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For the ten percent of the wider population believed to frequently make use of opiates, quite a few of them can become physically dependent on opiates-AKA addicted.  Because of this, when they make a decision to get sober and rid their body of opiates they must go through what is commonly called as “opiate detox”.  For someone physically dependent upon opiates, an opiate detox can cause a plethora of adverse symptoms.  Both the physical symptoms of opiate detox and the mental symptoms of opiate detox are severe although rarely are the effects fatal.

Physical symptoms of opiate detox quite often are made up of the following: nausea and vomiting, body aches and joint pain, increased tearing, diarrhea, and stomach cramping.  If the individual was using opiates for a long period of time, then the mental effects associated with opiate detox can include the following: insomnia, anxiety, paranoia, and agitation.

In some opiate detox facilities, quite often called rapid opiate detox, the person undergoing treatment is wholly sedated during the opiate detox so that these people don’t have to experience the painful effects of their opiate detox.  This is accomplished in a hospital setting where the opiate addict is closely observed by doctors and nurses.  Because the effectiveness of rapid opiate detox programs for helping to keep opiate addicts sober for extended of time is still up in the air, what is definite is that they are a extremely expensive and short way to get your opiate detox done.

In more usual opiate detox programs less powerful sedatives are used to take care of the mental symptoms of opiate detox and some other medicines are used to treat the physical effects of the opiate detox.  Usually these programs can be known as social model detox programs, or “non-medical” detox even though mild detox medications are given to the clients.  The emphasis in these types of opiate detox programs is to find more of a lifelong solution to the opiate addiction, and the programs don't look at a clinical strategy but also implement therapeutic activities during the opiate detox like counseling and meditation to help treat the addiction. 

Almost all of these opiate detox programs even employ therapeutic methods such as immersion in hot water to treat the body aches that go along with with opiate detox.  Most often a spa is made available to the people undergoing opiate detox, and this has been shown to drastically reduce the body aches and joint pain associated with opiate detox without the requirement for additional drugs used to treat pain. 

As social model opiate detox programs emphasize a lifelong strategy to taking care of the opiate addiction, these programs don’t view opiate detox as a cure.  Instead they quite often stress more treatment for their clients after detox including 12 step meetings, outpatient counseling, or addition inpatient treatment.