When talking about drug addiction, it is not always about street drugs such as heroin and cocaine. You can also get addicted to that medication your doctor prescribed for you. Taking your medicines in ways they were not intended, such as higher doses or increasing the frequency of consumption, puts you at risk of addiction.
When not used as intended, several medications pose a high risk of addiction to you. Here are 6 of them:
1)Benzodiazepine Abuse Addiction
Your doctor may prescribe this medicine for you when you’re diagnosed with insomnia, anxiety disorder, and seizures. While using this drug for a short time is generally effective and safe, extensive use of the drug can cause adverse health effects and addiction. Any attempts to stop the usage of the drug can cause severe symptoms when you’ve become dependent, making drug recovery from The Forge Recovery Center an uphill task.
2) Fentanyl Abuse Addiction
Fentanyl is an opioid prescribed to relieve pain. The pills are usually more potent than your average pain killers. With long periods of use, however, your body may start developing dependence such that, without taking the drug, your body will not function properly. In addition, any attempts to withdraw from the drug will cause severe symptoms such as increased heart rate, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, sweating, and longing for the drug.
3) Medical Inhalants Addiction
Millions of people globally use have used inhalants for one reason or another. Inhalants are vapored drugs that are huffed or sniffed directly into the lungs. As with most drugs, abuse of inhalant medication is a potential time bomb for addiction.
Depending on the kind of inhalant drug abused, signs and symptoms of inhalant abuse vary. Common symptoms associated with inhalant addiction mirror those witnessed with alcohol intoxication. These are drunken appearances, loss of appetite, red eyes, among others.
4) Medication Opioid Addiction
One of the critical factors in opioid addiction treatment is preventing addiction to the medication used in the treatment. While there’s potential to get hooked on medication like Subutex, a more significant risk occurs when some patients continue to use the drugs even after the treatment is over. This often occurs when a patient experiences an initial high that they don’t want to stop or have tried to stop the use of the drug but experienced unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, making drug recovery difficult.
5) Prescription Stimulant Addiction
Prescription stimulants help treat deep sleep episodes and attention-deficit hyper hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They act on the brain and spine to expand your alertness, concentration, and energy levels. There are various ways to take stimulants, from injection to oral and snorting.
To increase the drug’s functionality, many stimulant users begin abusing the drugs by either having more doses than required or taking the drugs when not needed to. As a result, your body becomes highly conditioned to these high doses, regular use of the drug to function, and withdrawal symptoms increase, making drug recovery difficult.
6) Prescription Opioid Addiction
Regular over-the-counter painkillers may not work for everyone. After undergoing a major surgical procedure, you may experience pain- this is where your doctor may prescribe you opioids to deal with this pain.
Prescription opioids are also ideal in treating acute and chronic pain for those with conditions such as cancer. However, the downside of using these drugs is the potential to cause addiction not only to you but also to your unborn baby if you’re using the drug while pregnant.
Do You Need Help?
Medicines are meant to help when used correctly. However, misuse and abuse of medicines can cause your body to depend on them to perform.