Helen Hecker asked:


A person exhibits compulsive behavior to satisfy their craving for a pain killer or pain medication even when there are negative consequences associated with taking it. There are many side effects and adverse reactions that can occur with the use of opioids as pain killers. When you’re addicted physically to a drug, like pain killers or alcohol, etc., it’s because you’ve suppressed or shut down your body’s production of endorphins, which are natural opiate pain killers; when this happens you start craving the drug that you replaced the endorphins with whether it’s alcohol, any of a number of drugs or pain killers.

Many other drugs can interact with the opioids and cause a variety of symptoms; this can be fatal. There are a number of effective treatment options to treat pain killer addiction to prescription opioids and to help manage the sometimes severe withdrawal symptoms that can accompany sudden stopping of pain killers or drugs. Opioids used as the doctor has prescribed are supposedly not dangerous according to some well-established medical groups; but if this is the case, why are so many people addicted to them?

More than 10% of high school seniors have started taking Vicodin for reasons other than reducing pain. Addiction is both a biological and psychological condition. Patients can innocently start taking pain killers after a moderate injury or because of a severe injury in an automobile accident, fall or for post surgical pain.

Common side effects and adverse reactions of pain killers are: nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dry mouth, miosis (contraction of the pupil), orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure drops upon sudden standing) — often happens when arising too fast when getting out of bed in the morning, urinary retention, constipation and fecal impaction. Pain killer addiction includes: opiate dependency, opiate addiction, narcotic dependency, narcotic addiction, and pain killer dependency or painkiller dependency. Opioids should never be taken when drinking alcohol (also a drug) or when alcohol may still be in the system.

An opioid-dependent pain patient has improved function with the use of the drug while an opioid-addicted patient does not have improvement. More than 415,000 people received treatment for pain killer abuse or addiction this past year. Physical dependence on a drug suggests that sudden stopping of the drug may result in negative consequences.

The longer you wait to get treatment the worse it’ll get; take action now. If you can’t do an in-patient rehab, find out how you can do outpatient rehab and pay for it under your insurance plan; check your insurance policy to see if it’s covered. If you don’t have insurance, check with your local mental health agencies to see what is available that’s free.

Some insurance companies will pay for one or two weeks; some may pay for rehabilitation too. There are many pain killer addiction treatment facilities located throughout the United States, Canada and the rest of the world. You must leave the routine responsibilities of your life for a week or two or suffer the inevitable outcome and bad health effects of prolonged drug addiction.

A patient being treated with a pain killer can become dependent, but with controlled and appropriate use of the medication, the patient can return to some level of normal living and normal activities following discontinuance of the drug. The many problems that are associated with pain killer addiction and abuse have experts, doctors and authorities searching for solutions. The effort to reduce pain medication abuse is causing serious problems for patients who legitimately need the drugs.



Self publishing

If you pay attention to government surveys, you’ll learn that more than 20 million people suffer from addiction to alcohol or street drugs, or they are dependent on prescription drugs that they have been abusing. But a recent survey of American adults shows that the effects of addiction stretch much farther than this.

In 2004, 63 percent of adults surveyed said that addiction had impacted their lives, most of them because of a family member’s battle with drugs or alcohol. That means that more than 135 million people struggle either with their own addiction or that of a family member or someone close to them.

This doesn’t measure the number of children who are without a father or mother because they are in jail, in rehabilitation or simply gone. Or the numbers of children who have parents at home but suffer neglect or abuse because of the drug use. It doesn’t measure the lost productivity or the number of businesses that have had to close because an owner lost everything to substance abuse or an employee embezzled enough to close the doors.

Substance abuse and addiction exacts a terrible toll on America. And successful rehabilitation programs can be few and far between. Many rehabilitation programs state success rates between 5 and 20 percent.

“The Narconon Program is very proud of its 70% success rate,” stated Derry Hallmark, stated Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions and Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor at Narconon Arrowhead. Narconon Arrowhead is one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma.

“In our forty years of delivering rehabilitation services and in our 120 centers around the world,” Mr. Hallmark added, “we have been able to return many thousands of people to drug-free lifestyles. Our drug-free program addresses the three primary barriers to addiction rehabilitation: cravings, guilt and depression. We employ a thorough detoxification that uses a dry-heat sauna plus exercise, vitamins and minerals to break through the cravings. Educational and counseling phases of this rehabilitation program enable those in our program to leave guilt and depression far behind and develop new life skills for a drug-free life.”

If you know anyone who needs help to overcome a drug addiction, please contact



Narconon Arrowhead



By: addiction

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Milwaukee Lasik