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Have you ever wondered how long heroin stays in your body? Well, the answer may very well surprise you. Heroin is a powerful opioid, but it stays in your body for a relatively short time. However, there is one kind of test that can detect it for up to 90 days.
If you are reading this, you are either concerned about heroin in your own body or someone else’s. Either way, we are here to help. In this post, we will go over the effects of heroin in the body, how long heroin stays in your system, and treatment for heroin addiction.
Heroin enters the brain very quickly and sticks to the opioid receptors located there. Heroin specifically sticks to the receptors that control pain and pleasure, as well as breathing.
Repeated use of the opioid creates tolerance to it. This will signal to the brain that it needs more and more to get the same “high.” It also can affect your ability to make decisions, deal with stressful situations, and even your ability to control behavior.
Heroin affects other parts of the body as well. Long-term use of heroin can lead to kidney and lung diseases, collapsed veins if the substance was injected, tissue damage in the nose if it was smoked or snorted, and it can lead to sexual dysfunction for men. If injected long term, it can also lead to contracting bloodborne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis C.
Heroin has a relatively quick life when it comes to detecting it in the body. Whereas most substances will be in your body for at least a few days, heroin’s life in your body can be less than a day.
As a matter of fact, heroin can be undetectable in one to three days for most people and be out of your system in 30 minutes. This is because heroin is broken down into two different substances: morphine and 6-acetylmorphine. These substances are measured instead of heroin because of the quick half-life of heroin (how long it takes the body to get rid of half of a substance).
While 6-acetylmorphine has a half-life of a little over half an hour, morphine’s half-life is two to seven hours. Morphine can be detected in urine for up to seven days. The method of detection is usually a urine test, but there are a few different ways to detect heroin in the body.
Blood tests are another method of detection but not a very reliable one. The reason these are unreliable is due to the short half-life of the substance.
Another test is the saliva test, which is used even less than blood tests. The half-life of heroin affects this even more as it is typically out of the saliva in a half-hour or less.
The final test is the hair follicle test. This test has been proven to be the best choice for testing for heroin as the substance can be found in hair follicles for up to 90 days. While this can depend on hair length, this is the most reliable method.
Heroin has a high potential for accidental overdose. Overdosing on heroin is dangerous and has symptoms that can affect different areas of the body. For example, an overdose on heroin may affect your eyes, nose, and throat by causing:
Overdose can get your lungs and airways as well as it can cause slow breathing, difficulty breathing, and can even stop you from breathing. Along with this, it can also affect your blood pressure and give you a weak pulse. It affects your nervous system as well by causing:
If someone is showing signs of a heroin overdose, immediately dial 911. Stay calm as you will need to explain everything that is happening to the operator.
Heroin addiction affects people worldwide and has affected our Oregonians as well. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2018, nearly 70% of all overdose fatalities in the state involved opioids. NIDA also found that in 2020, there were 151 heroin or prescription opioid-related deaths. Heroin addiction is tough and dangerous, but treatment is available at Serenity Lane.
Serenity Lane offers several options for heroin addiction treatment. We believe each client is a different person, so our treatment options attempt to serve clients from all walks of life while still having a tailored, whole-person approach to recovery.
Residential treatment, or inpatient treatment, is where the client will stay at the facility. This gives our clients time to focus on their recovery and not worry about outside influences that may trigger their addiction.
Residential treatment has several benefits, such as medical support, medication to help with withdrawal symptoms, counseling, different forms of therapy, and aftercare support. The first part of residential treatment will be the process of detox.
When starting out the recovery process, the first thing that will happen is getting rid of the heroin in your body. This process is called detox, and this can be a stressful time.
Serenity Lane believes in a holistic approach to treatment and detox and knows the process isn’t just physical. During detox, we will address the mental, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of detox along with the physical.
Physically, we will be addressing and helping you through the symptoms of withdrawal. Medications may also be introduced at this time to ease withdrawal symptoms and help clients break their opioid dependence.
The safety of the people in our care is our top concern. That is why we have embraced the benefits of having experienced, compassionate professionals that easily handle the withdrawal process. We believe our medical detox is very important because it reduces the pain and discomfort experienced by those going through detox so that it is easier to meet their medical and emotional needs. Medical detox helps minimize the risk of complications due to heroin use disorder and allows people to focus on recovery sooner.
This process will be challenging as it is your body reacting to getting rid of the heroin in your system. Symptoms of heroin withdrawal can include:
These are some of the early withdrawal symptoms, which usually start within the first 12 hours of the last time you used heroin. In the later stages, it is common to have:
While physical symptoms subside within a week, there are also psychological symptoms of heroin withdrawal that may take longer to break. This is where therapy comes into play.
At Serenity Lane, we have a cutting-edge medication-assisted treatment (MAT) program. We employ the use of medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including naltrexone, methadone, and buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorders, like heroin use disorder. These drugs help to normalize brain chemistry, which relieves physiological cravings and normalizes body functions without the negative effects of heroin withdrawal.
In 2002, buprenorphine received FDA approval as an effective treatment for heroin addiction. In clinical studies, buprenorphine has proven to minimize the painful effects of heroin withdrawal without side effects like sedation or euphoria (the pleasurable high).
MAT works by targeting the same parts of the brain as heroin. Specifically, naltrexone blocks the effects of opioids at the opioid receptors in a person’s brain, and naltrexone is only used with patients who have already been through detox. Methadone and buprenorphine are slightly different in that they suppress withdrawal symptoms and cravings.
Medication alone is not a cure-all for heroin addiction. Medication is just one component of our treatment program. Some key parts of our program include:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of therapy that focuses on catching inaccurate thinking and working to change those thought patterns. CBT encourages clients to talk about their feelings and aims to get to the root of why the client is feeling that way.
CBT can require clients to do certain activities outside of the session so the clients can apply what they’ve learned in the real world. These activities can include reading a book about something related to feelings, writing your feelings down, or practicing meditation.
CBT is based on changing two core patterns: thinking and behavioral. According to the American Psychological Association, the strategies for changing behavioral patterns are:
There are also strategies for changing thinking patterns as well. These include:
Addiction can put a strain on family relationships. Your family may not know how to even talk to you, and vice versa. Luckily, Serenity Lane can help with family therapy.
Family therapy is a way for you and your family to talk about everything addiction has caused. Your family may be feeling upset at how your addiction affected them, and you may be feeling upset that your family doesn’t know how to help you. Family therapy will start the process of answering those questions and can begin to mend the relationship between you and your family.
You might be too busy to stop your life and stay in a facility for an extended period of time. Luckily, we offer two outpatient programs. Outpatient treatment would require you to come to a facility but go home afterward. This form of treatment works best for those who still have jobs and other obligations outside of recovery.
We offer Level I and Level II outpatient programs. Level I meets for one-and-a-half hours once a week, and Level II meets for three hours three times a week. Our outpatient sessions are now available online as well to give our clients more flexibility. Clients can expect different forms of therapy and will learn how to maintain the balance of treatment in their lives.
Recovery is difficult, but here at Serenity Lane, we know you are strong. Serenity Lane is dedicated to giving the highest quality of care to the residents of Oregon, regardless of their background.
Serenity Lane offers individualized treatment plans for each client, and we are committed to helping each client throughout their journey. Call (800) 543-9905 today to start your journey.
How long after using heroin is it detectable in urine?
The most common method of detecting heroin in urine is through morphine detection. Morphine can be detected in urine for up to seven days.
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