When used according to a doctor’s advice and prescription, fentanyl relieves severe pain. However, it attracts many people abusing the drug for its high. Street drug manufacturers even mix fentanyl into heroin, cocaine, and other drugs. In fact, fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and presents many problems and risks. Nevertheless, what is fentanyl, what are the side effects and what rehab options are available to those who become addicted?

Understanding What Fentanyl Is

So, what is fentanyl exactly? Fentanyl treats pain through prescription patches, lollipops, a dissolving tongue film, and dissolving pills. Many people first encounter fentanyl for surgical pain relief, after injury, or when otherwise provided by a doctor’s prescription.

Some people first experience fentanyl when using cocaine, heroin, or other street drugs. They do not even know they’re taking fentanyl, since street drug makers quietly mix it into other substances. Fentanyl in cocaine, heroin, or other drugs provides an extremely pleasurable high with quickly addictive qualities.

However, abusing fentanyl includes many deadly risks. Addiction comes very quickly, for one. After addiction, quitting fentanyl becomes more difficult with every dose. Even worse, the prospect of fatal overdose always looms over someone abusing this dangerous opiate. Addiction recovery in substance abuse treatment programs provides the only effective way out of fentanyl addiction.

Dangerous Side Effects of Abusing Fentanyl

Some of the common side effects of fentanyl use include:

• Nausea
• Sedation
• Confusion
• Constipation
• Drowsiness
• Restlessness
• Breathing trouble
• Anxiety and irritability
• Loss of appetite
• Muscle and joint pain
• Euphoria (intense happiness)

Abusing fentanyl in combination with other drugs or alcohol makes its side effects and dangers even worse. When fentanyl is combined with heroin or other depressants, you risk the following:

• Slowed breathing
• Hypoxia (decreased oxygen flow to the brain)
• Coma
• Brain damage

In some cases of overdose, people may stop breathing. Unfortunately, death is also a possible result of a fentanyl overdose.

Your only sure way out of addiction to fentanyl starts in detox and includes rehab. Specifically, rehab is a critical step in recovery due to the therapies, education, and support these programs provide. Without rehab, however, you risk a potentially deadly relapse.

More About the Dangers of Fentanyl Abuse

Often, people who are suffering from fentanyl abuse struggle to break free from this issue. This is mainly due to the fact that substance dependence changes the structure of the brain. This causes people to develop an uncontrollable craving for the drug they’re abusing. (In this case, that would be fentanyl.)

Fentanyl abuse is more than a recreational drug use problem. It can cause major health issues and affect a person’s life permanently.

Sometimes, individuals who abuse fentanyl mix it with other substances in order to intensify the drug’s effects. They may use fentanyl with heroin or cocaine. Although the effects may feel “pleasant”, the results of this substance abuse may prove to be life-altering and even fatal. This is why it’s so important to seek professional help in dealing with fentanyl dependence and abuse.

Fentanyl Rehab in Asheville, North Carolina

Crest View Recovery Center, in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, treats people like you for lasting recovery from fentanyl addiction. Opiate addiction treatment includes support, therapies, and the education you deserve for lasting recovery. Men and women from all over the United States find strength in recovery from various substances at CVRC, just as you can also.

Addiction treatment services at Crest View Recovery Center include:

• Rehab treatment
• Intensive outpatient program
• Reality therapy
• Gender-specific housing
• Comprehensive health and wellness program
• Trauma treatment program
• Family therapy program

Gain the strong and lasting recovery you need after opiate abuse at Crest View Recovery Center. Treatment includes a variety of addiction therapy services and wellness methods, including acupuncture, yoga, nutritional counseling, meditation, recreational therapy, and family programs. At CVRC, you develop a balanced life for the lifelong sobriety you crave.

If you or someone you love suffers an addiction to drugs or alcohol, call Crest View Recovery Center now at 866-327-2505. The strong recovery you want awaits at CVRC.