The Need for Suboxone Treatment & Why Willpower Won’t Work

Opiate addictions encompass a wide spectrum of different drug types, including heroin, prescription pain pills and opium. Opiates interact with the brain and body at core levels, leaving the recreational user as well as the person taking pain pills for medicinal purposes at risk of abuse and addiction.

Once addiction becomes an issue, users enter into a cycle of drug use that can linger for months or even years, making it all but impossible to break the pattern. For people struggling with chronic or long-term addiction problems, the effects of the drug become even more so ingrained within their physiology and overall psychological makeup.

First developed as an alternative to methadone, Suboxone treatment helps those in recovery get past the physical hold opiates have on the brain’s chemical processes, which can greatly impede a person’s ability to abstain from drug use. After so many attempts to stop using opiates on one’s own, the need for Suboxone treatment help becomes plainly apparent for those who stand to benefit from its therapeutic effects.

The Challenges You Face in Opiate Addiction Recovery

Willpower Won't Work

The inability to experience joy or contentment is a long term opiate withdrawal symptom.

Chronic, long-term opiate abuse weakens the brain’s overall functional capacity over time. Opiates interact with the brain’s chemical processes on fundamental levels, interfering with neurotransmitter production processes and damaging chemical-producing cells along the way. In cases where a person attempts to stop drug use by sheer force of will, the damage done to cell functions has left them physically dependent on opiate effects.

When opiate abuse extends across months or years, the brain’s overall structure has changed in response to opiate’s damaging effects. According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, stopping drug use under these conditions not only brings on withdrawal, but prolonged withdrawal effects that last for months or even years into the recovery process.

Long-term withdrawal effects tend to be more so psychological and emotional in nature, which makes for a miserable quality of life. Withdrawal symptoms experienced may include:

  • Ongoing problems with sleeping through the night or falling asleep
  • Feelings of depression
  • Bouts of anxiety
  • An inability to feel joy, contentment or any type of real emotion

For these reasons, the potential for relapse runs especially high during the early months of recovery.

Suboxone Treatment Effects

Suboxone, a Schedule III controlled substance, also belongs to the opiate class of drugs just like methadone. Suboxone differs from methadone as far as its abuse/addiction potential and also has a built-in ceiling effect that acts as an anti-abuse measure, according to Semel Institute. This means, once dosage amounts reach a certain point, the effects of the drug level off making it difficult to experience a “high” effect should a person try to abuse the drug.

In effect, Suboxone treatment makes use of the drug’s opiate ingredient which helps to support damaged brain cells and promote normal neurotransmitter production rates. In the process, a person not only experiences a drastic reduction in drug cravings, but also starts to feel more like him or herself again in terms of being able to enjoy life.

While it is possible to overcome opiate addiction through willpower, the risk of relapse remains especially high when coming off a long history of opiate abuse. For someone considering entering rehab, Suboxone treatment can go a long way towards improving his or her chances at a successful recovery process.

If you or someone you know is considering Suboxone treatment and have more questions, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 888-646-0865 (Who Answers?)  to speak with one of our addictions specialists.

Why Choose Suboxone?


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