Why Does Opioid Withdrawal Happen?

0:00Why does opioid withdrawal happen?

0:04I'm going to tell you.

0:05I'm Dr. Rodrigues from Healing Sky.

0:07I'm also the medical director of the Delray Center for Healing.

0:10And today we're going to talk about why does opioid withdrawal happen.

0:16Opioid withdrawal, which is that famous syndrome of being horribly sick, coming off of opioids,

0:22it's unmistakable.

0:24It drives people to keep using drugs and it puts people in the hospital, it lands you

0:29in rehab, lands you in detox.

0:30It is intense.

0:32Why does it happen?

0:34I'll explain it.

0:35People who use opioids, whether for prescribed medicinal reasons or for recreational reasons

0:42or just trying to get high, the body sees the opioids as a contaminant in the food supply.

0:49The body does what it can to survive this perceived contamination in the food supply

0:55and it wants to keep you from feeling or getting poisoned by this contamination or

1:00getting sedated or uptunded by it so that an animal or a predator could attack you.

1:07So in doing so, the body has multiple mechanisms where it adapts to this contamination in the

1:14food supply.

1:16Now these adaptations happen on multiple levels.

1:19It'll increase your tolerance.

1:20It'll take more of the opioid to have the same effect.

1:24So when the opioid binds to the receptors in the brain, the effects are mitigated by

1:30these neurochemical adaptations within the brain and again, it does this to survive.

1:36Now these adaptations do have neurophysiologic implications and actual mechanisms and then

1:45if you remove the opioid that the body had adapted to, these same adaptations will suddenly

1:53make you feel sick because in the absence of the opioids, now the body has to readapt

2:00to normal physiologic status, to normal physiologic conditions and that process of readapting

2:09to now the absence of the opioids will feel like an opioid withdrawal syndrome.

2:15That is what leads to it.

2:17So before certain parts of the brain were being suppressed by the inhibition created

2:23at certain receptors, the inhibition effect on certain receptors by the opioids and so

2:29the body adapts to that excessive inhibition.

2:34So it tries to keep you more alert in spite of all this inhibition from the opioid.

2:39But when you take away the inhibition, those same mechanisms to compensate for that unnatural

2:45inhibition caused by the opioids now makes you feel the other way.

2:49So it swings the other way.

2:51It's almost like you're on a seesaw and the other person's really, really heavy and you

2:57add more weight on your side, maybe like a second friend to try to balance the seesaw

3:03and all of a sudden the other guy jumps off the seesaw.

3:07It has an abrupt drop and it's rather drastic and that happens chemically with the opioids

3:13and it manifests as opioid withdrawal and it's pretty intense and it makes you feel

3:17pretty sick.

3:19So that's why it happens.

3:21It's a neurochemical process.

3:23Now detoxification off of opioids involves managing this process and that's why we use

3:29medications like buprenorphine and sometimes methadone and also clonidine or lofexidine

3:35to help mitigate this withdrawal syndrome because it is so uncomfortable.

3:40It is so intense.

3:41So that's why it happens.

3:44If you're having opioid withdrawal, you do need help to get off of this and I recommend

3:47seeking professional help.

3:50If you would like my professional help, you can reach me at delraycenter.com.

3:54Please like, follow, subscribe my content here on Healing Sky and please also look for

3:58my podcast launching in the fall of 2026.

4:01I hope you find this helpful.

4:03Thank you.