Are you concerned you, or someone close to you, may be addicted to prescription drugs? Learn how to spot the signs of prescription pill abuse right here.
You’re going throughout your daily life when suddenly you get injured. The next thing you know, you’re dealing with hospital fees, and you find yourself having to keep up with a prescription.
Dealing with pain is a natural part of the healing process, but with modern pain pills it’s possible to abuse what was originally prescribed as a useful, short-term tool. If you have found yourself wondering whether you, or a loved one, have taken pain medications beyond what’s truly needed, you are not alone. More than 20% of people over the age of 12 have used pain medications even when they didn’t need it.
Maybe you aren’t yet sure if you or someone you know has crossed that invisible line into the stage of abuse. Maybe you are wondering if you truly do need to consider drug addiction intervention. Continue reading to learn about the ways in which you can know for sure.
Behavior Changes and Mood Swings
This sign might be difficult to discover, but it happens to everyone who has taken pain pills often enough. If you find yourself unusually unhappy or distant from your friends and family, you should keep an eye on whether or not that coincides with administering a pain pill.
Mood swings are one of the most common side effects of any modern prescription medications. If you are experiencing them, it might be time to start thinking about researching drug addiction intervention.
Withdrawal Symptoms When You Run Out
Sometimes when the prescriptions of pills runs out, patients start to experience painful or nauseating symptoms that are considered withdrawal signs of withdrawal. This happens when your body has become so used to the sensation of being on pain medication that it doesn’t remember how to function without them.
Withdrawal symptoms are a common sign of addiction, so take appropriate measures to ensure your body doesn’t continue to suffer from the use of pain medications.
Doctor Shopping
A sure sign that you might have a serious addiction to pain pills has to do with the prescription itself. Perhaps your current doctor has decided that you don’t need them anymore. Perhaps you find yourself looking for a new doctor because of it.
At the new doctor or medical facility, you might find yourself discovering “new” pain problems that need to be managed with pain medications. This is a sure sign that you are in the mental space of addiction and simply searching for your next pain pill supply, whether or not it would actually be beneficial or necessary for you. That mentality, unfortunately, is the slippery slope that leads to drug abuse.
You Start Seeking Multiple Sources
If “doctor shopping” starts to dry out as a source of pain pills that you may or may not need, there is a sign of pill addiction that is even more certain. If you start to seek illegal ways of obtaining pain medications without a doctor’s script (probably because no other doctor would continue to prescribe them to you after a certain amount of time), you probably have an addiction.
The problem is that even without ready prescriptions, painkillers are widely available. This is an additional reason that painkillers are the most abused prescription drugs.
If you find yourself asking around some shady sources for what was originally a useful tool for your pain medication, it is probably time to actually start asking around about the best ways to stage a drug addiction intervention.
You’re Always Justifying Your Actions
Somewhat in line with the behavior changes and constant mood swings is the continued justification of your “need” for painkillers. This, though, is simply inaccurate after a certain point.
It’s difficult to tell at what point painkillers are truly being abused, because how would you know whether or not you feel pain unless you’re off of them? And how would you know whether the pain you feel is part of your original symptoms or just symptoms of painkiller withdrawal?
The goal of this guide is to help you determine where exactly that line is. One good rule of thumb is to stop taking the pain pills as soon as you start thinking you really do need them just to get through your day. Frankly, your ancestors didn’t, so you don’t.
Financial or Occupational Trouble
If the addiction continues to progress and you keep wanting to further your use of pain pills, more difficult troubles are probably in your future. If you quite literally can’t afford pain medications while still paying your bills and being financially responsible, then you shouldn’t be buying them.
Hopefully, you have stopped purchasing them before you have gotten to this point. If you haven’t, though, odds are that you also are letting this new painkiller addiction affect other areas of responsibility within your life. If you find that your performance in whatever profession is starting to weaken, you are definitely addicted to painkillers to an unhealthy extent.
It’s time to look into a healthy drug addiction intervention.
Friends and Family Start to Mention It
Unfortunately, at this stage in your pill addiction, there are other important areas of your life that will start to suffer. People addicted to pain medications have a hard time connecting with people or having fulfilling relationships.
Friends and family might start reaching out to you, perhaps in the form of a staged intervention. If that is the case, you would do well to listen to them and allow their concern for you to manifest.
The outside perspective of your pill habit is a sure way to know that your use of painkillers has gone too far.
You Start Thinking About Drug Addiction Intervention
Finally, you have come to the point where drug addiction intervention might sincerely be your best option for ridding yourself of one of the most common addictions afflicting Americans. You deserve to live a happy, healthy, and painkiller-free life.
We know how difficult it is to see these signs of painkiller addiction on your own, and we know how even more difficult it is to stop the use of them. We encourage you, though, to reach out to us today if you are ready to take the steps forward to rid yourself of an addiction to pain medication. We have multiple services available to your needs.
