One of the most stunning things about recovery is the similarities between your story of addiction and that of the next addict. Heroin addiction, especially, seems to provide its captives with a gut wrenching path from which few escape. Though the details—location, names, amounts, dates—change with each story, one thread remains the same: heroin addiction is deadly. The only hope is heroin rehab.

• Dead Heroin Addict’s Video Diaries to be Aired in Sky1 Documentary – This one is at The Guardian (United Kingdom) and it’s a bit exploitative, I think, and it’s a heartbreaker so be forewarned.
• Snellville Woman’s Tale of Heroin Addiction – Here, a woman from Snellville tells the story of a local woman struggling with heroin addiction on her blog, My Snellville Blog.
• Heroin Tightens Its Grip – From Creative Loafing Atlanta out of Atlanta, GA, this is a broader article that talks more about Sarah, the woman profiled at My Snellville Blog.
• I Kicked My Habit After Heroin Addiction Killed My Twin…Now I’m Going to Be a Dad – Exactly what it sounds like, this is a personal story of recovery out of the UK after loss due to heroin addiction.
• Heroin Took Life of Bright Teen From Mukilteo – A sad story, this one is about the loss of Everett, Washington teen, Sean Gahagan, to heroin abuse.
• Speaker Tells Students About Daughter’s Drug Related Death – Out of Greencastle, Indiana, a story of teenage death caused by drug abuse. Her father speaks out to help educate students in hopes of keeping them form the same fate.
• How HIV Changed Ex-Addict’s Life – A story of recovery in the Middle East, this one highlights what it was that helped one heroin addict take the leap and break his addiction to heroin for good.
• The Teenage Face of Heroin Abuse: Sean O’Conner, 19 – U.S. News and World Report tells the story of one teen who stopped in time.

Heroin Rehab Works

In the words of Sean O’Conner, heroin rehab can help treat heroin addiction:

When I was stealing from my aunt and uncle and stealing from my neighbors, I was in a really bad place. Anything lying around and worth money—I took it. The night I overdosed, I was at my friend’s birthday party, and I got really drunk because I was waiting to get heroin and it wasn’t there yet. When my neighbor got some, I got a ride from the party to his house. I don’t really remember this, but from what people told me, after I shot up, I started freaking out [having seizures], and my neighbor propped me up against a tree, went back inside, and just left me there. Thankfully, another neighbor saw me outside and called the cops. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance after they gave me the Narcan shot. They told me I had been having seizures and that I almost choked on my tongue.

After I relapsed, my mom said, “Go and get better or you’re done, no more family.” My first few days here I said, “F— this place, I’m leaving. I would rather sit in county [jail] for six to eight months.” Then one night I realized all the positive things about this place. I can get my high school diploma. I can get my family back. By the time I’m out, my probation will be over, I’ll have a large amount of clean time, and I’ll have more tools and coping skills to use when I’m back out in the world.

I’ve only been here 14 days today, but I’ve realized this is the place where I have to be, and it helps. Seeing people actually be here for seven, eight months helps. If they can do it, I can do it too.

It is estimated that there are almost 1,000,000 heroin addicts in the United States, but that of these, only about 20 percent will ever get treatment. Every year, almost 4500 people die of heroin-related issues including HIV, heroin overdose and Hepatitis C.

Angela Cornelius is the director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. She says, “Addiction is a chemical change that occurs in the brain. Addiction isn’t about bad choices. Once addiction takes over, the individual can no longer make responsible choices. Addiction controls that person’s actions.”

And how do you treat heroin addiction? One way is methadone maintenance.

What is Methadone Maintenance?

Methadone is a synthetic opiate that works by blocking the opiate receptor in the brain and blocking cravings for heroin for up to 36 hours. If you take a high enough dose, it also blocks the effects of heroin should you attempt to use both simultaneously.

Methadone maintenance is a form of opiate addiction detox and treatment that allows you to immediately stop taking heroin and start taking methadone in its place. You’ll avoid the bulk of the withdrawal symptoms associated with detox and come into a methadone clinic daily to take your dose of liquid methadone. Over time and as long as you show up every day and turn in clean drug tests, you’ll begin to earn the privilege to take home more and more of your doses.

Who Uses Methadone Maintenance

People you wouldn’t expect and people you would. Everyone from those who are in drug rehab to those who have been heroin free for years with 9 to 5 jobs as lawyers and teachers. All creeds, all colors, all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. Heroin addiction knows no limits and so neither does methadone maintenance.

How Long Methadone Maintenance Lasts

This is a highly individual choice. According to Joanne Huist Smith at the Dayton Daily News:

“The weaning process is done on an individual basis. Federal regulations require yearly evaluations to determine whether patients should continue. It’s not unusual for clients to drop out — or get kicked out — and come back, sometimes more than once. Some patients stay on methadone for more than a decade, and even for the rest of their lives.”

Is Methadone Maintenance for You?

That, too, is a highly personal choice. It’s also not the only choice for heroin addiction or opiate addiction treatment. Buprenorphine in the form of Suboxone and Subutex is another maintenance treatment that does not require you to go into a clinic each day. You may also opt for a cold turkey detox in which you stop taking heroin or prescription painkillers without any maintenance medication and treat the withdrawal symptoms individually as they arise. Whatever you choose, it is recommended that you do it under the supervision of medical professionals, preferably at a heroin rehab facility like The Canyon.

It used to be that heroin addiction was found mostly in inner cities. Maybe there was some use in the high schools but not much to speak of and usually those who indulged didn’t stay in school long. Rather, the typical heroin addict was a white male between the ages of 20 and 35. Though this still describes the average heroin addict who enrolls in heroin rehab (though the age range changes from 25 to 45), it is no longer the average when it comes to who may or may not be struggling with heroin addiction out on the street.

Heroin Addiction is in Farm Country

Even in parts of the country where there are few hardcore addicts, where there is little more than suburbs and small towns and fields and fields of growing crops, there is now heroin addiction. And in these areas, the people most likely to be struggling with the issue are not middle aged white men but teenagers, high school kids who experiment with the drug at parties. From a Mexican cartel to big cities like LA, Chicago and Atlanta, from there the heroin is continually cut and distributed until it makes it out here to the suburbs. Busts of more than $1 million in heroin and $1 million in cash are increasingly common in small towns that previously have not been the focus of anti-drug actions.

Heroin Addiction Prejudice and Stereotypes in the Suburbs

If you think it’s hard to move on after drug addiction in a big city where people don’t necessarily know about your past, imagine how much more difficult it is in a small town. Those who are busted for heroin addiction, even those who enter drug rehab often return home to find themselves with a scarlet letter on their chests. It’s hard to find a job, to find a landlord who will rent to you. It’s hard to get credit to buy a car. There should be hope when you are no longer addicted to heroin, but in these small towns, there often isn’t and the only route left open to the people who have worked so hard to break their addiction to heroin: more of the same.

Heroin Addiction Treatment

Dr. Eugene Somoza is a psychiatry professor at the University of Cincinnati and director of the Cincinnati Addiction Research Center. He says, “Heroin addiction is a chronic disease just like high blood pressure or diabetes. We don’t have a cure, but we do have treatments.”