More than 80,000 Americans die from opioid overdoses every year in the United States, a number that’s risen steadily over the past decade. One reason why opioids are so deadly is because of the way they cause addiction — and that’s also why overcoming addiction can be so challenging.
The team at Triad Primary Care is skilled in helping men and women overcome opioid addiction with medication-assisted therapy (MAT) focused on each patient’s unique needs. In this post, learn three reasons why battling opioid addiction is so challenging and how our team can help.
One of the primary reasons why opioid addiction is so challenging to overcome is because it changes the way your brain works. Specifically, opioids work on the brain’s natural reward system, altering chemical pathways associated with feelings of pleasure.
These alterations create a true physical dependence on the drug. If you try to withdraw from use, it’s these changes that make stopping so difficult, causing symptoms like shaking or tremors, nausea, vomiting, chills, and even physical pain.
Worse, over time, your body adjusts to the amount of drug you’re taking, which means you need more and more to maintain those “feel-good” effects. Pathways that normally help us practice self-control weaken, making drug use harder to avoid.
In addition to physical dependence, opioid use also leads to psychological and emotional dependence. The “high” produced by opioids makes it challenging to face daily stresses without it, creating a perceived need that can be just as strong as a physical addiction, even though this particular aspect doesn’t always have a biological basis.
On top of that, people who use opioids often have underlying medical conditions that lead to drug misuse in the first place — conditions like depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While at first opioids may seem to blunt the symptoms of mental health disorders by altering neural pathways and neurotransmitter activity in your brain, they can actually wind up making those symptoms worse and harder to manage.
Finally, opioid abuse is typically surrounded by feelings of guilt, shame, or failure. These feelings lead to low self-esteem and increased cravings for the drug. Often, people wind up becoming isolated, leading to delays in treatment, as well.
Many people begin using opioids because they’re available either within their social circle or their environment, making them a more convenient option for self-treatment or experimentation. Overcoming opioid use disorder involves avoiding those environments and situations that make abuse easier or more “tempting.”
In some instances, environmental circumstances can make obtaining therapy more challenging. People may worry they’ll be “seen” by peers or coworkers, or they may be concerned that traditional therapy will require absences from work or school that make their problem more “visible” to others.
When opioid abuse is triggered by life stressors, like family or relationship conflicts, those issues can make recovery more challenging unless they’re addressed through therapy or other means. Having a supportive network is essential for overcoming addiction and avoiding opioids in the future.
Our team uses medication-assisted therapy (MAT) to help women and men overcome opioid addiction. With MAT, you complete therapy without leaving work or school, avoiding the potential downside of traditional in-patient therapy.
MAT relies on the benefits of medicines used to help control the effects of opioids, so it’s easier to overcome their physical and psychological effects. Cognitive behavioral therapy, the second component of MAT, helps you replace negative behaviors and thought patterns that drive drug cravings and make giving up the drug more difficult.
Because MAT lets you continue with your regular obligations and activities, you learn real-world ways to cope with stressors that could otherwise interfere with recovery. And of course, you have ongoing support and guidance from our team.
You can overcome your opioid addiction, and we can help. To take the first step in your journey to recovery, request an appointment online or over the phone with Triad Primary Care in Greensboro, North Carolina, today.
