It is an unfortunate fact that many Americans are addicted to hard drugs such as opioids, among others, and this often poses a public health problem. Many adults and even adolescents abuse painkillers for a variety of reasons, and this can greatly strain the abuser’s finances, work life, and personal life, and of course, threaten their health, too. Fortunately, for any drug addict who is seeking recovery, methadone clinics can be found nearly anywhere, especially in major cities such as Miami and Chicago. A person may look up “methadone clinics in chicago suburbs” or “methadone clinics in chicago suburbs 24 hrs” to find such a clinic and visit. Some drug addicts may look for methadone clinics on their own, and in other cases, concerned friends and family may look up methadone clinics in Chicago suburbs or similar areas and stage an intervention for the addict. Then, the addict may agree to visit those clinics, or detox clinics, for an opiate detox.
Drug Abuse in the United States
What sort of drugs are Americans abusing, and how often do today’s adults or adolescents become addicted to those drugs? Studies suggest that many more people today are heroin for the first time as compared to previous decades. In 2006, 90,000 people used heroin for the first time, and that figure jumped to 170,000 by the year 2016. In that same year, 948,000 Americans reported that they had used heroin within the last 12 months. It is also believed that among all heroin users, around 23% of them will develop an addiction to that drug, and four in five heroin abusers started out by abusing over-the-counter painkillers.
Abusing drugs takes a toll. An addict may lose their job due to constant drug abuse, and that addict might also alienate friends and family, and spending money on those drugs may strain the addict’s finances. Not to mention the serious health risks, and accidental overdose of drugs ranks first among the causes of accidental death in the United States. This is why concerned friends and family members may confront a drug abuser and stage an intervention, strongly urging that person to seek treatment. If the addict agrees, they may look up “methadone clinics in chicago suburbs” or something to that effect, and get clean with the aid of medical professionals. How might this work?
Getting Clean of Drugs
One way to address an opioid addiction is to visit a methadone clinic. Methadone is a legal drug that the doctors at a methadone clinic may prescribe for a patient, and correct use of this drug will shut down the addict’s craving for opioids and heroin. Care should be taken so that methadone is administered correctly for proper results.
A drug addict may also look for detox centers as well as methadone centers, and allow the drugs to flush out of their system safely. An addict seeking recovery must take this first step, but they should not do it alone. Withdrawal symptoms during detox can be quite intense in some cases, and someone detoxing at home might end up relapsing to escape the discomfort. And if the detox process results in dangerous medical complications, there won’t be anyone around to help out. So, a drug addict is urged to visit detox centers and check themselves in for a few days.
At a detox center, the patient will spend a few nights and days under observation as the detox process begins. Nurses and doctors on staff may intervene if the patient suffers any dangerous withdrawal complications, and either way, the patient will soon be clean of drug. Now, the recovering addict is ready for therapy and counseling, where they may talk out their problems with a mental health expert. In addition to that, the recovering addict may join an anonymous support group to meet other recovering addicts, and this can help strengthen the patient’s resolve. The same is true of anonymous groups for recovering alcoholics. A recovering addict might also get support for finding housing and honest work, through vocational rehab services or the like.
