Addiction to any drug can be quite serious, but because painrelief medications are prescription, many people think they comewith little risk. While most people are convinced that addictionoccurs only if certain emotional factors are apparent, that is notalways the case. Anything that your body becomes chemicallydependent on can be addicting. The part that most people don’tunderstand is just how easy it is to get addicted to a substance.Pain pills are used both for genuine health issues but now havebecome a popular drug to use for an emotional state of elevation.Aspreviously mentioned, just about any drug that has a significantenough effect on the body, and is regularly used can become anaddiction. It doesn’t help that pain relief drugs have been knownto be used as a means of getting a state of euphoria. Drugs such asopium and morphine have been used to help people fight pain forhundreds of years. Both have been recognized as dangerous,addictive drugs. Some opiates, like heroin, have also been used byaddicts. Cocaine can also be used as a pain relief drug, althoughhow much of this is quality has been preserved in crack after beingdiluted can differ from sample to sample. In the news we’ve readabout pain pill addiction to oxycontin that troubled Rush Limbaugh,Courtney Love and Lindsey Lohan.Dependence should not be mistakenfor tolerance. Tolerance happens when the body adjusts to thecontinued presence of the drug within your body. While this may ormay not occur in everyone who uses a certain substance, there is arisk that anyone can develop it. Basically, someone who is tolerantto a drug has adapted to the effects of the drug at a given dose.For prescription and pain meds, this means that it can’t numb thepain as well as it did before. Typically, with the supervision of amedical professional, the dosage can be increased in order toobtain the same effect as before the tolerance occurred. However,this can escalate and become very dangerous.Legal medications forinjuries or accidents that relieve pain must be closely monitoredto assure proper compliance. For those using these drugs illegallyfor psychological comfort, it is far better to instead seekcounseling and if necessary get medication to treat depression oranxiety that is not addictive.Learn more about Pain Pill Abuse and Prescription Drug Abuse.
