Drug Addiction Stories & Info

Prescription drug abuse is also known as pill addiction. Narconon is a drug rehab center that offers a solution to people addicted to pills. There is no stereotype of person who becomes addicted – anyone who is prescribed pills, or takes over the counter medication is vulnerable to addiction. Of all the many medications available OTC or prescription pain killers can lead to addiction very rapidly.

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How May Someone Become Addicted to a Prescribed Drug?

Addiction can be caused by intentional abuse, or it can be a result of over prescription. Many people become addicted to pills when taking their medication exactly as directed, due to tolerance effects. As people become more tolerant of a drug, it becomes less effective to manage symptoms. People want to take more of the drug to get the same relief. When people start to take a drug at levels toxic to the body, any attempt to reduce drug use, leads to painful symptoms of withdrawal. This makes people take more of the drug, and so the cycle of addiction begins.

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Some Addictive Painkillers

There are many people in Canada today addicted to pills that contain oxycodone and acetaminophen. Painkillers such as OxyContin contain oxycodone. Percocet contains both oxycodone and acetaminophen. The active ingredient of Tylenol is acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol, and often used for pain relief in young children. Tylenol, Percocet and OxyContin are all potentially addictive drugs. Many people with pain start with Tylenol or Percocet and go on to use OxyContin for more intense pain relief.

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Signs of Pills Addiction

When people are already suffering from pain and disability, detecting symptoms of addiction can be difficult, withdrawal symptoms can be mistaken for symptoms of our illness. If you have a need to keep taking more of a drug, and start focusing your attention on drug use in preference to other interests in life, then this might be an early indication of addiction.

Signs of addiction to pills might include:

• lack of interest in appearance
• lack of interest in work and routine chores
• a pre-occupation with getting the drug
• using and possibly stealing money to support the drug habit
• using deception to get more medication from the doctor
• mood swings and irritability
• a range of painful physical or emotional feelings.

If you are on a pain medication and start to feel out of sorts, the Narconon helpline can provide advice to people on pills who think that they might be addicted.

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Controversy

Controversy has raged about the use of Tylenol, Percocet and OxyContin due to the addictive potential of both oxycodone and acetaminophen, and their wide availability to people not adequately informed or notified as to their addictive potential. People seeking pain relief may find that over time their use of prescription painkillers has created an addiction that is neither expected nor intended.

People often go into denial about addiction, some will get into trouble with their relationships, their families, in the workplace and have confrontations with the law and still not want to accept that their problems relate to prescription pill addiction and abuse.

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Some Statistics

Statistics reveal that in 2009, around 16 million people in the USA who are age 12 or over had taken at least one prescription drug. Dr Jurgen Rhem, of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health notes, in 2009, that while Canada does not have the same “wealth of data” that the US has concerning prescription pills abuse, the statistics for Canada, and in particular for Ontario, show concerning trends. For example 5% of the Ontario population abuses prescription medications. Opioid related admissions to Ontario drug treatment centers increased by 60% between 2004 and 2009, with a 41% increase in opioid related deaths between 1999 and 2004.

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Narconon Offers a Solution to Pills Addiction

Finding a solution to the problem of addiction to prescription pills requires a decision to be made: that the addict needs to stop using their drugs. Concerned family members can contact Narconon if they feel that an intervention is needed to help someone who has, and is in denial about, a prescription or OTC pill addiction.

People with prescription pill addiction often continue to use the pills because they see no alternative. Many people think that prescription pills from doctor, or something from the pharmacy is the only way to get pain relief. Narconon offers a solution to people addicted to pills that opens a window of opportunity to consider and to use natural, drug-free methods for effective pain relief.

The Narconon method for drug addiction recovery is nontraditional and offers completely drug-free detox together with a series of practical courses designed to help an addict to stay off drugs, feel more confident and happy in their life.

The Narconon solution to pills addiction gets people completely clean of drugs, not only drugs in the bloodstream, but drug residues that remain, sometimes for years, in the body after drug use. Included in the addiction treatment will be the use of dry heat sauna, nutritious food, vitamins, minerals, adequate sleep, exercise and fresh water.

People who had chosen to use pills to help deal with their problems in life will have no need to use pills for relief when they have successfully completed the rehabilitation courses of the Narconon program. Even people who have unintentionally got addicted to OTC or prescription pills will find the life skills courses and exercises beneficial when resolving future difficulties and problems that might arise in their lives.

Prescription pills addiction is an increasing problem, and indications are that young children and teens are becoming more attracted to the use of prescription and OTC pills – often being offered prescription pills by family members or friends, sometimes experimenting with pills that they find lying around in the home.

Prescription pills often feel safe because they have been prescribed by a doctor, getting prescription pills doesn’t feel as illegal as when buying hard drugs on the street. People are often surprised to find that OxyContin and heroin are much the same in chemical composition and equally addictive.

Narconon offers a non narcotic, therapeutic solution to people addicted to pills, enabling them to overcome their addiction, deal with their pain, and live a contented life.

For more information about the drug-free Narconon drug rehab program, please call 1-877-782-7409 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-877-782-7409 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

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Prescription Pills Addition Treatment

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My battle with drugs began as a teenager. I know now that it was a cry for help. I was the only survivor of a three-car accident that killed my parents and my brother. I was in the hospital for about a little over a week and became addicted to the pain reliever they had me on. I went to stay with my grandmother. I did not realize until I lost my family that I really had no one else besides her because both of my parents had been only children and my father’s parents were gone as was my grandfather on my mother’s side.

Somehow I made it through my junior and senior years. When the doctor and my grandmother decided I had been on pain relievers long enough, I found a new way to relieve my physical and emotional pain: crack cocaine. If my grandmother ever suspected, she didn’t let on.

After high school, I went to work in a call center for a major telephone company. I continued to live with my grandmother. While hitting up my dealer every chance I got for crack cocaine, I was also getting back into prescription meds. My grandmother’s health was failing and she began having a home health aide come in. It was this woman who would eventually answer my call for help and save my life.

One night I barely made it in from partying with friends. I took a couple of my prescription meds and dimly remember spilling the bottle of pills on the table. I began lining them up and playing with them. Then I passed out right there at the table.

My grandmother’s aide was staying over and she wandered into the kitchen sometime that night to get a drink of water and found me at the table surrounded by the pills and some white powder. She checked on me and found me to be breathing fine and somehow helped me to bed. The next morning when I got up, I went into the kitchen to find her at the table having coffee.

She sat me down and told me that she had a family member who had been on drugs and gotten clean at a local drug rehab center. She wanted to help me do the same. Seeing someone talk to me like they cared, having a conversation that was about me and my needs for a change made me break down and cry. She got someone to come in and watch my grandmother for a while and we went over to the drug rehab center. They helped me set up a leave of absence from work and helped me get off drugs.

My grandmother lived two more years. Her home health aide was there again for me as I was for her when my grandmother passed away. Aides become attached to their patients sometimes and she had fond feelings for my grandmother.

I did not slip into the abyss of drugs that time thanks to my support group and my grandmother’s aide who had become a good friend as well. I also met a wonderful man and I am engaged to be married. I still miss my family very much but now I know how to grieve properly without having a relapse. It is hard sometimes, but I know if I can do it, you can, too.