Painkiller Addiction

There are many prescription painkillers and other prescription medicines that people abuse. The most common ones include:

• OxyContin (Oxycodone): This powerful opioid prescribed to treat severe or chronic pain blocks pain receptors, so you can’t feel as much pain. It also relaxes you, so you don’t care about the pain.
• Vicodin & Norco (Hydrocodone): Vicodin & Norco are among the the oldest prescription painkillers on the market. They’re a combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, two painkillers. Hydrocodone is an opioid painkiller. When combined, acetaminophen amplifies the effect of hydrocodone. Vicodin & Norco are prescribed for mild to moderate pain, and they can be very addictive.
• Fentanyl: Fentanyl is a very strong opioid which is usually used in form of a patch for chronic pain or in a hospital setting. In recent years, fentanyl has been responsible for many overdose deaths. In 2015 the DEA issued a nationwide alert due to the “alarming rate” of overdose deaths involving heroin laced with fentanyl.
• Percocet: Percocet combines acetaminophen and oxycodone. It’s prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain.

There are many other non-opioid prescription drugs that can become addictive, too. Certain benzodiazepines including Xanax, Ativan and Valium can be extremely addictive. Teens often abuse Ritalin and other stimulant drugs, stealing or trading them with one another to use recreationally. Any of these drugs has the potential for being abused.

Prescription painkillers are most often taken as a pill. When you swallow the pill, your stomach acids dissolve it, and the medicine is absorbed into the bloodstream. You’ll feel the maximum effects about 90 minutes after taking a painkiller.

Once the medicine enters your bloodstream, it binds to one or more of the four different types of opioid receptors in the body. Prescription painkillers produce a feeling of euphoria and sleepiness. They slow down your respiration as well as digestion, which can lead to constipation.

Over time, tolerance to the drugs develops. Tolerance means your body becomes used to the initial amount. It takes more of the same drug to produce a similar effect and abruptly stopping the drug produces a severe withdrawal.

Taking more prescription painkillers or mixing them with other medications or alcohol can be deadly. Because they slow down the central nervous system and your breathing, taking any more than what your doctor thinks you should take can slow down your breathing too much, leading to respiratory distress or even death. Mixing other medicines with them, especially ones that increase the effect of prescription painkillers, can also be deadly.

Pain is your body’s signal that something is wrong. When you’re out running and twist your ankle, the pain forces you to stop, so you don’t damage it further. Pain also keeps you from returning to your previous activities too quickly.

Some people also suffer from chronic pain. Old injuries or poorly understood diseases such as fibromyalgia cause chronic pain that makes people’s lives miserable. Doctors prescribe painkillers hoping to alleviate suffering.

Unfortunately, many people taking painkillers become addicted. In 2012, doctors wrote 260 million prescriptions for prescription opioids or painkillers. To put that number into perspective, that’s enough painkillers for every adult in the United States to have one bottle in the medicine cabinet.

Today, people have become used to taking a pill for any ache or pain. Often, we don’t question when our doctors give us prescriptions for painkillers. It seems as harmless as taking an aspirin or a vitamin.

Prescription painkillers, when used appropriately according to a doctor’s directions, can be lifesavers for many people recovering from surgery or accidents. When taken recreationally or long after healing from an initial illness, they can become problematic and addictive. Eventually, the addiction requires greater amounts of prescription painkillers, and many sufferers even turn to drugs such as heroin. It’s a dangerous, slippery slope — one we see all too often.

If you’ve developed a problem with prescription painkillers, or you think you may have a problem, please call Synergy Recovery Services today. We’ve successfully helped many people with their addiction to prescription painkillers.

You might be surprised to learn that most of the patients we see in our outpatient prescription painkiller rehab program look just like you. They’re businesspeople, housewives, teachers and teenagers. They work in a variety of fields and endeavors. The one factor they share in common is a problem with prescription painkillers and a desire to be free from their addiction.

One of our goals is to help people addicted to prescription painkillers maintain their dignity while in recovery. At Synergy Recovery Services, you’ll come to our pleasant, spa-like office for treatment to meet with Dr. Trobisch.

Our offices are like any other medical office and we offer several other medical treatments including medical weight loss and cosmetic treatments. Since other patients may have appointments for body shaping, medical weight loss or other services, no one knows you’re attending prescription painkiller rehab. We protect your privacy and confidentiality throughout treatment.