Is My Loved One Addicted to Heroin?

It’s a startling and scary realization to learn that someone you love is battling a heroin addiction. Heroin is an extremely dangerous, highly addictive drug that can produce catastrophic problems by significantly changing how the brain functions, causing financial peril, and leading to severe relationship problems at home, work, and with friends. To help a loved one overcome heroin addiction safely, professional heroin and fentanyl addiction treatment is a critical step in their lifelong recovery journey.

If your friend or family member struggles to overcome an addiction, reach out to Greater Boston Addiction Center today. Call us at 877.920.6583 or contact us online to learn how our heroin fentanyl addiction treatment in Massachusetts can help them regain control over their life, heal and begin to recover.

What Is Heroin and What Does It Do?

Heroin is a mind-altering, illicit drug similar to morphine. When it reaches the brain, it attaches to opioid receptors located all over the brain and body, including in the spots where the perception of pain and pleasure is regulated and where a person’s breathing is controlled.

If your loved one is addicted to heroin, the drug will instruct their nervous system to produce intense feelings of pleasure and offer them relief from severe pain. Breaking free from heroin addiction is challenging, requiring skilled and compassionate care in a heroin addiction center. The short-term effects of heroin use include a rush of good feelings while breathing, and the heart rate slows. These effects last just a few hours, and once they begin to wear off, your loved one will experience an intense withdrawal. They may become depressed and develop an insatiable craving to do more heroin in an attempt to ward off the withdrawal symptoms and feel that same kind of euphoria again. Breaking the cycle of heroin addiction is challenging, and doing so alone can be dangerous. Drug rehab in Boston can help to safely remove the heroin from your loved one’s system and begin the recovery process.

Greater Boston Addiction Center offers a heroin addiction treatment in Massachusetts that helps clients overcome their dependence on heroin every day. Heroin affects millions of families across the country by claiming the lives of 40 Americans every day through overdoses, and receiving professional help in a heroin addiction center is critical to not only surviving addiction but regaining control of life and enjoying long-term recovery success.

Sadly, many of those suffering from heroin addiction will begin to mix other drugs like cocaine and prescription opioids with their heroin to continue chasing a high. This cocktail of substances is capable of producing even deadly results. Boston heroin rehab can help, starting with a medical detox and then a series of essential therapies to break the deadly cycle of addiction.

3 Signs Your Loved One Is a Heroin Addict

Before your loved one can get help for their heroin abuse and receive fentanyl addiction treatment, family members and friends must often first identify the problem and usher them toward a heroin addiction treatment in Massachusetts. To help you do just that, watch for these telltale signs that your loved one is addicted to heroin.

1. The Presence of Heroin Paraphernalia

Heroin has very common and extremely specific equipment necessary to inject or snort heroin. Knowing what the drug and the heroin paraphernalia look like may help you identify heroin addiction in someone you love and help you direct them towards a professional heroin addiction center.

Heroin is a powdery, crumbly, and usually off-white substance; however, the color can range from white to dark brown or black. In most cases, a heroin user needs a set of tools and assorted paraphernalia to get high by being injected, snorted, or smoked. This means that you should be on the lookout for:

• Needles
• Pipes
• Spoons
• Lighters
• Rubber tubing
• Elastic bands

If you see these things on or around your loved one, contact our heroin addiction center immediately for assistance in confronting and helping this person get the help that might save their life.

2. Physical Symptoms of Heroin Addiction

The physical symptoms of a heroin addiction occur quickly after each time the drug is used. First, a sense of overwhelming euphoria will come over your loved one within seconds if the heroin is injected (the effects take longer if smoked or snorted). If you see your loved one experiencing an unusual euphoric episode, our Boston heroin treatment can help them through detox, rehab, and aftercare to break the cycle of their addiction. The physical symptoms of heroin use you will be able to observe include:

• Dry mouth
• Slower than usual breathing
• Flushed skin
• Constricted pupils
• Persistent itching
• Nausea, constipation, and vomiting

3. Noticeable Lifestyle Changes

Over time, heroin addiction causes people to abandon their passions, give up their favorite hobbies, and often affects their performance at school or work. This is because the desire to get high and avoid the withdrawals that come when not using heroin take priority over everything else in their life. While lifestyle changes may be more difficult to spot than the physical instruments of drug use and the impact on a person’s physical body, they are also a vital sign that your loved one needs help through heroin addiction treatment in Massachusetts. Because heroin injections leave needle marks, many addicts start to wear unseasonable long-sleeve attire to conceal their scars. Clothing choices can be one sure sign your loved one is hiding their heroin addiction and could benefit greatly from getting help in a heroin addiction center. It is common for heroin addicts to self-isolate to avoid being caught, judged, or shamed.

Learn More at Greater Boston Addiction Centers

If you are worried your loved one is a heroin addict, contact Greater Boston Addiction Centers today by using our secure online form or call us confidentially at 877.920.6583 to discover how heroin and fentanyl addiction treatment may help.