In a nutshell, Medication Assisted Treatment helps someone cope with an addiction to prescription pain killers/opioids. Abuse of prescription pain killers has the same effect on the body as heroin. Both are examples of opiates. Many people can gain access to these prescription drugs because occupy space in our medicine cabinets. Some may believe these prescription drugs are okay to use because they were prescribed by doctors. And heroin – while not widely accepted - is also fairly easy to get, cheap and is in abundant supply. Some teenagers even can tell you where to buy it. Very scary stuff considering the powerful and addictive nature of these drugs. Not so simple to quit cold turkey or by willing yourself to stop. Opioid withdrawals are very painful and the cravings are intense.

Research shows that when treating substance use disorders, a combination of medication and counseling is most successful. That's where Medication Assisted Treatment helps. There are medications that are helpful in blocking the cravings for the opiates and stopping the “high” altogether. Some people would argue that is it wrong to treat a drug problem with medication. But they don’t argue this when someone is diabetic and needs insulin or when a cancer patient needs chemotherapy. Like those diseases, medication assisted treatment is also a proven best practice for certain types of substance abuse disorders.

If you – or someone you know – is struggling with addiction. Call Gateways and let us help.