Heroin Addiction Treatment and Recovery Support

What Is Heroin?

Heroin is an opioid derived from morphine, which is extracted from the seed pods of the opium poppy plant.[1] It can appear as a white powder, a brown powder, or a black tarry solid form referred to as “black tar” heroin. Heroin is used by being injected, smoked, or snorted.

Once heroin enters the brain, it is converted back to its active ingredient, morphine, which binds to opioid receptors in the brain, which are involved in pain relief and are responsible for producing feelings of pleasure and relief.[2] When these receptors are activated by heroin, users experience a sense of relaxation and euphoria immediately followed by sedative, drowsy effects and slowing down of breathing rates.

The very same mechanisms that account for the strong high experienced with heroin also contribute to the deadly overdose potential. Due to the illicit nature of the street heroin supply, many users unknowingly ingest synthetic opioids like fentanyl or other unknown substances with their heroin, which dramatically increases the risk of overdose.[3]

Heroin Addiction and Abuse

Repeated exposure to heroin causes structural and functional changes in brain areas controlling reward processing, stress response, and withdrawal response. At first, early heroin use produces euphoria, numbs negative emotions, and reduces anxiety. Through this initial stage, the brain creates associations between heroin use and immediate relief and survival, rather than just pleasure.

As repeated exposure continues, tolerance builds, and greater amounts are required to achieve the desired effect. If this continues, the body adjusts to heroin and becomes physically dependent on it, so that when the drug is absent, it causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms such as bone pain, cold flashes, nausea, anxiety, restlessness, or cravings.[4]

This is where the addiction becomes self-reinforcing. The primary motivation behind using heroin shifts from achieving a “high” to alleviating painful withdrawal symptoms. Fear of experiencing withdrawal becomes so overwhelming that users will continue to engage in behaviors that override health concerns, strained relationships, and the person’s desire to quit.

Chronic heroin use also impairs decision-making skills, causing users to pursue only those things that will provide them access to heroin. Repeatedly engaging in risky behaviors results in numerous detrimental consequences, including missing school, work, or social events, engaging in secretive behaviors, accumulating debt, damaging interpersonal relationships, contracting infectious diseases, developing skin infections or abscesses, criminal charges, and deteriorating mental health.

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