If you’ve been stressing out looking for effective and affordable Opiate Addiction Treatment Centers, you’re not alone.
It is estimated that over 30 million people abuse opioids worldwide, with around 3 million residing in the US alone.
Opiate Addiction is a worldwide epidemic.
And it’s something that I’ve personally been through and recovered from, though it wasn’t easy.
Getting affordable and effective Opiate Addiction Treatment that has a high rate of success is almost nonexistent.
Did you know that traditional Opiate Addiction Treatment Centers have a 5% success rate?
It’s not just Opiate Recovery Programs.
Drug rehab facilities in the US as a whole share this discouraging statistic.
Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not anti-drug treatment.
There are some really good programs out there.
However, most of the really good ones are too expensive for the average person to afford.
In this article, I’m going to provide you with an overview on what I believe would be the ideal Opiate Addiction Treatment Program.
It might exist out there somewhere already, though I doubt it. However, if it doesn’t yet exist, perhaps someone will read this article and create one.
That is my hope…my vision…because I want to help end suffering in the world.
I want to help provide people with the tools, inner-strength, and resources that can assist them to overcome opiate addiction in the most effective and permanent way possible.
So here’s my vision for the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center, which I believe could have extremely high success rates.
1. No Cost
One of the main barriers to Opiate Addiction Treatment Centers is the cost. If you have insurance, you can typically get into a program, but depending on the insurance you have, this might be difficult, or you might still have to pay some money out-of-pocket.
And like I stated before, a lot of the higher-quality addiction recovery facilities are very expensive, so most insurance plans won’t cover it.
What’s the solution?
Free Treatment of course.
I’m of the opinion that we should decriminalize the personal use of drugs. In my perfect world, drug-dealing and drug-trafficking would still be a criminal offense.
However, individuals that take drugs for personal use only would not have to go to jail or prison, but what be directed to treatment programs instead.
According to Jonathan Rothwell, Senior Economist at Gallup:
During the period from 1993 to 2011, there were three million admissions into federal and state prisons for drug offenses. Over the same period, there were 30 million arrests for drug crimes, 24 million of which were for possession. A combination of approaches to policing, prosecution, sentencing, criminal justice, and incarceration is resulting in higher costs for taxpayers, less opportunity for affected individuals, and deep damage to hopes for racial equality.”
In the US, it costs anywhere between $20,000 and $40,000 per year to house inmates in federal and state correctional facilities.
That’s a lot of money…
Especially to spend on housing inmates that are only in jail or prison for personal use of drugs.
I think we should decriminalize personal use of drugs, and use all of the money we’d save on creating free treatment programs paid for by the state or federal government.
Portugal did exactly this in 2001, and the results have been nothing short of a miracle.
Check out these encouraging post-decriminalization stats:
- Decrease in levels of drug use
- Decrease in rate of drug use
- Decrease in drug-related deaths
- Decrease in HIV infections
- Increase in people seeking drug treatment
For more information, click on the following link to read an awesome PDF article:
2. Awesome Detox Methods
Along with treatment being free, I think the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center should have the best opiate detox protocols available.
Too many facilities lack the awareness of what the best detox protocols are.
Here is a list of detox protocols that the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center would have for the acute withdrawal phase:
Note: The detox protocols I just listed can be combined with each other, or even in addition to the following medicines to use as needed based on individual circumstances: Tramadol, clonidine, buprenorphine, methadone, DXM, Valium, Klonopin, Xanax, Ativan, Librium, Seroquel, tizanidine, methocarbamol, Soma, Flexeril, trazodone, cannabis,  Benadryl, and baclofen.
3. Biochemical Rebalancing
Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS)Â is a group of symptoms that occur after an individual has gone through the acute withdrawal phase induced by the discontinuation of drugs.
Post-acute symptoms typically appear 7-14 into abstinence, after stabilization from the acute withdrawal.
PAWS can last for weeks, months, or even a year or longer if the biochemical imbalances caused by long-term opiate use are not treated.
This is where the majority of Opiate Addiction Treatment Centers fall short. In the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center, they would have a holistic bio/psycho/social treatment plan for each individual patient.
And the main focus would need to be biochemical rebalancing.
Most people that get off opiates relapse in less than 90 days.
Post-acute symptoms such as anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure), anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, etc. cause many people to start using opiates again.
Thus, the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Program would have to focus on assisting the patient to eat healthily, exercise, drink enough water, get the right amount of sleep, take specific supplements for their individual needs, and more.
The bio/psycho/social treatment of PAWS, with the biggest focus being the natural rebalancing of brain chemistry, is too much to get into for this article.
However, I’ve written an entire piece on this exact subject. Click on the link below to learn the most effective PAWS treatment plan that would be utilized by The Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center.
4. Phenomenal Treatment Team
I hope you’re enjoying learning about my vision for the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center.
Before we move on, let’s review for a moment.
So far the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center would have the following features:
- It would be paid for by the state or federal government (making it free).
- It would be equipped with the best opiate detox protocols to choose from to significantly reduce the severity and duration of withdrawal symptoms.
- It would have strategies in place to provide patients with individualized bio/psycho/social treatment plans (focusing heavily on biochemical rebalancing).
Along with all of these marvelous features, the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center would have a phenomenal treatment team.
This team would consist of the following professionals:
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Counselors
- Therapists
- Psychiatrists
- Opiate Recovery Coaches
- Nutritionists
- Herbalists
- Personal Trainers
- Acupuncturists
- Massage Therapists
- Hypnotherapists
- Music Therapists
- Art Therapists
- Qigong/Tai Chi Instructors
- Meditation Instructors
- Reflexologists
- Yoga Instructors
- Aromatherapists
- Reiki Masters
5. Ecotherapy
To make this Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center complete, it would need to be in a geographical location where there is plenty of nature around.
Optimal locations would be:
- Mountains
- Forests
- Beaches
- Or anywhere else with abundant nature
Nature therapy, also known as ecotherapy, green therapy, or earth-centered therapy, is an alternative treatment modality which helps to improve your mental and physical wellbeing through doing outdoor activities in nature.
Connecting with nature in this way has been shown to have numerous positive health benefits, and it’s one of my favorite strategies for opiate addiction recovery.
Here are some compelling research outcomes using ecotherapy to enhance mental health:
- In a study, participants recovered more quickly from psychological stress when they were exposed to nature sounds (from a fountain and tweeting birds) than when they were exposed to road traffic noise.
- In another study, participants who had walked in the nature preserve reported less anger and more positive emotions than those who engaged in the other activities.
- In a similar study conducted by Mind, a mental health charity organization, a nature walk reduced symptoms of depression in 71% of participants, compared to only 45% of those who took a walk through a shopping center.
There are many other ecotherapy studies with outcomes that are much like the ones mentioned above.
I don’t know about you, but I feel so frickin amazing when I go for a walk in nature.
I just moved to Oahu two months ago.
My family and I like to go hiking as much as we can.
Out of all the places I’ve hiked, Hawaii is by far the most beautiful.
It’s SO green and lush here.
I especially love waterfall hikes.
After working up a sweat on the hike, my favorite moment is when I stand underneath the waterfall and cool off by getting soaked by the cold and pure water!!! (That’s me in the pic below)
Treatment Program Duration
This Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Program would be the most epic place in the word for an individual that wanted to recover from opioid dependence.
The duration of treatment would vary based on the individual needs of the patient, and would range from 30 days to 180 days.
Here would be the breakdown of treatment:
- Phase 1 – Acute Opiate Detox (4-14 days)
- Phase 2 – Inpatient Treatment (30-180 days)
- Phase 3 – Outpatient Treatment (60-120 days)
The first part of treatment would be the acute opiate detox.
Depending on whether you’re coming off short-acting opioids (e.g. hydrocodone) or long-acting opioids (e.g. methadone), the acute detox phase of treatment could last anywhere from four days to a week or two.
After that would be a minimum of a couple of weeks of inpatient treatment, and up to a maximum 180 days of inpatient treatment, depending on the needs of the patient and how fast they make progress.
Once a patient completes their inpatient treatment, they would be able to lower their Level of Care (LOC) to either an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), or an Outpatient Program (OP).
IOP is typically around 10-12 hours a week. OP is typically a few hours a week. In the Perfect Opiate Addiction Treatment Center, this final phase of recovery would last 60-120 days.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, this could potentially be a very effective Opiate Addiction Treatment Center. To make it even better, there could be a section of the facility for child care.
Can you imagine a treatment facility with all of these features?
A program that’s completely free, has all of the best components a facility could dream of, which also has free childcare 24 hours a day.
Now all we have to do is convince the US government to decriminalize personal drug use, then use the money we would save from not having to arrest and incarcerate inmates to create free, state-of-the-art Opiate Addiction Treatment Centers as well as other drug programs.
Unfortunately, I just don’t think the US will ever decriminalize opiates. And I’m not crossing my fingers that there will ever be free nation-wide drug treatment programs either.
However, if someone created an Opiate Addiction Treatment Center using the guidelines I just provided, they could have a thriving business that would help a lot of individuals recover from opiate addiction.
If you have any comments or questions on Opiate Addiction Treatment Centers, please leave them in the comment box below.
It might take me hours to find what I thought I saw about unresolved pain issues – Anyway what matters is what you say now – I guess the big question with chronic pain patients is how to treat the pain while going off the opiates/Fentanyl patch
Hi I found the part you were speaking of. That’s not how I put it. I stated that when I do a consultation, I start asking questions as I’m looking for things they have going for them and things they have that might be barriers to progress (such as they haven’t been able to manage pain without opioids), then, with that information, I help them construct a really good detox plan and post-acute detox plan.
I didn’t say that having barriers to progress means they aren’t a good candidate. Everyone has there own unique barriers and I help them break through those barriers, regardless of what they are. Does this make sense?
Yes, thank you for explaining that Matt – definitely cleared it up for me.
Ok great! I put another sentence under that area of the page so as to make it even more clear. Thanks for your feedback on that. 🙂
I should explain that the reason they are taking her off fentanyl is because she has low oxygen issues while sleeping – one study showed central sleep apnea but another study should the regular sleep apnea and she says the study that showed central sleep apnea is flawed. She is having another one this week. Also they are allowing her to stay on 3 15 mg pills of oxycodone per day but she says these do nothing for her. I thought those might be important details. Thanks, Mary
Those are very important details. I have some friends that suffered from that issue, and I told them about noni fruit concentrate. It improves blood flow and thus oxygen delivery naturally, by increasing the body’s natural production of nitric oxide.
Click here to learn more about noni>>
Thanks again for your help Matt – My daughter is appealing the decision to take her off all Fentanyl with the head doctor at her pain clinic – We will know for sure what’s going to happen after her appointment on August 21 – meanwhile I am reading all of your blogs, ordering things you recommend and getting ready in case she does have to get off of it. If she does we will most definitely schedule a consult between our daughter and you.
I have a question and it might seem kind of weird but I’m so skeptical of people now days that I just have to ask. Do you receive any monetary gain of any sort for promoting products or when people buy products based on your recommendations? Sorry if that question seems intrusive – Mary
That sounds awesome Mary. Glad to hear there is a great Plan A and even a Plan B just in case. And yes, for certain products I receive a small commission, which the company pays and it doesn’t add to the customers price.
If I post an affiliate link to a product, it is something that I either personally use or believe is extremely amazing and support and would recommend without an affiliate link.
My first priority is always providing resources to help you create positive changes in your life and I will only ever link to products or resources (affiliate or otherwise) that fit within this purpose.
As my website has grown, so has the cost to run it. Currently I spend $1,100 a month, every single month, to run the website and all the software I have with it for emails, online courses, etc.
Affiliate commissions are a way I help to offset this high cost. You can read my full Affiliate Disclosure to learn more. 🙂
Thanks for sending the link to your Affiliate Disclosure – that was helpful. So my daughter just informed me that she only has 4 Fentanyl patches left at the 75 mcg dose – which will last her right up until her appointment ( which was moved up fortunately) with the head doctor at her pain management clinic on August 14th. On that day we will find out for sure if she will be tapering down to nothing. Do you have any suggestions for anything she should be taking or doing before the tapering starts?
My pleasure. And as far as what she should be doing, it’s always best to eat healthily, drink plenty of water, get to bed early and get at least 8 hours of sleep, and do some form of exercise. All of these really help an individual to begin the tapering process.
Hi again Matt – I noticed one thing you said that gave me some concern – People with unresolved pain issues may not make good candidates for your program. My daughter has unresolved back pain, kidney stone pain and other various sources of pain. They want to take her off the fentanyl without replacing it with anything – very scary. She will get to stay on her 15 mg hydrocodone 3 times a day but she’s already been on that so its doubtful that it will help with her pain. Any thoughts?
I said that? Actually, most of the clients in my coaching program also have issues with pain, which is why they got on opiates in the first place, and I help them to find non-opiate painkiller alternatives. Where did I say that? I might need to go change something…
I will have to look through your material to find it but it was where you listed the things that made for a good candidate for your program and then things that would make you a not so good candidate – one of those was unresolved pain issues – I’ll try to find it
This is a fantastic article Matt, and you are a visionary. Large scale change will be the result of small scale, personal transformations on the part of people like you and all the people this site has helped.
Thanks so much Chris! I’ve been wanting to write this article for quite some time, and I finally did it. You know how good that feels as a fellow addiction recovery blogger!!
Oh and by the way…
About a week ago my fianceé Amanda and I went on the most epic hike, and it was steep uphill for much of the way. By the time we made it to this beautiful lookout, we were naturally high as can be!
She started talking about some of the neurochemicals being released and I told her she had to let me read her your article on How Exercise Helps People Recover From Addiction.
I read it to her as she drove us home and she was blown away.
And being a scholar she is not impressed easily.
Talk to you soon friend!
I am wondering if it is safe or if it even helps to take Kratom during the Fentanyl tapering process. My daughter will soon be tapering from a 75 mg Fentanyl patch to 0 fentanyl over a course of 30 days.
Hi Mary,
Many people have used kratom to do this, and many have used kratom to come off fentanyl cold turkey, then tapered off the kratom as it’s nowhere near as powerful, and it’s a natural plant. I’d like you to read an article I recently published that I believe will benefit you:
How To Taper Off Fentanyl Patch Without Withdrawal>>
Hi Matt, Thanks so much for answering my question so quickly. I just read your info about coming off of a fentanyl patch. Along with the supplements that you mention how can I find out more about using kratom as my daughter tapers? Knowing my daughter, with all of her health issues, she is going to need a lot of help to taper off Fentanyl in 30 days. Thanks, Mary
My pleasure Mary. 🙂 Since kratom is an opioid and binds to the same receptors as fentanyl, using it on a taper can help. She might try taking kratom the first few doses of the day, then only using fentanyl at night, then slowly work her way to only using the kratom, then taper that down until she’s only taking supplements.
My daughter is on a fentanyl patch – can you use kratom to taper off of a patch? Every10 days she will have a lower dose patch – will taking kratom help make up for the loss of the fentanyl?
Hi again Matt! I promise this is my last question! I ordered the Calm Support and DL-Phenylanine for my daughter who has to start tapering from her Fentanyl Patch soon. We will be following your protocol and possibly use your consultation service ( so glad that’s available!) Anyway, my main question that I’m having a very hard time finding an answer to is this: If you are on a Fentanyl patch and tapering down by wearing lower dose patches every 10 days – is it still possible to use kratom to help with withdrawal symptoms while you are tapering? Or do you have to be on a pill form of fentanyl so you can replace a dose of Fentanyl with the Kratom? Thanks, Mary
Hi Mary! Yes the kratom should be able to help with that. Everyone is unique biochemically so there is no guarantee, but typically, kratom would help with that. 🙂
Hi Matt, I am so nervous about my daughter having to go off her fentanyl patch – she’s been on one for 7 years for back pain and other pain issues – she has Crohn’s and has been through a lot. I am scared that the quick tapering of her Fentanyl Patch is going to be too much for her. She will be going from 75 mcg down to 0 in 30 days. We are very interested in your coaching service but I would like to know more about what you can offer her and how confident you are you can help her through this. My daughter does have a lot of pain issues and so far they’ve never really found the exact cause of her back pain although she does have some bulging discs. She is having a new MRI done Thursday. I have already purchased some of your products plus I have ordered Kratom as I said in my last e-mail. Please let me know how confident you feel that you can get her through this – can we have a consultation and then pay for more communication with you separately or do we have to pick a package? She has about 2 weeks left of her 75 mcg patches and then the tapering starts. HELP!!!!! Mary
Hi Mary,
I’m very confident in my ability to help people with even the longest and most severe opioid dependence. However, the client has to be very self-motivated. The people I work are typically highly motivated, and thus are almost always successful at getting off opioids when I work with them.
You are more than welcome to sign up for a single consultation, then if you wish, you can get a package at a later time, and you could put the consult fee towards a package.