Insomnia is one of the dreadful side effects that one experiences when they are going through opiate withdrawal. Opiates include but are not limited to Heroin, Oxycontins, Dilaudid, Codeine, Vicodin, and Morphine. Opiates are extremely difficult to come down off of, more difficult than probably any other drug besides maybe alcohol. Once these drugs are stopped, the body needs a great deal of time to recover. Initially, the person might even require hospitalization because they can be that sick. Clonodine can be prescribed as a temporary measure to assist with the withdrawal, resulting in a temporary relief of the insomnia.
When a person is born, they have natural opiates that are produced regularly throughout their lifetime. They are called opioid receptors which stimulate the brain and are responsible for lifting a person's mood, helping that person feel motivated for everyday purposes, and natural pain relief. When a person starts using opiates regularly, these opiates is much more stimulating than the ones that a person is born with. This causes the natural receptors to die off and quit producing usually within a year of the addict beginning use of the opiate. So when a person is withdrawing from opiates it is very common for them to experience very lengthy periods of insomnia.
So lengthy that it could be weeks before they get any sleep at all but often years before the insomnia disappears entirely, if ever. There are some drugs that the doctor can prescribe for short term insomnia but they will not risk a concurrent addiction. Most of the withdrawal symptoms have to be worked out on their own, which unfortunately is the main reason that when opiate users do not use replacement therapy to come off of opiates, the success rate is very narrow. It takes a very strong person and one that is much convicted to be able to fight off this demon and cope with the side effects and the icing on the cake is the unwelcome insomnia.
Besides the insomnia, opiate addicts have a very long list of other symptoms that they have to suffer through in addition. However, when the insomnia is compiled with the other horrible side effects, the outlook at that point is quite bleak. Although it is temporary, no one knows for certain how long that might be. Usually doctors will prescribe Valium or Restoril to help the person attempt to get some sleep. No one can underestimate the horrific effects that a person goes through when coming off of opiates and for an extended period after.
Doctors might recommend that the addict begin a treatment recovery program using Suboxone or Methadone. Both of these are long term treatments making the body feel as if it has the opiate in it, of course never getting a high from either, and more importantly, these medications block the opioid receptors so even if the person decided to use, there would be no effect from the opiate at all. This is a very effective treatment and one that will likely reduce any further displays of insomnia.
