Prescription Drug Abuse

For years, most people associated drug abuse with junkies wandering filthy streets in search of heroin or cocaine. Drug abuse could not possibly happen in their neighborhood or their home. But prescription drug abuse is far more insidious and far more common than most people imagine, a dirty little secret hiding in the medicine cabinets of millions of homes.

Addiction Recovery

Modern pharmaceutical knowledge has been a great boon to mankind; we are very good at creating drugs for effective treatment of all sorts of medical conditions that killed our ancestors. But the price is a huge number of highly-addictive prescription drugs with enormous potential for abuse. Accidental addiction is common, especially among users of certain painkillers like Oxycontin or other drugs based on opiates like morphine, codeine, or oxycodone, or with certain sleep medications like Ambien. Ativan is another commonly-abused prescription drug. Sadly, many of these drugs are abused intentionally by thrill-seekers or young people caught up in the party culture of young adulthood. The results are ugly and long-lasting.

Addiction to prescription drugs must be treated like any other drug abuse problem, with aggressive intervention and treatment by trained professionals. Attempting to go it alone usually results in failure, for the withdrawal symptoms from any of these drugs are so severe and so unpleasant that most people who try the cold turkey approach end up straight back in the arms of the drug. A drug treatment program, preferably administered through a center specializing in drug abuse rather than general medicine, is usually the best bet for getting clean and staying clean.

Any treatment for prescription drug abuse requires a carefully managed approach to the detoxification process and long-term follow-up. Simply clearing the body of drugs—detox—is insufficient in any drug treatment program, for any substance abuse whatever. The intense cravings are not just related to the body’s dependency on the chemical in question; they can be triggered months or years after treatment by certain behaviors, smells, memories, or other environmental factors. Therefore, counseling in conjunction with detox is an absolute requirement for treatment of a prescription drug problem.

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Denial is a major problem with prescription drug abusers. After all, they are taking the drug for a legitimate problem, right? A doctor gave it to them, so it must be okay. Addicts rationalize taking more and more of the drug because “it’s just not working” and they believe they still have the original problem. In fact, the original condition may be long past, and they have created a new one in the form of depression and a need to get high to relieve it. This is double trouble for the prescription drug addict, a dual diagnosis in the making. Treatment for prescription drug addiction may therefore involve not only a drug treatment program, but additional therapy for the attendant psychiatric diagnosis.

Seeking help for prescription drug abuse is the smart thing to do if you even suspect you have a problem. Don’t go it alone—find a proper drug treatment center staffed with caring professionals trained in treating prescription drug abuse, and get going.