What Injecting Heroin Does to Your Body and Mind

Written by: Editorial Staff

Last updated on March 13, 2019

Injecting heroin has a significant impact on the individual. Whether it is short-term physical effects or long-term psychological consequences, there is no denying the damage that heroin inflicts upon the men and women who use it.

The following is a look at the effect of doing heroin on previously healthy individuals – and how these effects damage their lives until they seek professional addiction treatment help.

What Regular Injection of Heroin Does to You Physically

• Heroin damages your liver. According to medical research, well over two-thirds of all liver infections in the United States are caused by Hepatitis C – and one of the top reasons for transmission of this disease in sharing of dirty needles during heroin use.
• Heroin is bad for your kidneys. Individuals using heroin over an extended period of time often fall victim to kidney failure and would need a transplant to survive.
• Heroin is terrible for your skin. Commonly, individuals who inject heroin will find themselves the victim of skin abscesses and infections. In addition, the activity also causes the blood vessels in the body to collapse, bringing a number of serious problems to the surface.

What Injecting Heroin Into a Vein Does to Your Brain

• Addiction. The most serious potential consequence of heroin use is addiction. When an individual becomes addicted to heroin, he or she begins to believe that they cannot function without the drug. Also, the individual develops a tolerance over time, meaning it will take more and more of the drug to get that heroin high. The result is a life that is controlled entirely by the drug – where other activities and relationships once found meaningful are pushed well into the background.

If Your Loved One is Injecting Heroin

If you discover that someone you love is regular heroin user, it is important to get them the help they need. The first step is to reach out and talk to the individual openly and honestly about their heroin drug addiction. If that does not get them to stop, then the next step should be to hold an intervention. A drug intervention is a chance for friends and family to form a unified front – with the goal of showing the individual that taking heroin impacts not only his or her life, but the lives of those around them as well. This is what friends and families of heroin addicts anywhere else in the world should do to help their loved ones beat heroin addiction.

It is important to do everything possible to get the heroin addict into a heroin drug rehab program before it is too late – even if that means driving them to the heroin rehab facility and helping them through the admissions process.