How Long Does Heroin Stay in My System?

Getting clean from heroin is the first step but waiting for it to leave your system takes a bit longer.

2018-10-23Blog Heroin Addiction

Last Updated on 2020-10-12

Heroin is one of the most powerful and dangerous drugs known to man. Most users will become addicted to the drug after their first use. When users first take heroin, the high they experience is euphoric and described as “god like”. Unfortunately, those who use heroin need to take more of the drug in order to try and catch that high. As a result, they become deeply addicted and face severe physical and psychological issues.

If you are addicted to heroin and want to get sober, one of the first questions you have is likely, “How long does heroin last in my system?” Simply put, the first few days and weeks after quitting, or the “detox period,” is an extremely difficult period in your road to recovery. When heroin leaves your body and you start to feel better, the real work begins regarding staying clean.

When you feel stuck deep inside of you heroin addiction, reaching sobriety feels impossible. There is a way out, though, and it starts with making the decision to stop living the life you are currently living. This article explains what heroin is and how long heroin stays in your body. Additionally, you will learn where to find quality heroin treatment.

More About Heroin

Heroin is an opiate drug with a morphine base and made from the opium in a poppy plant. Morphine is a medical-grade drug used mainly in hospital facilities to treat high levels of pain. Heroin is a dangerous street drug and classified as Schedule I by the Drug Enforcement Administration due to its high potential for abuse.

Heroin comes in multiple forms:

A white, crystalline powder (known as china white)
Brown, chalky powder (known as brown sugar)
A Black, sticky tar-like substance (known as black tar)

Heroin can be administered in a number of ways. The most common way is to inject the drug intravenously in the air, thigh, neck or anywhere there are major blood vessels. Heroin can also be smoked or snorted.

Like all drugs, heroin is a drug that most people do not set out to use. Whether or not someone understands drugs, they most likely know the dangers of heroin use. It does not take long to develop a heroin addiction. Once you are addicted, it takes much longer to quit.

Heroin Detox Timeline

When you detox from heroin, you experience one of the most difficult sets of withdrawal symptoms to go through. This keeps many people from quitting before it’s too late. Withdrawals due to opioid overdoses continue rising every year. More than 72,000 people died of an opiate-related cause in 2017.

The severity of your heroin withdrawals depend on how long you used for, the way you ingested it, and how much you used. Obviously the more often you use and the larger the amount, the worse your withdrawals will be.

The following is a general timeline outlining how long heroin will stay in your system. Again, the length of time is stays in your system and the severity of symptoms you experience depend on the route of administration, the quantity you use, as well as the length of time you use heroin.

FIRST 6 TO 48 HOURS

Heroin withdrawal symptoms have one of the quickest onset times of all drugs and are the worst at the beginning. They start as soon as 6 hours or as long as 12 hours after the last time you got high. Initially you feel irritated, agitated, or frustrated then progress into physical symptoms. These include:

Nausea
Diarrhea
Sweating
Insomnia
Body aches
Muscle spasms
Runny nose
Watery eyes

Relapse is most common during these first two days. Users will do anything to avoid feeling “dopesick,” the common term used to describe early heroin withdrawal.

DAYS 3 TO 5

Your most severe symptoms start subsiding after the first two days. Now you may start wondering, “How long does heroin stay in my system?” The detox period is not over yet, though. You will likely still feel nauseous and diarrhea may continue. Stomach cramps and vomiting are common during this time. The anxiety starts to lessen but still hangs on.

DAYS 6 TO 12

You made it through the worst of your withdrawals. Your muscles do not ache as badly as they did at first and your nausea has mostly left. The anxiety may still persist but you can manage it better than in the earlier stages. Some physical symptoms may still press on but to a lesser extent.