Believe it or not, our country is going through an opioid epidemic that’s growing extremely quick. Today, it’s estimated that more than 115 people in the United States are dying from an overdose on solely opioids.
Opioids include substances like prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic chemicals such as fentanyl which seriously affects our public health and our society’s economy. Besides damaging lives and families, the epidemic is costing out country around $78.5 billion a year in order to cover the costs of addiction healthcare, addiction treatment, and criminal management.
This didn’t develop out of thin air. In fact, since the late 1990s, various pharmaceutical companies pushed out the message to patients that they could not become addicted to using prescription opioid pain relievers. As a result, many healthcare providers began to prescribe them to patients at much higher amounts.
From there, the amount of opioid distribution spread and larger amounts of people became hooked to its effects. By 2015, it was estimated that more than 33,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose. To catapult the already damaging state of drug addiction in the United States, an estimated 2 million people during that same year also suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers, while over 591,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder.
Although it’s not an immediate fix, it would benefit addicts to know about how to combat their withdrawal symptoms with innovations designed specifically for their needs. Recently cleared by the FDA, a new product called the BRIDGE helps aid pain symptoms as a patient is going through weaning off their drug use.
Even though it won’t cure their addiction, understanding how it works and how to promote healthy withdrawal can save someone’s life.
Treatment Without The Drugs
As new technology is constantly being developed to help people experiencing rehab from drug addiction, behavioral health experts still agree that to properly do treat addicts we have to powerfully address each patients’ fear of pain during the process.
With symptoms like abdominal cramps, passing out, anxiety, insomnia, agitation, vomiting, sweating, and many others included in the list of physical withdrawal symptoms, it’s no wonder why some people rather continue using drugs.
Although popular drugs like Vivitrol or Methadone are available for patients to use during treatment, the side effects are just as severe and can drastically impact one’s ability to comeback as healthy as possible.
In response to the need for adequate drug treatment, the BRIDGE device helps to target the pain normally expected with withdrawal from opioid addiction. By helping patients navigate what is the most challenging stage of the addiction recovery process, the device works directly with the patient’s brain as a small neurostimulation system (NSS).
It easily attaches to the patient’s ear and sends them gentle electrical impulses by stimulating nerve endings with tiny electrodes. In other words, the BRIDGE is signaling the brain to block the physical distress patients commonly suffer from during withdrawal. Relief is often experienced in as little as ten minutes without any pills, shots, or other common methods of treatment.
Being so new, BRIDGE is sending waves across the drug industry as a nonintrusive aid for millions of people who no longer need to suffer.
Using This Tool In Daily Life
How is the BRIDGE even used? Patients are first instructed to wear the device for a total of five days before having it removed and examined on their overall experienced. After this is done, they are moved into a more long-term treatment program that is led by a counselor or medic’s guidance. It’s said that those five days are the most significant of a patient’s process of recovery, as withdrawal symptoms are recorded as the most severe.
Not only does the BRIDGE have the ability to radically reduce the national number of opioid addicts, but it can offer a financial boost to the country as it’s manufactured and distributed straight out of Indiana.
However, if you happen to be a person suffering from withdrawal symptoms or are considering a treatment program, make sure you evaluate all the options that are available before investing in a treatment tool like the BRIDGE.
Know Your Resources
The way the drug industry works today, no one is safe from developing an addiction to prescription opioids unless you protect yourself and listen to trustworthy resources. If you find yourself giving up on hope as an addict, know that there is community out there who knows exactly what you are going through at this moment.
You are not alone in this journey and there is always hope to get back to total health if you put in the effort. The most disciplined of addicts who do their research on their treatment options are often the ones who better stick to their plan, stay motivated, and complete their rehab program with success.
Look into what local programs are providing rehab for specifically opioid addiction and what drug abuse groups are present to make friends with people who can keep you on top of your goals. While you probably don’t think that socializing with other addicts is the answer to getting over your dependence on drugs, going through treatment together will create a powerful enough force to feel like you are supported.
Additionally, if you are not keen on using intrusive drugs to spearhead your rehab process, make sure you look into using the BRIDGE and ask your chosen physician about how to obtain it.
If you are a business that is looking into providing the BRIDGE or are thinking about improving your reach to opioid patients in the area, consider asking for help from professionals who understand marketing in the rehab space as well. You never know what the possibilities are without doing your homework!
