A YouTube conversation (Amber Hollingsworth with guest Joey) about how to know if someone needs medical detox for opiate withdrawal. Amber summarizes clinical points: insurance commonly prefers outpatient medication-assisted treatment (e.g., Suboxone), inpatient detox is harder to get covered, and medical supervision eases the intense but non-lethal withdrawal. Joey shares vivid personal experience of withdrawal (severe flu-like symptoms, agitation, pain, insomnia) and emphasizes psychological indicators and family actions: get the person to detox if they agree even slightly, don’t ask whether they ‘want’ recovery, and understand that being in detox gives a chance to change.
Chapters
Okay, so in this video, we're going to talk about how to know if you need to go to detox for opiate withdrawal. And I'm going to tell you all the clinical pieces, the boring pieces, and Joey's going to tell you all the.
Psychological pieces from the addict standpoint.
The. From personal experience pieces.
That's right. So lots of personal experience.
I'll tell you the boring part really quick first, and then Joey will tell you the more interesting part. So from a medical perspective, the first thing you need to know is it's really hard to get insurance to pay for medical details from pain pills, which are opiates, or heroin, which is still opiates. It can be done, but it's difficult. Most of the time, they want you to do that on an outpatient basis through, like, a Suboxone or something like that. But a lot of people don't want to go that route. They want to get off the medicine. They don't want to switch and get on something else. So the reason insurance companies won't pay for it is because you won't die from opiate withdrawal. You'll just lay there and wish you would die and pray to God that he takes you that you would die. Which is usually too much for people to handle, and they usually cave and they go out and they use again. So medically, it's not absolutely necessary. But from an addiction perspective, I highly recommend it because most people, when they try to do it on their own, can't get through that difficult time. That's what I'll tell you about it.
Clinically, from the addict's perspective, it's very different. And if I can trace back my experience with medical detoxes, I never wanted to go. There was never a point where I was like, I'm gonna go do this. I'm gonna fix my life. I. I mean, eventually down the road, I did want to change, and my level of willingness to get there has changed. But if I'm thinking about my experiences, the first time I ever went to a medical detox was because, like Amber said, you get to a point where you're feeling so sick and you're withdrawn so much, it feels like you have the flu and you can't do anything. And if you're stuck in a position where you can't buy more drugs, this is the solution for you. You'll go there. You'll be tapered down to a normal level.
Joey, what does it feel like being opiated?
It literally feels so bad. I can. I have this experience Where I was at a detox and I was withdrawing off of opiates. And every night I went to bed for three nights, I was so sick. I was hot, like, burning hot, freezing cold. I remember I was tossing and turning. I had like this egg crate on my bed and I would rip it apart. I literally would tear my bed apart every night. Walk down to the main lobby and just watch TV at 3 o' clock in the morning for the rest of the night because I was just so physically uncomfortable, I felt like I was gonna die.
Isn't there a lot of pain also?
Yeah.
Body aid.
It literally feels like you're so sick and achy and just every feeling you've got when, like, you feel like you're about to have the flu, that's what it feels like.
I'm guessing that wasn't medical detox.
No, that was not medical detox. When you're medically detoxing and they taper you down, you start. You're still irritable and uncomfortable. But like Amber said, it's really hard to do this yourself. And if you're trying to do it yourself, you're not gonna have a reason to not use once you feel that discomfort. Because it's not something that you want to just push through or it's not. No matter how tough you are, it's not something that you just have the ability to push through. It's something that you need to be medically watched and tapered down from. I will say that a big indicator that you're ready to want to change is if you just got no desire to continue living the life you're living. And if you're feeling really sick and you're just in, you know, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, and you. You don't see any upward progress lurking, it might be time to go. Because it's worth the medical supervision. It's not safe to keep going that way.
And at the end of this video in the description below, I'll give you a link so that you can see the actual medical assessment that they would use if you went into the hospital to look at your withdrawal symptoms, to make the decision about medically, where you were at, if you needed a medical detox or not. Tell us a little bit more about, like, psychologically, what goes on, because I think for most people, a thing about when you might need to go is when you've tried to stop on your own and you can't get more than a couple of days in, it's what's happening is you're getting into that withdrawal day two or day three or day four, whatever it is, and you're so uncomfortable. I like to think of it like. It's like, I don't know if you ever learned the show, but that Maslow's hierarchy needs thing, it brings you down to those base needs, and you don't care about any of that stuff up there that you cared about before. So even when you wanted to do it, when you get that sick, it drops you down there, and all you can think about is not feeling.
That's right. And so in my personal experience, I've been up and down. I've been to detoxes before. And it was like, well, what really pushed me to that point, like Amber said, to want to go. And I can remember there's a lot of dynamic parts that are, you know, privy to my story and what got me to change. But I can honestly say that it was like a reoccurring epidemic to the point where, you know, my drug use would escalate, you know, cross this threshold. And when it did, the only thing that I thought about was using drugs and, you know, opiates in particular or Roxies. It's the only thing that I saw. And so it's almost like I woke up in the morning to get high. And it got to the point where when drugs were plenty, you had no problems. But it's not about that point. It's about the point that you can't sustain that lifestyle. And when you've got to scramble and try and find drugs and you can't, that's when the realization that you're gonna get sick kicks in. And it's not a good feeling. And if you're an opiate user, you know that it's gonna come like, you're using a lot of opiates, and then you stop immediately. Nobody's good. You can't find drugs. You're gonna start withdrawing.
And Joey and I, the reason we're talking about this, we just had to send somebody off for opiate detox this morning.
We did.
Yes. That was a big job.
It was.
But if you're a family member and you're watching this video, what I'd like for you to know is because this came up this morning, is don't ask the person. Are you sure you really want to change? Like, do you really want to do this? Do you really want recovery? Because let me tell you what the answer to that is. No. It's always no. Even for people that are ready, the answer is going to be no. So don't ask that question. The question is, is will you go? And if you get the least little semblance of yes, basically, if you don't get screw you, then they're ready to go to detox. Don't wait until they're like, yeah, I'm so excited. I want recovery 100%. You're just not going to get there.
And if you're you from an addict's perspective, like, everybody's path is different. Everybody's recovery is different. The amount of detoxes somebody needs to get clean is different. But if you're in a detox, you've got a chance to change and that's what's most important. Like Amber was saying with the family members, if you can just get them there because they're not gonna want to go.
Any reason is a good reason.
Any reason is a good reason they're not gonna want to go. But the point of emphasis is that if you can get them there, they've got the opportunity to change and they're being, you know, under medical care and you can rest assured knowing that they're safe that night.
Like, statistically, people don't have any better chance of long term recovery whether they walk themselves into treatment or got drug and in handcuffs.
That's right.
And people are surprised at that. And the reason is, is because when you're in active addiction, your brain doesn't work right. And you have to get someone's brain cleared up enough for them to even be able to think about whether or not they want to stay sober for them to think clearly about it at least anyways. So the point is, is get them there if they'll agree to go and you can work it out.
And they're saying yes, that's right. And they're worth it.
And if someone ever tells you they need to go to detox, don't question it. Let me promise you. They're saying I gotta go to detox because it's the last thing someone says.
That's right.
They're ready.
That means they got no more cars left and they're willing to go right.
Don't pass go, don't collect $200.
Get them there, go straight.
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