Addiction to Prescription Drugs

Addiction to prescription drugs has assumed epidemic proportions in the USA. People obtain prescriptions for medicines to handle some kind of discomfort and get so used to taking them that before they know what is happening they become totally dependent on them even when there is no pain or discomfort.

To enable a patient to come out of the effects of a debilitating disease or accident, a doctor will prescribe some drugs to make him feel better. Since it has been prescribed by a doctor, the patients believe that taking them is safe. When they start to take them to get through their normal days and to cope with the vicissitudes of life, they have become addicted to them.

Such addiction to prescription drugs, estimated to have affected over 20 million Americans, has spared no one. The rich, the poor, the famous and the commonplace, celebrities and tycoons have all been affected.

If you suspect that you may be struggling with such an addiction, it is time for you to have a serious discussion with your doctor. Preferably the one who prescribed them to start with. If you cannot do without them and need increasing quantities of them, you need to cut off the source and commence the recovery process.

It is extremely difficult to see some one dear to you walk down this path due to addiction to prescription drugs. It is quite likely that the original purpose for the prescription was some traumatic event. It may be that you may even deny their addiction just as they are likely to. This may be a major error in judgment.

Be it for yourself or someone that you care for, it will be a good idea to keep track of the usage of drugs like Vicodin or Oxycontin prescribed to combat pain. Monitoring the quantity and frequency of intake can give a good indication to usage in excess to necessity.

The main reason why people get addicted to prescription medicine is the fear of pain - the fear that the pain for which the medicine was originally prescribed will return, if the medicine was not present in the body. The fact of the matter is, yes, the pain is likely to return for a short while. Not for the original reason for which it was prescribed, but as a reaction from the body which has got used to its presence. The pain will eventually go.

Addiction to prescription drugs is a serious matter. It can catch hold of you before you know what is happening and refuse to let go. It is vital, whether it is for you or for someone that you care for, that you take immediate help and return to your normal life at the earliest. To do this, you have to first admit that there is a problem. Do not postpone this, do it now. Get help.