How does heroin make you feel during substance use? How does it make you feel post-high?
When heroin enters your body and starts coursing through your veins, you probably experience an almost instantaneous euphoric high. But at what cost?
When the heroin effects wear off, are you left grasping for more? Always in search of a bigger, stronger high, over and over again. These desperate actions and behaviors are due to the effects that heroin has on your mind. But what’s equally important to know is how heroin is damaging the rest of your body.
Keep reading to learn about heroin short-term and long-term effects on the body, and the detox and recovery support that is available if you’re ready to get and remain clean.
Short-Term Heroin Effects on the Body
Heroin is a quick-hitting drug. It delivers a rapid rush of pleasure and sends users into a state of happiness, tranquility and peace. In the short-term, heroin effects on the body include:
Gratifying Effects:
- Pain, stress and anxiety relief
- Slowed breathing and heart rate [attributing to the calm, tranquil feelings]
- Warm sensation, flushed skin
- Slow, heavy feeling throughout the entire body [again, attributing to the tranquil feelings]
- Drowsiness
Unpleasant Effects:
- Dry mouth
- Nausea and vomiting
- Fading in and out of consciousness
- Intense itching
- Increased body temperature
- Irregular heart rate
When Heroin Quickly Turns Deadly
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve used heroin or how in control you feel. Any time you use, it could be your last. Some of the most satisfying aspects of a heroin high are also the most dangerous. Because heroin significantly slows your heart and breathing rate, death can occur from:
- Your respiratory system losing functionality, causing you to stop breathing
- Your brain losing its oxygen supply from an overdose
Long-Term Heroin Effects on the Body
As a heroin addiction continues, your body begins to break down and endures new and compounded issues. The following are long-term heroin effects on the body:
- Poor sleep patterns or insomnia
- Malnutrition
- Weak immunity
- Low or lost sex drive
- Skin sores and abscesses from repeated itching
- Swollen gums and compromised oral health
- Severe constipation
- Bacterial infections
- {Women} Irregular or nonexistent menstrual cycles
How Heroin Slowly Turns Deadly
Heroin doesn’t just attack your everyday rhythm and surface-level bodily systems and functions. And heroin deaths don’t just occur from overdoes. Long-term use of heroin can wreak havoc on major body functions and ultimately lead to death. Here’s how:
- Your heart can fail from a condition called infective endocarditis, an infection of the heart’s inner surface/valves. Infective endocarditis usually occurs in right-side heart valves and is becoming common among injection drug users.
- Your kidney(s) can fail from a condition called secondary amyloidosis. This is where proteins build up in the body’s tissues and organs from long-term exposure to inflammation and inflections.
- Your brain can become permanently damaged from the lack of oxygen caused by a non-fatal overdose(s).
- Your lungs can become easily susceptible to pneumonia or tuberculosis.
If you inject heroin, you can suffer from blood infections, collapsed veins and serious soft tissue infections.
If you snort heroin, your mucosal tissues can become painful and damaged.
If you’ve found your way to this article because you’ve experienced heroin effects on the body first-hand and want to get sober, your life depends on your next moves.
Don’t put off your health and detoxification any longer.
Your body is your permanent home, but your heroin addiction is rapidly demolishing it. Without your health, there won’t be too many more tomorrows.
Heroin Drug Treatment at Covenant Hills
At Covenant Hills, we know exactly where you’re at – what you’ve been through and the uncertainty of your current state of mind. Can I really get clean? What will my life be like without heroin? Will I be able to stay sober?
Know this: You can because there is hope, and there is life-changing help and support.
Through our faith-based heroin addiction rehab program, your mind, body and soul will be restored, and you will leave here with a brand-new life ahead of you. Learn more about our heroin drug treatment, or contact us for a free and confidential assessment.
