Lortab Addiction: Can Methadone Help Me Get Sober?
Maybe you started off using Lortab for legitimate reasons. Or maybe you started using it as a means of getting high. Regardless of the beginning of your story, everyone who is addicted to Lortab has to suffer the same consequences.
Luckily, being addicted to Lortab isn’t a complete death sentence. There are plenty of ways to get sober and get your life back. One of these methods is through methadone maintenance therapy.
Never heard of methadone? It’s a drug commonly used to help people like you end their opioid addiction.
What Is Lortab?
Lortab is a potent combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone. It is commonly used to help relieve pain after surgery or injury. In small and controlled doses, it is fine.
However, if you continue taking it after your pain is over, you could quickly become addicted.
As an addict, you’re probably infinitely familiar with Lortab. But do you know exactly how it works?
Once ingested, Lortab changes the way your brain functions. It’s an opioid, so it binds to the opioid receptors in your brain.
This is what produces the pleasurable effects that led you to keep taking Lortab. It’s also what created your physical dependency that prevented you from stopping your Lortab doses.
Over time, your brain gets used to having these opioid receptors triggered, making it nearly impossible to wean yourself off the drug without severe side effects.
If you’re addicted to Lortab and need help right away, call us at 800-994-1867Who Answers?. We can help you get in touch with the right treatment centers near you.
What Is Methadone?
Methadone is also an opioid medication. However, unlike Lortab, it was specifically designed to help a person detox from addiction to other opioids.
What’s the difference between methadone and Lortab? Methadone does not produce any of the hazardous or pleasurable effects that Lortab does. In addition, taking methadone will actually block the effects of Lortab.
This means that if you try taking Lortab while on methadone, you won’t actually be able to get high.
How Does Methadone Help With Lortab Addiction?
Methadone is commonly used to help people wean themselves off of Lortab or other opioids. By slowly building up to a daily dose of methadone, a person can slowly reduce their use of Lortab until they aren’t taking it at all.
This will prevent the person from experiencing any withdrawal symptoms, which are often the most troublesome part of getting off drugs.
However, methadone can also be used for long-term maintenance treatment. In this method, instead of weaning off methadone after withdrawal is over, methadone will continue to be taken until a person’s lifestyle is more stable.
All you have to do is take one dose of methadone a day to reduce cravings and symptoms.
Studies have shown that methadone maintenance treatment is extremely effective. It can help to reduce use of illegal opioids, reduce the risk of deadly side effects, decrease the transmission of HIV, and even improve your mental and physical functioning.
While it might not have been your choice to become addicted to Lortab, it does have to be your choice to end your addiction to Lortab. Simply sitting on the sidelines and waiting for your addiction to be over will never work.
If you’re ready to get on the path of sobriety and want to learn more about methadone treatments, give us a call at 800-994-1867Who Answers?. We can explain more about how methadone works as well as help you find highly-rated methadone clinics in your area.