PHARMACEUTICALS ABUSE
Every one of us has turned to and appreciated the effects of painkillers throughout our life. Since the dawn of time, man has sought out something to ease pain by taking and mixing any kind of pill powder potion, or poison available to him. Walk into any Pharmacy and you will find shelves of remedies for aches, pains, ailments, and even various types of mixtures for anxieties.
Doctors now have a license to prescribe a peaceful life for you – or so it appears for a time.
Mind and Mood altering drugs such as painkillers and tranquilizers bring benefits of ‘relief’ for many people, but like many other medicinal substances, they can also cause some unwanted side effects and intra-personal problems. For the individual who has grown into a chemical dependency relationship with these medicines the consequences can prove to be fatal through unintentional overdose, suicide through loss of rational use of the chemical and mixing chemicals with alcohol and/or the all too familiar suicidal overdose.
PAINKILLERS AND TRANQUILIZERS
Painkillers and tranquilizers can react with other drugs such as alcohol and they then threaten and distort the physical and mental health state of the user. People taking painkillers and tranquilizers can only really find themselves in great danger of chemical dependency because of the relaxing influence that these chemicals can have on the individual’s ability to self-protect and self regulate because of the erosion of their cognitive boundaries; “a few drinks won’t do any harm this evening, I had the valium hours ago” – and then – “I’ll just smoke that last bit of pot, I’m not actually out of control here”.
During the erosion of their cognitive boundaries people very often conclude that the use and the ‘benefits’ of these ‘gateway drugs’ far outweigh the ‘consequences’, because in the beginning they never really suffer any of the side-effects.
People with an authentic need of painkillers and tranquilizers must regularly seek second and third opinions about the drugs they are using from pharmacists and maybe other doctors.
Cherrywood House has lengthy experience with prescription addictions and our results have been heart-warming for everyone involved. Painkillers and tranquilizers fall into the ‘downers’ category of prescription drugs, they cause a depression of the central nervous system.
Prescription Tranquillizers – Prescription Painkillers Addiction
There are three Major Downers:
- Opiates
- Sedative-hypnotics
- Alcohol
There are three Minor Downers:
- Muscle Relaxants
- Antihistamines
- Over-the-counter depressants
As Cherrywood House's Clinical Director, please allow me the privilege of relaying to you a message that I received not three hours ago, from an ex-client once deeply addicted to painkillers and alcohol: “It’s as if God wiped away the smoked glass that has always clouded my view of life and helped me to see more clearly everyone’s love concern and care. Can you believe that I actually look forward to going to meetings these days? , ‘change is not really difficult, it’s the resistance to it that causes all the pain”. Anonymous
To put the ‘prescription addiction’ into a broader perspective, please try to consider the following: The difference between a million and a billion is best explained in units of time; 1 Million seconds is 6 weeks – 1 Billion seconds is 32 years!
In 2002 Americans spent $154.5 billion on prescription drugs, almost half the world’s total expenditure for prescription drugs.
Please be really careful with any use of prescription drugs, but don’t ever think it has gone too far!