Families & Friends Of Addicts Support Group
Addiction affects more than just the individual. This community is dedicated to the families and friends of individuals suffering from any form of addiction. Mental health professionals are increasingly considering alcoholism and addiction as diseases that flourish in and are enabled by family systems. Family members react to the addicted person with particular behavioral...
There are addict behaviors (lying, etc) that happen when a person is in active addiction to things like heroin or loritabs or other opiates. Does that hold true with long term use of methadone or suboxone since they are still opioids? It would seem to me that if these substances (even though used to help guide a person toward sobriety) are still opiates, they would still affect the same parts of the brain so you would get all the symptoms of mental addiction to a drug?
Methadone is a synthetic opiate, so it has some of the same characteristics. However, it has a longer half-life, which means the effects aren't as strong and it stays in the system longer. It also doesn't activate all of the same opiate receptors as heroin. You don't get high and you can live a normal life. Suboxone is also synthetic, but doesn't stay in the system as long and works in a different way than methadone. Again, you don't get high and you can live a normal life.
The behaviors come from two main issues. First, active addicts are living primarily with the portion of their brain related to animal instincts. They don't really think with the part of their brain that understands logic and consequences or moral choices. They don't care about lying and stealing. All they care about is the animal instinct to satisfy their cravings. A person on methadone or Suboxone has their cravings satisfied (at the correct dose) and their brains begin to heal. But, they aren't healed overnight and it takes a while to go back to thinking with the higher-level brain. Of course, some damage may be permanent.
The second issue is that lying, stealing, etc. becomes a habit and also relates to the type of life they are leading and who they hang out with. Getting off the opiates and on to methadone or Suboxone can get them into a lifestyle with more normal friends, which encourages better behavior. It will also take a while to break the bad habits.
For my son, the worst of the behavior stopped when he started methadone, but he certainly did not change over night. He has gone through periods of using marijuana or synthetic marijuana or alcohol. When he's using those drugs, the same behaviors came back. I only saw the best of him when he was using methadone and nothing else.