Prescription Drug Help

There are multiple barriers to getting someone who is abusing prescription drugs to accept your help. One of the first is that the person may not even be fully cognizant of his addiction. With prescription drugs especially, it is possible to be in denial. After all, a doctor got them started on these pills in so many situations.

As the user developed a tolerance to the drug, he needed more pills in a 24 hour period just to maintain what he felt was a beneficial effect. The doctor might have increased his supply or the dosage in the pills a couple of times, but some doctors are afraid of getting in trouble if the dosage gets too high. They may cut a patient off or refuse to increase the prescription. This is where some people begin to doctor-shop -that is, go to multiple doctors to get a prescription from each. If they need to, they may also go to a drug dealer or commit prescription fraud so they can get more pills.

Opiate pain relievers are the most common drugs to be abused, but many types of prescription drugs are subject to abuse.

One 24-year-old man who entered treatment for addiction in 2012 included the following prescription drugs on his history:

  • Morphine
  • Roxicodone
  • Morphine
  • OxyContin
  • Fentanyl
  • Xanax
  • Klonopin
  • Valium
  • Ritalin
  • Adderall

To this dangerous mix, he also added heavy alcohol consumption, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Very often, those who are deeply addicted will simply take whatever they can get their hands on. A person who is abusing a variety of prescription drugs needs to seek treatment at the first moment possible just to save them from the incredible risk they are running.

Narconon Can Help

Around the world, there are fifty Narconon rehab centers that offer a unique method of long-term drug rehabilitation. A key phase in this program is the in-depth detoxification step that occurs near the start. By combining time in a sauna with a struct regimen of nutritional supplements and moderate daily exercise, a person can flush out residual drug toxins that were left behind in the fatty tissues. It has been shown that these toxins are involved with causing muddy, slow thinking, lowered mood and a poor outlook. When the toxins are gone, one’s mood brightens and the future looks much more hopeful.

After this improvement, it is possible to focus on learning the skills that will keep one sober long after going home from the Narconon center. A better outlook means that a person has more hope of a full recovery. Clearer thinking means that he (or she) can learn the skills needed to keep him safe.

For more than forty-five years, the Narconon program has had an excellent record of helping people break their drug habits and replace them with new sober lives. Find out more about how it works today.

A drug store used to be a sign of assistance for sick people. They would get a prescription and that medicine would assist them temporarily to recover from injury or illness. In the last fifteen years or so, the situation related to prescription drugs has changed dramatically and destructively.

Prescription drug overuse began in the 1950s and 1960s with tranquilizers like Miltowns and Valium. Because doctors were not familiar with the addictive nature of these drugs, they prescribed them freely. They were also not often familiar with how to carefully wean a person off these drugs after extended use. Many people began to suffer problems with addiction or serious problems with withdrawal when they tried to quit. Sleeping pills were also widely prescribed and resulted in a number of well-known deaths, including that of Marilyn Monroe.

When pain management began to be heavily promoted in the 1990s, a number of new pain relief formulas came onto the market, most notably the time-release form of oxycodone, brand-named OxyContin. As the distribution of these painkillers increased, the number of people abusing these drugs for the high they offered increased right along with it. Tragically, the number of people overdosing on these drugs followed right along. A person in need of help to get off prescription drugs is at serious risk unless he (or she) can find effective rehabilitation–rehab that actually helps him establish a new, sober life.

Mixing Prescription Drugs

It is very common for a person who abuses prescription drugs to use more than one at a time. There are even nicknames for some of these combinations. Like the “Las Vegas Cocktail” for hydrocodone and Valium, a combination said to produce a high similar to that of heroin. And then there is the “Houston Cocktail,” which is hydrocodone, Valium and Soma, a muscle relaxant.

Many drugs slow the breathing or heart rate, which is what kills a person in most incidents of overdose. A benzodiazepine like Valium slows the breathing and so does the opiate painkiller hydrocodone. It is easier to stop breathing and die when these drugs are mixed. If a person also adds alcohol to their mix, they add another factor that slows the breathing down and can increase the chance of death.