The Dark Side of Prescription Drugs
...ine, Percoset, Loratabs, and Oxycontin are common medications used for the short-term treatment of painful situations. Often following dental work, a surgery, or an injury, a doctor will prescribe enough medication to last three to seven days. After that period of time, under most circumstances, the pain can be well managed by aspirin, Tylenol, or ibuprofen. For some people, the need for the drug outlasts the need for the pain management. Sometimes the person confuses the reduction of pain with the euphoria that can accompany narcotic’s use. When that occurs, the person using the drug may not know he/she feels better because he/she is expecting a "high" as well as the lessening of the physical pain. Painkillers and tranquilizers are two of the most popular drugs used to get a high. Anxiety disorders such as panic attacks and sleeping problems sometimes introduce people to the world of tranquilizers. Tranquilizers like narcotics do not cure the problem but treat the symptom, and where a sleeping pill such as Halcyon may help you sleep, it cannot teach you how to sleep. Anxiety attacks and "nerves" are also treated with prescription drugs, such as Xanax. For people with addiction, potential the treatment may cause problems that are worse than the original problem. Couple that with tolerance (the body needs more of the chemical to produce the same results), and that can create a problem of dependence. Drug tolerance is basically the body’s ability to adapt to the presence of a drug if something such as narcotic substances is taken regularly for a length of time. Then that will result in a larger dose of the drug being needed. It is known that women are more likely to be given a prescription for the symptom. This may be one of the reasons that women are at higher risk for prescription drug addiction than men. Women between the ages of twelve-seventeen and eighteen –twenty five have shown the largest increase of prescription drug abuse over the past two decades (NIDA). Some of the side effects of hydrocodone is allergic reaction (difficulty breathing; closing of your throat; swelling of your lips, tongue, or face; or hives); anxiety, blood in stool or vomit; bruising, cold, clammy skin, constipation, decreased appetite, decreased mental and physical performance, decreased sex drive, difficulty breathing, difficulty urinating, dizziness, drowsiness, dry throat, diarrhea, difficulty swallowing or breathing, dry mouth, emotional dependence, exaggerated feeling of depression, extreme calm, sedation, indigestion, itching, lightheadedness, mental clouding, mood changes, nausea, muscle twitches, restlessness, ringing in the ears, seizures, weakness, shortness of breath, slow breathing, stomach cramps, stomach pain. When addiction begins, the medication takes on great importance to the user. He/she will go to great lengths to e...