Addiction to Prescription Opiates
By Natalia Kuzmina
Since an early
age, we were told to believe in medicine and to carefully follow doctor’s
prescriptions and recommendations. There is a big pharmaceutical industry that
provides us with a pill for every physiological and mental condition. It is no
surprise that sometimes we get hooked on some medication and cannot quit taking
it when the time comes. It is often a case with prescribed opiates which can
lead to a severe addiction even when used according to the instructions.
The statistic of
opioid misuse in the USA for the past year shows that prescribed opioid
medication overdose results in death far more often than the actual heroin
overdose (with 80% heroin users reporting misusing prescription opioids prior
to heroin). The prescription opioid abuse became an epidemic with more than
20000 people dying from overdose yearly. That is why it very important to be
mindful about using prescription opioids as in most cases the addiction
develops unintentionally and goes unnoticed by people (in most cases by taking
opioids to treat pain as prescribed by a doctor). Every person that starts
taking prescribed medication can get trapped in a cycle of misuse.
The symptoms of
addiction to a prescribed medication:
Developing a tolerance
(when a person starts using higher dosage to reach the same effect).
Physical dependence (the
nerve cells get used to opioids and when they are taken away suddenly it
results in unpleasant feelings and reactions known as withdrawal symptoms).
Psychological dependence
(cravings for opiates).
Many people are
afraid to ask for a qualified help or share their problems with family because
of the stigma of addiction. They try to self-medicate themselves or negate the
problem which results in even more connected relationships to it. We believe
that there is no shame in addiction and it can be treated effectively when the
right course of action is applied. The best decision to make is to ask for help
and there is no better time for that than right now.
Discussion question: How can you still seek treatment without necessary
sharing your problem with other people?
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