Previous: Signs of Heroin Addiction
Withdrawal
Back to the document's frontpageThe rapidity of withdrawal symptoms onset makes heroin very difficult to stop using. Recreational heroin users, after a few days of regular use, may find themselves physically dependent on the drug, and will start to feel the physical effects of withdrawal only hours after last using heroin. Heroin withdrawal is extremely uncomfortable, and avoiding the pain of this withdrawal is often motivation enough to continue using.
Heroin withdrawal is extremely uncomfortable
Regular heroin use causes tolerance to the drug and physical changes in the neuro chemical activity of the brain. Heroin use causes the brain to produce less of endogenous neuro transmitters like endorphins that are responsible for our sensations of pleasure and pain; and when heroin is no longer present in the central nervous system, the user will start to feel the absence of these endogenous neuro chemicals through the pain of withdrawal.
Heroin withdrawal, although rarely fatal in itself, is very unpleasant; and few addicts can get through the pain of withdrawal without professional help. Some withdrawal symptoms are nausea, physical pain, irritability and depression, hard constant coughing, diarrhea, insomnia and a host of other symptoms.
These symptoms will peak within 48 hours of the last dosage, and begin to subside after this point. Heroin maintains its hold over an addict through the understandable fear and avoidance of withdrawal. The longer an addict uses and the greater the tolerance that is developed, the more severe the withdrawal and the harder it is to break the addiction.
