and dilated pupils or watery eyes.
As for some more severe impacts of withdrawal from drug addiction, people who have been addicted longer or to particular substances can experience disorientation, mental confusion, depression, hallucinations, paranoia, severe anxiety, or self-harm. Additionally, seizures, sensitivity to pain, slurred speech, teeth chattering, tingling feet, trembling, tremors, or weakness in the extremities can occur.
The Most Effective Way to Detox to Make it Through Withdrawal
Simply put, no one should ever attempt to detox at home. The most effective way to detox to make it through withdrawal and successfully begin recovery is to take part in a safe, secure, supervised program.
Medical detox at Muse Treatment Center in Los Angeles has numerous advantages over trying to go through withdrawal on your own. Not only will you have proactive care to help you get through withdrawal, but you will also have around-the-clock medical support in case your withdrawal symptoms negatively affect your health. You’ll also have access to counselors to help you get through the mental impact of no longer using drugs or alcohol. Call (800) 426-1818 today to learn how our treatment programs can work for you.
