Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
Opioid use disorder is a medical condition — not a moral failure, not a lack of willpower, and not something you should be able to overcome through determination alone. Effective treatment exists, it dramatically reduces the risk of overdose death, and you should not have to wait to access it. We see new patients within 1–3 days, because opioid use disorder is a medical emergency and timely access to care saves lives.
What Is Opioid Use Disorder?
The DSM-5 defines opioid use disorder as a problematic pattern of opioid use leading to significant impairment or distress, with at least 2 of the following occurring within a 12-month period:
- Using more than intended: Taking opioids in larger amounts or over a longer period than you planned.
- Failed attempts to cut back: Wanting to reduce or stop opioid use but being unable to do so.
- Significant time spent: Spending a great deal of time obtaining opioids, using them, or recovering from their effects.
- Cravings: A strong desire or urge to use opioids.
- Failure to meet obligations: Opioid use interferes with responsibilities at work, school, or home.
- Continued use despite problems: Continuing to use opioids even though they are causing social, interpersonal, or health problems.
- Giving up activities: Withdrawing from or abandoning social, occupational, or recreational activities because of opioid use.
- Use in dangerous situations: Using opioids in physically hazardous situations, such as while driving.
- Tolerance: Needing significantly more opioids to achieve the same effect, or experiencing a noticeably reduced effect with the same amount.
- Withdrawal: Experiencing withdrawal symptoms — muscle aches, sweating, nausea, anxiety, insomnia — when cutting back or stopping.
2–3 criteria indicate mild OUD; 4–5 moderate; 6+ severe. Physical dependence alone — which can develop in anyone taking opioids regularly, including for legitimate pain — does not constitute opioid use disorder. The diagnosis involves a broader pattern of impaired control and continued use despite consequences.
What Opioid Use Disorder Actually Looks Like
It is important to distinguish physical dependence from addiction. Physical dependence — where the body adapts to opioids and experiences withdrawal when they're reduced or stopped — can develop in anyone who takes opioids regularly, including people prescribed them for chronic pain. Dependence is a physiological process, not a character flaw. Opioid use disorder involves additional features: loss of control over use, continued use despite real harm, and the organizing of daily life around obtaining and using opioids.
Withdrawal is often a central driver of continued use. Opioid withdrawal is not life-threatening in healthy adults, but it is profoundly miserable — intense muscle pain, restlessness, anxiety, nausea, sweating, and insomnia that can last for days. Fear of withdrawal keeps many people using even when they desperately want to stop. This is not weakness; it is the biology of physical dependence, and it is one of the reasons medication is so important in treatment.
Fentanyl has fundamentally changed the overdose landscape. It is now present throughout much of the illicit drug supply — in what is sold as heroin, in counterfeit pills, and increasingly in other substances. Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and a dose that looks identical to the last one can be fatal. This means that the risk of a fatal overdose from a single use has never been higher, and it makes accessing treatment more urgent, not less.
Shame and social isolation are pervasive in opioid use disorder. Many people wait far too long to seek help because of what they fear others will think, or because they believe treatment means surrendering to a life defined by their diagnosis. Neither is true. Recovery is possible, and the people who achieve it are overwhelmingly ordinary people who found the right help at the right time.
How We Treat Opioid Use Disorder
The evidence for medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder is overwhelming. Buprenorphine is first-line treatment, and we prescribe it as soon as clinically appropriate — typically at your first or second appointment. Medication combined with counseling produces better outcomes than either alone.
Buprenorphine (Suboxone)
Buprenorphine is the most effective treatment available for opioid use disorder. It eliminates withdrawal, reduces cravings, and dramatically lowers the risk of overdose death. It is FDA-approved, widely studied, and saves lives. New patients at Plan Your Recovery are typically seen within 1–3 days. Buprenorphine treatment is $125 per month plus the cost of the medication.
Methadone
Methadone is another highly effective, FDA-approved medication for OUD with decades of evidence behind it. It is dispensed through licensed opioid treatment programs (OTPs) rather than standard prescribers. We do not offer methadone at Plan Your Recovery, but we can help connect you with an appropriate program if it is the right option for you.
CBT and Counseling
Cognitive behavioral therapy addresses the thought patterns, emotional triggers, and behavioral habits that sustain opioid use. Buprenorphine combined with counseling produces significantly better outcomes than medication alone, and counseling is integrated into our treatment model from the start.
Harm Reduction
We provide naloxone (Narcan) training and prescriptions to all patients and their household members. Naloxone reverses opioid overdose and saves lives. We also support access to fentanyl test strips and other harm reduction tools, because keeping people alive is the prerequisite for everything else.
Common Questions
Other Resources
12-step fellowship for recovery from any drug — 33,500+ meetings worldwide. No dues or fees.
Opioid-specific 12-step fellowship founded 2004 — chapters in 19+ U.S. states and UK. Many people find the substance-specific focus more relatable than broader drug fellowships.
Science-based, secular mutual support — explicitly does not stigmatize buprenorphine or methadone. Important for patients on MAT.
12-step fellowship that fully welcomes people on medication-assisted treatment — a critical alternative for those who encounter stigma about MAT in other fellowship settings.
12-step program for family and friends affected by someone's drug addiction — meetings worldwide. Narateen for younger family members.
Helpline, parent coaches, and evidence-based resources for families navigating a loved one's addiction — text/chat support available.
1-800-662-HELP (4357) — free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral and information in English and Spanish.
Call or text 988 — free, confidential, 24/7 crisis support for mental health emergencies and suicidal thoughts.