No addict looks forward to experiencing the intensely uncomfortable pains and sickness of withdrawal. However, this is always the first step to leaving drugs behind. Depending on the drug of choice and the amount taken regularly, withdrawal symptoms can vary.
The treatment called “rapid detox” was developed for withdrawing from opiates. These opiates include heroin, Vicodin, methadone, Percocet or OxyContin. The objective was to make it possible to come off opiates without discomfort.
In rapid detox, the person wishing to withdraw from the opiate gets an anesthesia and is put under. Then the addict receives a large dose of other drugs that block the effects of opiates. This was supposed to result in an accelerated withdrawal and the person would wake up with the worst of the symptoms gone.
By 2010, this method began to be shunned in various state medical guidelines because it was too dangerous. When opiate addicts withdraw from one of these drugs, they will normally vomit. If under anesthesia, vomiting can be life-threatening. Some died while going through rapid detox.
There are programs that do not use this type of detox, and in fact, there are programs that do not use substitute drugs at all in treatment. Withdrawal is accomplished and made more tolerable with nutritional support and the assistance of staff in the facility. Many symptoms of withdrawal are exaggerated because the body is suffering from poor nourishment and insufficient rest. Making sure the recovering addict gets depleted vitamins and minerals replenished, gets good sleep and food and plenty of B Vitamins helps him to get through withdrawal with less suffering. And without the dangerous side-effects of medications and other drugs!