More than 415,000 people received treatment for pain killer abuse or addiction this past year. Patients can innocently start taking pain killers after a moderate injury or because of a severe injury in an automobile accident, fall or for post surgical pain. A person exhibits compulsive behavior to satisfy their craving for a pain killer or pain medication even when there are negative consequences associated with taking the pain killer or drug.
Opioids used as the doctor has prescribed are supposedly not dangerous according to some well-established medical groups; but if this is the case, why are so many people addicted to them? More than 10% of high school seniors have started taking Vicodin for reasons other than reducing pain. There are a number of effective treatment options to treat pain killer addiction to prescription opioids and to help manage the sometimes severe withdrawal symptoms that can accompany sudden stopping of pain killers or drugs.
Once a patient addicted to pain killing drugs has completed detoxification, the treatment provider must then work with the patient to determine which course of treatment would be best for the patient. Pain killer addiction includes: opiate dependency, opiate addiction, narcotic dependency, narcotic addiction, and pain killer dependency or painkiller dependency. When you're addicted physically to a drug, like pain killers or alcohol, etc., it's because you've suppressed or shut down your body's production of endorphins, which are natural opiate pain killers; when this happens you start craving the drug that you replaced the endorphins with whether it's alcohol, any of a number of drugs or pain killers.
Common side effects and adverse reactions of pain killers are: nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dry mouth, miosis (contraction of the pupil), and orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure drops upon sudden standing) -- often happens when arising too fast when getting out of bed in the morning, urinary retention, constipation and fecal impaction. If you think you are addicted and want to get off pain killers or other drugs, it's best to get detoxified as fast as you can and then go through some type of rehabilitation; it's important to have others to lean on and learn from and offer support to you. Less common side effects and adverse reactions of pain killers are: confusion, hallucinations, delirium, hives, itching, hypothermia, bradycardia (slow heart rate), tachycardia (rapid heart rate), raised intracranial pressure, ureteric or biliary spasm, muscle rigidity and flushing.
An opioid-dependent pain patient has improved function with the use of the drug while an opioid-addicted patient does not have improvement. Although detoxification is not a treatment for pain killer addiction, it can help relieve withdrawal symptoms while the patient adjusts to being free of pain killers or other prescription drugs. Addiction to pain killers is an escalating problem today, especially the abuse of opioid pain killers.
You must make a change in your lifestyle in order to prevent you from taking pain killers and or other drugs again. Taking the time to spend in a treatment center, detoxing, is of the utmost priority. The longer you wait to get treatment the worse it'll get; take action now.
There are many pain killer addiction treatment facilities located throughout the United States, Canada and the rest of the world. Find out from your local health professionals where the closest and best pain killer addiction treatment centers are. You must leave the routine responsibilities of your life for a week or two or suffer the inevitable outcome and bad health effects of prolonged drug addiction.
The effort to reduce pain medication abuse is causing serious problems for patients who legitimately need the drugs. The many problems that are associated with pain killer addiction and abuse have experts, doctors and authorities searching for solutions. It's important to remember that when people first start taking pain killers for an acute or chronic pain condition, they don't intend to become addicted.
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