Opiates are narcotic substances derived from opium. Examples include heroin, morphine and oxycodone. When you take opiates on a regular basis, changes take place in your body and nervous system so you need to keep taking those opiates just to feel normal and cope with life. Or worse still, you may find yourself taking opiates to avoid feeling pain. What’s more, your body keeps on changing, adapting its own responses so that more and more drugs are needed just to get through the day. It’s little wonder that people who are addicted to opiates often say that they feel “out of control” and that opiates have taken over their lives. Treatment offers a way of trying to get some control back over your body – and your life – and begin the journey to undoing some of those physical changes.

Changing views of addiction

Gone are the days when opiate addiction was seen as a sign that someone is somehow fundamentally bad. As a result of the growing understanding of the changes that happen in the body, addiction is increasingly recognised as a long-term illness that people live with, a little like diabetes.

As with any long-term illness, treatment is an important component of living with a disease. While in the long run, the complex changes that have taken place in your body may begin to be reversed, in the short-term, stabilising your symptoms is the first priority: getting away from the cravings, the frequency of using and a lifestyle that is centred around your need to use.

Turn the page to find out more about the ways that you can move forward from here and begin your journey. If you are no stranger to treatment, you may wish to flick straight to the section about returning to treatment.