Painkiller addiction often goes undetected as it is considered a necessity thanks to chronic pain that affects over a third of all American people. To manage their chronic pain, painkillers are taken almost every day, which should not be an issue so long as they follow the dosage requirement and timing as prescribed by their doctor. But people often fail to follow that and may end up getting addicted to the painkillers.
How do they get addicted to painkillers? How does a painkiller work? What are the signs and symptoms that you should look out for to perceive if someone is addicted to it? And what can you do to fix this addiction situation? We are sure you have a lot of questions and we plan to answer every one of them. So, take a minute with us as we explain everything to you.
What Are Painkillers and Why Are They Needed?
Painkillers are a type of medicine that has both natural and semisynthetic substances that are derived from opium poppy plants. These types of medicines are used to treat acute as well as chronic pain. They are needed when a person gets surgery or is injured and it helps to keep their pain down. They are also taken by people who have chronic pain on an everyday basis and cannot live their lives without taking the painkillers as the pain can be too severe for them to work or do anything.
There are two types of painkillers that can be bought legally and they are either over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers or prescription painkillers. As the name suggests, the OTC painkillers can be purchased from any pharmacy counter and don’t need any prescription, while the prescription painkillers can’t be bought without a valid and signed prescription. Prescription painkillers are usually stronger than OTC painkillers and are usually taken for more intense pain. People who abuse prescription drugs can get prescription drug addiction in the long run.
Understanding How a Painkiller Works?
Before we tell you how painkillers work, you need to understand how pain works and why we sense pain. When we get injured, a special chemical called prostaglandins is released which then gets picked up by the nerve endings and travels to the brain via the spinal cord. The prostaglandins chemicals are unique and contain unique data about the location and the nature of the injury. When our brain gets this chemical, the data is revealed and our brain creates a pain sensation in that area to make us understand that something went wrong in that area and needs tender care and attention to prevent further damage to that area or any other area.
So, in a short answer, it’s a signal that if it gets transmitted to our brain creates a painful sensation. This one can be blocked to stop the transmission of the signal. No signal is equal to no pain and it’s that easy to understand. The painkiller does exactly that. The chemicals released from the painkillers block the prostaglandins from being released in high numbers and if it’s not released, you will feel no pain. The higher the release of prostaglandins, the higher the level of pain you will feel and vice versa. If you need a recommendation, the All American Detox Center is an excellent drug detox center that can help you or someone you care about getting rid of painkiller addiction swiftly and discretely if that’s required.
How Does One Get Addicted To Painkillers?
When painkillers are prescribed to someone, the doctors will mention the dosage and how often you should take them. The amount of dosage that the doctors prescribe is safe, but the pain is relative and on an odd day, the pain levels could be a lot higher forcing the user to take a user to a higher dosage without consulting their doctors. When this happens quite often, their tolerance level will increase and they will need to take more and more dosages to keep the pain in check, slowly leading to an addiction to the painkillers and may require a painkiller addiction treatment from an inpatient drug rehab center to get rid of it properly.
What Are The Signs and Symptoms of a Painkiller Addict?
Here are some major signs and symptoms that you can notice in a person who is addicted to painkillers. Let’s start with the signs.
- They Will Think About Medications a Lot
If someone’s addicted to their painkiller medications, then this may become one of their top priority. They keep thinking about things like what if they ran out of painkillers. This shows that living without this painkiller is not something they want.
- They Will Take a Higher Dosage Than The Dosage Prescribed To Them
People who are addicted to painkillers may take a higher dosage than what’s prescribed citing that the pain level is higher than usual which it may not be.
- They Have Been Taking Painkillers For a Long Time
Those who have chronic pain and have been taking painkillers for a long time have the highest risk of developing an addiction to painkillers and may need surveillance to confirm if they are abusing the painkillers.
- They Get Angry Whenever Someone Talks About Alternative Painkillers
People can get a sense of euphoria by taking painkillers and this sense is a very powerful sense. It’s powerful enough to get addicted. So, when there are talks of switching to different or alternative pain medications, they may get angry and aggressive. This happens because they are afraid that the new medications may not provide them with the same euphoria.
Sometimes the user may also experience some severe symptoms if they addicted to painkillers severely and abuse the drug more often than not. Here are some of the symptoms that may present themselves in the user.
- High blood pressure, lung damage, seizures, and irregular heartbeat.
- Injury due to an accident or there could be self-inflicted injuries.
- Withdrawal symptoms may begin to manifest when the user doesn’t take the next dosage for a long time.
- The influence of drugs may jeopardize the relationships they have with their loved ones, friends, and family.
- Loss of interest due to the influence of painkillers may lead to negligence in work and college.
- Brain damage or death by overdose.
How to Get Someone Out of Their Painkiller Addiction?
Convincing someone or forcing them to get rid of addiction will only lead to backfire and create more tension. To get them the help that they need, you will have to get them enrolled in a California detox center or any other drug rehab center. The rehab center’s staff are well trained and knows how to handle difficult situations and when they finally come out of the program, they will be completely clean.
Wrapping Up
Painkiller addiction affects a lot of people in the US and can get unnoticed. We hope we’re able to clear all of your queries and doubts. Thankfully, All American Detox treatment center can really help you get rid-off from this situation. You can easily make a call on this number to reach out one of our expert that can guide you to the whole admission process at +1 (844) 570-1301. We accept all major PPO Insurances for the treatment.
