Some prescription drug addiction begins with a prescription from the doctor. For some, the problem begins when they’re given a drug by their doctor. It could be a painkiller like OxyContin, hydrocodone, Percocet, Percodan, or Vicodin taken for the pain of an injury or illness. It could be tranquilizers, sedatives, or pain relievers such as Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, or fentanyl. Most people get these drugs for a condition they consider temporary, an injury, or a period of high stress. However, it is easy to become physically dependent on them, and for many people, it is also easy to become addicted to the extent they need Xanax, Klonopin, or fentanyl treatment. In either case, when you try to stop taking them, you feel so bad you just can’t do it. But they came from the doctor, right? So can it really be so bad to just keep taking them? The answer is yes. In fact, many people need to get help from a drug addiction treatment center.
Some prescription drug addiction begins with experimenting. This is especially true for kids and younger adults. They see the pills in their parents’ medicine cabinet and know they apparently make their mother or father feel better. Or they see other kids in school taking – it’s a real problem in both high schools and colleges – and decide to try them out.
Why do they do this? A lot of older people think kids have nothing to be upset about – after all, they don’t have to worry about jobs, taxes, their marriage, the housing market, investments, or their own kids. They live what parents see as happy-go-lucky lives with no problems. All that’s really expected of them is to go to school and help around the house.
But younger people have problems, too. They’re trying to do well in school, they’re starting off new relationships, and they don’t have the life experience to make the hard times less devastating; they want to please their parents and their friends (and sometimes the two conflict). Or they may be overweight, not as great looking as they want to be, or not athletic enough – but they want to belong, they want to excel, and they wanted to be accepted and even admired.
That’s a lot of pressure. And they welcome anything that will make them feel better and forget their problems for a while or make them feel they’re more a part of the group. So, they try the pills – they get them from their friends or from their own medicine cabinet at home. And then they can’t stop taking them.
There are tens of thousands of drug detox and drug rehab centers and many different models of drug addiction treatment centers. Some are appropriate for prescription drug addiction, and some may not be much useful in the case of addiction to prescription drugs. Some get good results, and some don’t. So, it is important to choose the right facility, and it is also important to ensure there is medical supervision if needed—at least through the initial withdrawal period.
