Salt Lake City Drug Rehab Detox Medical Management
(Suboxone & Vivitrol)
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It is extremely important to keep in mind that it is always in your best interest to go through a thorough detox period prior to officially starting a Utah Addiction Center treatment episode.
It does not matter if you are attending Outpatient Rehab or any of our residential treatment centers in Utah. Withdrawals are a very serious and really scary ordeal to undergo on your own. When you are able to actually apply a medically managed and monitored taper of various carefully prescribed narcotics such as but not limited to: Suboxone, Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, Subutex and Vivitrol, etc. by professional Suboxone Doctors; you have a much greater chance of successfully remaining drug and/or alcohol free for the rest of your life. The reason being is that the often severe withdrawal symptoms of coming off of heroin, alcohol, benzos, etc. can be exceptionally painful and even life threatening. Not so much for opiates, but never the less heroin withdrawal symptoms will make you feel like you are dying! If you are able to slowly come off of your intensive opiate intake with a medically managed dose so that your opioid Mu receptors are satisfied, you will not go thorough nearly as rough withdrawal symptoms as you would by going cold turkey or by a social detox. The only setback about utilizing this type of drug or alcohol detox is that you must have some money or a great insurance plan set in place or even a good benefactor, as there is not much wiggle room for detox in Utah when it comes to a sliding scale or offering a scholarship. The main reason being is that a true medically managed drug and alcohol detox center is employing nurses and Suboxone doctors around the clock 24/7 due to high liability to both seizures and in some cases death. Coming off of high doses of chronic use of drugs (alcohol and benzodiazepines especially) can cause some very serious issues with the body. Seizures was already mentioned, but also with alcohol there is the risk of delirium tremens (DT's). You do not have to go through a medical drug detox if you do not wish to. This is only a mere suggestion for the best possible outcome while experiencing the least amount of pain having the majority of your opiate or alcohol withdrawal symptoms alleviated so you have the greatest fair fighting chance while in our drug rehab Utah. |
If you would prefer to stay away from all agonists (Suboxone, Subutex, Klonopin, Xanax, Benzodiazepines, etc.) there are other options. An agonist is a drug that actually combines with your particular receptors that fulfill the constant craving and yearning for for of the drug. That is actually what is causing all of the withdrawal symptoms in the first place.
By being able to attach directly to the receptors, the body is able to continue to receive small doses to keep yourself in a better state of equilibrium. This is why you have to be careful and have a solid plan in place so you do not become dependent not the medically managed prescriptions as they are highly addictive and will never teach you the life saving coping skills you need to survive.
If you are completely done with drugs altogether, but still want a great chance at sobriety, yet you are so scared to deal with your active withdrawals and even worse do not know what to do. Then an antagonist is a better choice for you. As you would assume, an antagonist is a drug that caps off your receptors and will actually go in and pull out any left behind drug related chemical compounds. A common antagonist that medical emergency responders use is Narcan otherwise known as Naloxone.
If you have ever seen Pulp Fiction you might remember the part of the film where the woman had to be revived by a giant needle shot to her heart to re-awaken her out of her overdosing symptoms from her excessive heroin use. Although this saved her life, the powerful antagonist forced all opioids out of her Mu receptors so she went into immediate withdrawal symptoms. This is why you must be prescribed any antagonists as they can be dangerous if taken inappropriately.
The best antagonist for both opioid and alcohol use is the chemical compound naltrexone. Naltrexone is non-narcotic meaning it is not addictive, and has no real side effects while you are on it. In fact, most people that are on it do not know when they are on or off of it and report having a lot less cravings while they are on it! Naltrexone is available in many forms. To date the most common are in pill, bead or pellet or injection format. The pills are self explanatory, however the beads are not well known unless you have personally had one.
The bead or pellet is able to dissolve in your body with a various range in time. Some pellets dissolve in one month, others in three months and others in 6 months. The bead is usually implanted in your arm or butt cheek. This is an effective form of aversive medical treatment, however we have personal heard stories and met past clientele that have simply conducted their own medical procedure to cut the pellet out prior to fully dissolving in order to use heroin again!
The last form of Naltrexone is known as Vivitrol. This is a liquid version of Naltrexone wrapped in a oil/polymer based substance that slowly dissolves in a period of about 28 days. Some say it lasts for up to 30 days, but it is recommended to not go past the 28 day mark. Naltrexone will block the effects of opioids altogether and with alcohol it will keep you from feeling the effects of a drunkenness or buzz, but you will still be inebriated if that even makes sense?
It is still a better alternative to Antabuse in that Naltrexone will not make you vomit violently like Antabuse will if you consume any alcohol. When you are on the pill only version, this is dangerous unless you are in one of our drug rehab centers being closely monitored. The main reason is that while under our careful watch, you do not need to use the more expensive methods of Naltrexone. Again the only down side is if you are tired of being sober and want to get high again, it is really easy to stop taking your pills and relapse shortly thereafter.
The other main concern with Naltrexone, as far as in the liquid form (Vivitrol) is that currently the pharmaceutical company, Alchemes has a copyright on Vivitrol and let me tell you; they are a business and not in the business of saving lives like Salt Lake City Drug Rehab Centers is. The shot is very costly and for good reason because it is equally very effective. It is just sad that this form of aversive therapy is not available to those that cannot afford otherwise.
So if you are insured with a great provider or have around $1,200-$1,300 dollars per every 28 days, then you are in luck my friend! Otherwise, the next best thing is to attend our Utah Drug Rehab and take the pills on a daily basis. I believe a 90 day prescription is around $75 dollars out of pocket depending on the pharmacy you go to. Hopefully after reading all this you have a better idea of your medical management options which in summary are as follows. Medical drug and/or detox versus Social Detox, and if you choose a medical drug detox then you can again choose between taking an agonist versus an antagonist.
Whatever your choice is, we are help you through the entire process. You do not have to suffer alone in pain anymore! Please pick up the phone or complete our online form to see all of the different options available to you or a loved one!
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