Heroin effects your brain in more ways then one. When heroin enters your brain it takes over the brains ability to deliver pleasure from anything else. A region of the brain that controls pleasure is the ventral techmental area, or VTA. The VTA is located in the middle of your brain and is stimulated by natural activities such as eating, exercising, and sex. When your VTA is stimulated it releases dopamine which produces pleasure and euphoria throughout your body.
How Heroin Effects Your Brain
Heroin binds to opioid receptors in the VTA. As you continue to use heroin and increase the doses you gain a tolerance to it. This turns into the user having to use higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect. This tolerance makes users susceptible to withdrawal symptoms and physical dependence. When withdrawal symptoms begin to emerge the user no longer feels any euphoria or pleasure while using heroin, they only feel relief from warding off the pain of their withdraw symptoms by using more heroin. This produces long-term consequences to where a user will not be able to feel pleasure without using heroin.
Don’t Get Caught in the Cycle!
Users are caught into an unforgiving cycle from their first time using. After one use a user will want more. As the users uses more their tolerance will rise without them having any control. When tolerance rises physical dependency comes along with it and using the drug is a necessity. If users try to stop withdraw symptoms will take over their reality, these include nausea, abdominal pain, sweating, shaking, nervousness, agitation, depression, and muscle spasms. At this point of the cycle users feel no pleasure from their heroin intake, only relief from the pain of their withdraw symptoms. Withdraw symptoms are extremely severe and can last about a week however it is possible to battle thru them. It is very likely that after this week long battle the desire for the drug can still last for a life time. For most patients counseling is required to fight thru the viscous cycle that is heroin.
Don’t Let Heroin Effect Your Brain!
You can overcome your heroin addiction with the help of addiction treatment professionals. Start the treatment process by calling us today! When being admitted into an addiction treatment center you will go through an initial intake assessment to help staff get you into an individualized treatment plan.
From there, you will move onto a detoxification process to cleanse your body of the harmful toxins related to heroin abuse. This will include professionals helping you to ease the symptoms of withdrawal. After you have cleansed your body of heroin you will be admitted into an addiction treatment facility to begin the rehabilitation process.
In rehab, you will go through various therapy and counseling sessions to help you see past your addiction and begin living heroin free. Don’t let heroin effect you any longer!
