Prescription Drug Addiction

It is a common misconception that drug abuse and addiction is limited to illegal or street drugs. Prescription drug abuse is at least as harmful to you as illegal drug abuse, however, many people take legal or over the counter drugs as they believe they are safer and are often easier to acquire. Whilst many people require medication to help them with various physical and psychological conditions, abuse of prescriptions drugs is rapidly increasing.

Taking a paracetamol to stop the symptoms of a headache is exactly what it is designed to do and used appropriately they can often turn around debilitating conditions. However, when abused, prescription drugs are as dangerous as any other kind of drug and represent a serious potential to harm. The chance of overdosing is high and long-term abuse almost inevitably results in irreparable damage to vital organs.

Whether your doctor is prescribing drugs based on an inaccurate self report or you are buying drugs over the counter or from the Internet, negative and damaging consequences are extremely likely to occur if medication is abused. Serious health damage is becoming more commonplace, particularly with addictive painkillers and sleeping tablets. Without appropriate prescription and instruction from a medical professional, prescription and over the counter drugs can have dangerous side effects, especially when mixed with other substances.

Whilst there are many groups of prescription drugs that are regularly observed in substance abusers, the following categories of prescription drugs represent the more prominent groups of drugs associated with legal/prescription drug addictions:

Prescription drug abusers place themselves at risk of negative legal consequences as buying legal drugs without a prescriptions is illegal.

Getting the right treatment for a prescription drug addiction is life changing and can be life saving.