When you are suffering from intense pain from either injury or surgery, you will do just about anything for some relief. Doctors know this and will prescribe pain medication to help people find pain relief. However, they are careful prescribing pain medication to individuals who have a history of addiction. Since many pain medications such as vicodin can cause you build a tolerance for it, causing you to have to take more to achieve the same results, you may end up taking a large enough dose that will cause you withdrawal symptoms when you should stop taking it. These withdrawal symptoms can be so intense that you will long to go back on the medication just so don’t have to feel so ill. This is when addiction occurs.
What You Can Do if You’re Addicted
If you’ve tried to stop taking your pain medication without success, you may be addicted. Getting past the withdrawal symptoms should be your first goal. This means that you may need support, emotionally and physically. Talking to trusted friends or famiy members about how you feel will help you relieve tension and stay strong. Speaking to your doctor about your physical withdrawal symptoms can help him determine whether what you are going through is from the withdrawal or if it may be a separate medical condition that you may need treatment for. Also, there may be some medications that you can take to relieve some of the discomfort you feel from pain medication withdrawal that are not addictive.
Finally, if you’ve ever had a problem with quitting pain medication in the past, do not accept it again. There are alternative ways to pain relief that you can use so you don’t become a pain medication addict.
Photo Courtesy of: stevendepolo on Flickr
Thu, Dec 10, 2009
Pain