Prescription Drug Addiction

Prescription drug abuse can affect anyone and knows no specific income, gender or age. Many well-meaning individuals become unintentional victims.  Prescription drug addicts do not set out to get “high,” they are usually just trying to stop the pain.  Their drug addiction develops slowly over time and often, these individuals do not even realize that they are doing anything wrong or that they even have a problem. 

Addiction results when the use of these prescription drugs escalates from medicinal use to abusive use.  Although the user may have no intention of abusing their medication, any time you take a medication other than as prescribed, you are abusing that drug.  Just because you have a prescription for that medication does not make the abuse right and it does not protect you from any harm that may result.

It has been statistically proven that prescription drug addiction occurs more frequently in women, adolescents and with the elderly. Studies are currently underway to shed light on this illuminating information. 

Sadly, prescription drug abuse among adolescents is fairly new.  Many teens are turning to prescription medication and any highs that they can obtain from over-the-counter medications due to its easy accessibility.  As a result, many parents need to be vigilant about keeping their medications inaccessible to their children.  Many drug stores have even resorted to pulling certain types of OTCs off the shelf and putting them behind the counter in order to avoid this problem.

On the other hand, many elderly patients become prescription drug abusers because they get confused about the dosing amounts or do not keep careful record of when they take their medications. Sadly, most of these patients fail to report any problems to their doctor until it’s too late.  

Many prescription drug abusers do not view their prescription drug abuse as a problem, let alone an addiction.  Addicts seek these prescription drugs because they believe it is a safer alternative to street drugs. The users do not see a prescription addiction on the same level as a cocaine addiction - although physically and mentally they have the same devastating effects.   Many patients do not understand that any misuse of their medication may result in tolerance and abuse.  Because their medication is prescribed and not obtained off the street, they think they are safe but nothing could be further from the truth.

The most commonly abused prescription drugs are benzodiazepines such as Xanax or Valium, which are used to treat anxiety.  Another form of prescription medication that is commonly abused is any type of opiate painkiller such as OxyContin or Vicodin.