Rehab for Addiction to Heroin and Benzos
There is a growing trend of people mixing heroin and benzodiazepines to enhance the numbing and euphoric effects that both drugs create. Luckily, dual diagnosis treatment programs can address these problems.
Heroin is an extremely addictive illegal drug that is made from morphine. Morphine is a naturally occurring substance that is derived from the opium poppy plant. Heroin normally comes in a brown or white powder, or a black sticky tar substance and is normally either snorted, injected, or smoked. Heroin creates a strong sedative and euphoric effect on a person when it is taken. Benzodiazepines, or benzos, are prescription medication that belongs to a class of medications known as tranquilizers that promotes sedation and muscle relaxation. It is commonly used to treat things like anxiety or insomnia, to name a couple.
Dangers of Mixing Heroin with Benzos
There are severe risks involved when mixing these two drugs. There is a growing trend of people mixing heroin and benzos to enhance the numbing and euphoric effects that both drugs create. Opioids like heroin and benzos are two of the most commonly abused drugs in the nation and also the strongest. Combining these two drugs only heightens the risk of overdosing in an already risky situation of just taking one of the other.
Both heroin and benzos already have a high likelihood of abuse and addiction when they are taken alone. When combined, they create an even more deadly situation. In 2019 alone, close to 20% of deaths involving opioids like heroin also involved benzodiazepines. According to the National Institutes of Health:
Every day, more than 136 Americans die after overdosing on opioids.1 However, between 1996 and 2013, the number of adults who filled a benzodiazepine prescription increased by 67%, from 8.1 million to 13.5 million.2The quantity obtained also increased from 1.1 kg to 3.6 kg lorazepam-equivalents per 100,000 adults. Combining opioids and benzodiazepines can be unsafe because both types of drug sedate users and suppress breathing—the cause of overdose fatality.
Why Is Heroin and Benzo Abuse So Dangerous?
Both of these drugs are central nervous system depressants that act on the body by reducing the brain’s activity and other vital body functions including breathing. Both heroin and benzos have a lot of overlapping side effects like extreme drowsiness, confusion, respiratory depression, and decreased motor skills. When these two drugs are abused at the same time, the side effects will be exacerbated. Since both of these drugs are central nervous system depressants, the risk of overdose becomes that much higher. Some signs of an overdose on both benzos and heroin can include:
- Slowed or stopped breathing
- Blue lips and fingers
- Extreme dizziness
- Unresponsiveness or loss of consciousness
- Gurgling and snorting noises because breathing becomes difficult
While heroin and benzo withdrawal and detox may not be fatal individually, if these drugs have been abused together the person will experience extremely painful withdrawal symptoms and can even experience seizures of convulsions when the drugs are stopped. The best way to start your rehab journey for treatment of heroin and benzos is with a medically assisted detox program. This is to ensure your safety and provide as much comfort as possible in a safe and secure environment while you rid your body of these drugs with the help of doctors, medical professionals, and addiction experts.
Let Evoke Waltham Help You
After detox, it is best to remain in rehab so you can learn how to live without abusing drugs like these. Here you will learn what it means to live sober and get to the root of your addiction so you can deal with your problems and learn to live a life free from drugs. This is done with various kinds of therapy to help uncover the underlying problems you have and what caused the substance abuse to begin with. Evoke Waltham enter is available for you 24/7. Let us help you begin your journey in recovery.
