Some simple facts: Chronic pain affects one out of four adults; millions of people suffer from severe disabling pain. 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 each patient. More than ten percent of high school seniors have started taking Vicodin for reasons other than reducing pain.
Opioids should never be taken when one is drinking alcohol (also a drug) or when alcohol may still be in the system. 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-operative pain. More than 2.2 million people aged 12 and up first abused painkillers within the past year; this is more than the number of people who had started using marijuana and has overtaken the use of cocaine.
An addicted 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. Addiction is a biological and psychological condition. Physical dependence on a drug suggests that sudden stopping the drug may result in negative consequences.
Opioids used as the doctor has prescribed are supposedly not dangerous according to some medical groups; but if so why are so many people addicted to them? When you're addicted physically to a drug, like pain killers, or alcohol, etc., it is 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 you replaced the endorphins with whether it's alcohol or any of a number of drugs or pain killers. Common side effects and adverse reactions of pain killers include: nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dry mouth, miosis (contraction of the pupil), orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure drops upon sudden standing (which often happens when arising too fast when getting out of bed in the morning,) urinary retention, constipation and fecal impaction.
Less common side effects and adverse reactions of pain killers include: confusion, hallucinations, delirium, hives, itching, hypothermia, bradycardia (slow heart rate), tachycardia (rapid heart rate), raised intracranial pressure, ureteric or biliary spasm, muscle rigidity and sometimes flushing. Many chronic pain patients may be under-treated as a result of doctors trying to gain control over pain killer addiction, they report. 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 the pain killers or drugs.
The longer you wait to get treatment the worse it will get; take action now. You must leave the routine responsibilities of your life for a week or more or suffer the inevitable outcome and health effects of prolonged drug addiction. Many insurance plans do cover inpatient detox; check your plan if you have insurance.
If you don't have insurance, check with your local mental health agencies to see what is available that may be free. All other demands of children, job, school, or any other responsibilities may make inpatient treatment seem like an intrusion or impossibility but it is not. If you cannot do in-patient rehab, find out how you can do outpatient rehab and pay for it under your insurance plan; again check your insurance policy to see if it's covered.
Today's pain killer treatment options are drawn from long-time experience and clinical research from studying and treating many types of drugs and even heroin addiction. A patient being treated with a pain killer can become dependent, but with controlled and appropriate use of the medication, the patient can return to a good level of normal living and activities following discontinuance of the drug. Do things that make you feel good as long as you keep it natural.
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