"I lost everything once the police raided my house,
searching for prescription drugs. My husband and two little children were home
that night. I was so ashamed I couldn't even look at them. I was arrested,
devote handcuffs, and locked up. My husband divorced me. My children were taken
away from me. I knew I had hit bottom."
Sylvia* is a 44-year-old radiologist, former president of
the PTA, and prescription drug addict.
An Invisible Epidemic
A whole lot has been discussing alcoholism and drug
addiction throughout the last two decades. However, information regarding
prescription drug abuse and addiction only appears to surface when someone
famous features a problem and needs treatment or dies.
Historically, prescription drug addiction has been probably
the most underreported drug abuse problem in the nation( National Institute of
Drug Abuse). It can also be the least understood Vivitrol
injection site. Addiction to and withdrawal from prescription drugs could
be more dangerous than other substances because of the insidious nature of the
drugs.
Two types of very commonly abused drugs are opioids and
benzodiazepines. Opioids are usually used to regulate pain. Benzodiazepines, or
tranquilizers, are accustomed to managing anxiety. These drugs are prescribed
for short-term use, such as acute pain and stress, that's in a reaction to a
specified event. They are often prescribed for chronic pain or generalized
anxiety.
Chronic Pain
Like many other folks, Sylvia's doctor put her on Vicodin
because she experienced chronic migraines. The pills worked effectively. They
took away her headaches and allowed her to reside in her life. But, like other
narcotics, Vicodin lost its effectiveness over time. Sylvia began to increase
her dosage. She had built up a tolerance to the medication. She was physically
determined by Vicodin.
Fearing that her doctor would stop prescribing the
medication if she told him that she'd increased the dosage, she kept it a
secret. She didn't genuinely believe that she'd have the ability to function
without the pills. She began to alter the numbers on the prescriptions so that
she'd have more medicines, with increased refills.
Over the next two years, she went from an actual dependence
to real and psychological addiction. She had to keep to take this drug in
increasing dosages to be able to feel "normal." She went from taking
the medication as prescribed to a drug habit of 30 pills a day. She started to
"doctor shop" to be able to obtain several prescriptions at a time.
She would make appointments with several doctors to have what she needed. She
switched pharmacies often so that she could disappear each order at a different
one. She visited several pharmacies in different neighborhoods so that no one
would become suspicious.
She could not use her insurance since she was buying several
prescriptions of Vicodin at one time. She used different names at each
pharmacy. She spent countless dollars a month. She kept a cautious record of
who she was at every one. As her habit increased, she'd to get new ways of
getting pills. She stole a prescription pad from among her doctors and started
to forge her prescriptions. One day, she made the mistake of writing a date on
the forged order that happened to be a Sunday. The pharmacist became suspicious
and confronted her about it. She quickly left the store. He called the police.
By the time law enforcement raided her house, she'd
countless pills hidden in the toilet, your kitchen, and bedroom. Law enforcement
thought she was selling them. They'd no proven fact that the total amount she'd
wouldn't even last her two weeks.
This could seem like a great story, detailing extreme
measures to obtain narcotics. Unfortunately, Sylvia's story is not unusual or
unique. The National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information reported in
May of 2001 that approximately four million people aged twelve and up misuse
prescription drugs. That is roughly 2-4% of the population, four times the
total amount it was in 1980. Prescription drug addiction accounts for
approximately a next of all drug abuse problems in the United States.
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