Opioids and Painkillers

opioid painkillers

When a person has suffered a terrible injury or has a serious permanent impairment, the pain can make life agonizing. It takes a strong painkiller to alleviate this pain and enable these people to get through each day with an adequate quality of life. And so the pharmaceutical industry has developed strong pain medication to address this kind of problem.

The difficulty arises because these drugs are addictive. At this time, all strong pain relievers are based on an opiate or opioid (a synthetic that is similar to an opiate) formula, which means that they are addictive drugs. Until there is another solution that relieves pain as well, some people will become addicted even if they use these drugs exactly as the doctor orders.

Just in America alone, there are hundreds of millions of doses of painkillers distributed each year. In Washington State alone, there were 45 million doses of Vicodin prescribed in one recent year. With so many of these drugs in circulation, there are plenty of pills that can be obtained by those who are driven toward substance abuse by cravings or curiosity. Unfortunately, many of those choosing to try these drugs are our younger citizens. Younger people lack the perception that they can be harmed or killed and so have less judgment in this area.

Drugs commonly abused include:

  • Vicodin and Lortab, which contain hydrocodone
  • Oxycodone
  • Fentanyl, so strong it is usually given as a lollipop or patch
  • Opana, which contains hydromorphone
  • Morphine.

Severe Withdrawal Symptoms Can Keep an Addict from Seeking Help

Once a person becomes addicted, he (or she) is going to have to face withdrawal symptoms in order to get sober. If he has been through it already or seen someone else go through it, he may dread this process. That dread and the fear of future relapse may cause a person to think that it is better to just stay addicted.

The solution of many rehabs is to give each person a substitute medication to keep withdrawal pain and sickness away. Yes, the person is no longer getting drugs illicitly and the consumption of addictive drugs is controlled, but he is not sober. He will never feel the brightness of perception without the influence of drugs. But if a person chooses a Narconon drug rehabilitation center for his recovery, his future can be brighter than he thinks.

How Narconon Creates Sobriety After Addiction

For a person to leave opioid abuse behind, he must overcome the cravings for the drugs and he must have the ability to build a new, sober life. Without these improvements, he may constantly think of how much better things seemed when he was oblivious to pain or problems. The escape he found in opiates may seem better than a sober life. In essence, he must overcome his physical addiction as well as his psychological dependence.

The Narconon drug rehab program has features that help on both these counts. The first is the nutritionally based withdrawal step that takes each recovering addict through a withdrawal process that is far more tolerable than most people expect. Nutritional supplements, relaxing and calming exercises support each person, reducing the impact of the withdrawal symptoms.

A thorough detoxification step follows, flushing out residual drug toxins that have been shown to be involved in the triggering of cravings. Using sauna, moderate exercise and more nutrition, the Narconon New Life Detoxification can help each person recover the bright outlook they had before addiction. Most people say that their cravings reduce to a much lower level. Some people say they are completely gone.

These two steps have provided many people with the realization that Narconon is a different kind of rehab, one that really works to create a new sober life. One that doesn’t just cover up the problems with more drugs.

Life Skills Training Follows

What happens next is that each person must gain the skills to direct his life in a new, positive, drug-free direction. Life skills training includes learning how poor decisions regarding friends and acquaintances damaged their lives in the past and how to make better choices in the future. The individual learns how personal values are lost and how to restore them.

Find out how the Narconon drug rehab program can help someone you love recover from addiction to painkillers or any drugs.


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