Teen Opiate Rehab
- Teen Opiate Rehab
- Costs of Rehab
- Signs and Symptoms
- Recovery Options
- Treatment Options
Table of Contents
How Addiction Develops
Drug Detoxification
Maintenance Medication
Role of Counseling
Group Sessions
Role of Family
How Addiction Develop
Opiates are made from poppy seeds, and they've been used for pain control for decades. When a user takes in an opiate, the drug moves through the bloodstream and attaches to specific opiate receptors. As these receptors are activated, the body's ability to feel pain is decreased. Pain control, by itself, might be appealing to some teens, but most teens begin using opiates because the drugs cause euphoria. After taking an opiate, the teen may feel happy, silly or simply good.
As the body becomes accustomed to opiates, the opiate receptors become a bit less receptive. The user may find higher doses of drugs are needed in order to achieve the same effect. This is known as drug dependence, and for people who take the drug for pain control, this isn't considered abnormal. It's just the basic way the body responds to the drug. There are times, however, when drug dependence becomes addiction. Teens who are on pain medications for long periods of time, and who continue to take the medications when they are no longer in pain, may be addicted. And teens who take these drugs for recreational purposes on a regular basis might also be considered addicts.
Addicted teens who find themselves taking larger and larger doses of prescription medications and still find it difficult to achieve a high may turn to heroin for relief. Heroin is simply much more powerful than prescription codeine or morphine, and often, it's easy to get and cheap to buy. Heroin use in teens is always dangerous, even if teens only try it one time, and heroin use among teens is on the rise in the United States. According to an article published in the journal Pediatrics, in 1997 heroin use among 12th graders was 100 percent higher than it was from 1990 to 1996.
Teens who are addicted to prescription medications, or who are experimenting with heroin, need help from their parents. Addiction to opiates is dangerous, and it's nearly impossible for the teen to combat the addiction without help from medical professionals.
Drug Detoxification
The first step in any opiate rehabilitation program involves detoxification, but this process might be a bit more difficult than it seems at first glance, and it's often more complicated than detoxification processes used for other drugs. Teens who are addicted to alcohol, for example, might receive medications to ease withdrawal symptoms for a few days, and then they emerge from the process with systems clean of all drugs. Opiate detoxification takes much longer due to the nature of the drug.
Traditional opiate addiction programs use a drug called methadone to assist with the detoxification process. Methadone also binds to opiate receptors in the body, but it doesn't cause the same level of a euphoric high that users feel when they take heroin or prescription medications. In a traditional detoxification program, teens are given a high level of methadone when they enter the program and then they are slowly given smaller and smaller doses of methadone over the following days and weeks until they're taking no methadone at all. This form of opiate detoxification is falling out of favor, however, and many programs combine this detoxification with maintenance medications, as described below.
Some drug detoxification programs offer a "rapid detox," in which the addict is put under sedation and flooded with drugs to shut off the opiate receptors. The withdrawal symptoms the addict might feel, including nausea and muscle pain, have passed before the person is awakened from anesthesia. Few studies have been performed on the efficacy of this treatment on teens, but there have been reports of adults dying due to the rapid detox program. It's not a process parents should take lightly; instead, they should talk to the child's doctor or an addiction counselor at length to determine the best course for detox.
Maintenance Medications
Teens who have a severe addiction to opiates may need to take a medication for months or years after they've entered a treatment program. Their bodies have changed so dramatically that they cannot seem to function without an additional influx of medications, and taking these medications can keep the teen from returning to street drugs such as heroin.
Some addicted teens enter a methadone maintenance program, in which they are given a small amount of the drug several times per week for an extended period of time. For many years, this has been considered the baseline of treatment in opiate addiction in adults. The idea isn't without controversy, however. According to an article in the Harvard Family Health Guide, 25 percent of people who enter a methadone maintenance program eventually become abstinent, but 50 percent of people cycle on and off the drug. Often, parents resist methadone maintenance programs for their teens for this reason. In addition, teens may try to abuse the methadone by injecting the drugs, or saving up doses and taking them all at once. Even when used properly, methadone provides a bit of a high, and some parents resist this aspect of treatment as well.
Another medication, known as buprenorphine, has proven promising in treating opiate addiction. This drug is given in tablet form, allowing teens to take the medication while still attending school and living at home, and it’s often combined with another medication that renders the drug neutral when it's injected. Taken properly, buprenorphine provides very little euphoric effects. Teens who wish to crush the buprenorphine in the hopes of achieving a quick high quickly stop, as the medication simply won't work that way. According to a presentation at the American Academy of Pediatrics 18th Annual Meeting and Symposium, teens who used buprenorphine combination medications for longer than two weeks stayed clean for a longer period of time than did teens who only used other medications for two weeks. Both groups, however, did tend to relapse when the buprenorphine medications were stopped.
The Role of Counseling
In most cases, teens begin counseling sessions as soon as they enter an inpatient drug treatment program, and they continue to participate in these sessions for months after they've completed the detoxification process. In counseling sessions, teens learn to:- Identify situations that bring on drug urges and develop methods to avoid those situations
- Deal with stress and anxiety through exercise, meditation and positive thinking
- Consider how addiction impacts their long-term health
- Verbalize their feelings and ask for help when needed
Some teens use opiates to help them mask the signs and symptoms of mental illness. When these teens stop using the drugs, those illnesses can intensify and the teen can face severe challenges. At Newport Academy, we specialize in helping teens who are facing both addiction and mental illness, and our counselors develop programs that can help teens learn about how their disease is impacted by their addiction. These sorts of tailored programs are vital for teens with mental illness and addiction, as they may not thrive in an addiction program that does not address their mental health at the same time.
Group Sessions
Teens are social animals, and they often enjoy learning from one another. For this reason, teens are often encouraged to participate in group counseling sessions. These sessions may begin when the teen enters an inpatient detoxification program, and when the teen completes the program, he or she is encouraged to enter a group therapy program in the community.
Narcotics Anonymous is the most recognizable community group program. This program is a modified version of Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12-step program designed to assist adult alcoholics. In these programs, the addicted person is encouraged to think of addiction as a chronic disease that can only be conquered through submission to a higher power. The addicted person is asked to attend meetings on a regular basis, and walk through a series of steps to help him or her complete a transformation from addiction to sobriety. According to a study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, adolescents who are motivated to change and stay clean, and who adhere closely to all of the rules and guidelines, are most likely to feel the benefit of a 12-step program. Teens who attend on a sporadic basis because they think someone else wants them to attend may not feel the true impact of the program. As any parent can attest, it might be hard to motivate a teen to truly believe in anything, but teens who do believe in the program and attend the meetings as scheduled really will feel the most benefit from the program.
The Role of the Family
No matter what they might say, teens are tightly connected to their families and those families should be involved in all stages of the teen's care. Often, this means that family members must participate in counseling sessions with the teen. The entire family should learn more about the addiction, how the addiction is impacting the mental and physical health of the teen, and pick up tips on how to help support the teen through the recovery process.
Some families may have destructive habits that encourage teen addiction. The teen might have stolen money, broken promises or been unreliable as a result of the addiction, and the family may continue to use blaming, hurtful or accusatory language. The family may unconsciously use damaging or hurtful language when describing the teen, and this could drive the teen inward. A counselor can help point out these habits and help the family learn new ways of speaking with one another.
When the teen emerges from treatment and sobriety is new, the family can continue to provide vital support by listening to the teen and reaching out to help when the teen seems conflicted, low or unhappy. This is a difficult time for the teen, full of new and unexpected challenges, and family members can help by staying aware and keeping lines of communication open. Families can also get creative and think of activities the teen can perform to keep his or her mind and body busy. Family outings may seem corny, but they can be helpful on your teen’s journey to sobriety.
