Learn About Pain Medication Addiction

by Inspiration4Living.com

What is pain medication addiction? How does it come about? What withdrawal effects and symptoms could be experienced? These and other aspects of this addiction are discussed.

There are medications for pain that can become addictive, as 6.2 million Americans can attest to. In another study, about four and a half million persons used pain relievers in a non-medical manner – a million of these were stimulants and another two million were a combination of sedatives and tranquilizers.

Opioids are a class of drugs that people most commonly can become physically dependent upon. This means if and when the time comes and the drug is stopped, the withdrawal symptoms must be dealt with as they can wreck havoc within the body.

Not only that. They are a class of pain killers that a person can easily build up a tolerance to over a period of time. This means as time goes by, the dosage must be increased because the body has become accustomed to the amount taken and it is no longer as effective to ease the pain.

This does not mean that the person who is prescribed an opioid such as oxycodone (OxyContin), morphine (MS Contin), codeine, meperidine (Demerol) or hydrocodone (Vicodin) will ultimately be hooked for life. Actually, pain medication addiction rarely happens under proper medical supervision. They do, however, have effects similar to ones you might experience with morphine or opium use and can become addictive to those who have been addicted to a substance already or who take too much medication, too many times a day.

In itself, the withdrawal syndrome from pain medication addiction is frightening, characterized by severe discomfort, starting with yawning, agitation, sweating, runny nose, watery eyes, cramping, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, back pain, and further leaves you with an intense craving for more of the drug. What has happened is that the body has become hypersensitive to pain because of the excessive pain killer use and reacts with symptoms of its own. This can all last up to three weeks, making it almost impossible for the working man to manage with family, job, etc.

Addiction, in this case pain medication addiction, occurs because of the effect of the drug on the brain. It has become used to the drug being present and has increased the receptors for it. This in turn, does not allow the brain to function normally. It can no longer produce its own natural pain killers (called endorphins) but relies on the opioid to do this job. This degeneration of the cells is what causes the physical dependency and trying to break away from them once the body has ceased to produce endorphins is what brings about the symptoms of withdrawal.

Pain medication addiction begins when an individual takes pain medication to ease the symptoms of withdrawal rather than for the original pain itself. As the body builds levels of tolerance, the medication must be increased in order to maintain the body’s pain-free state of being.

For many, it is not necessarily their fault the dependency took place. It is estimated that 7% of patients prescribed pain medication will become addicted without knowledge of it happening. From there, it is the responsibility of each of us to realize what is taking place and safeguard against pain medication addiction.

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