Over the past decade the abuse of prescription drugs has become a greater topic of conversation and research. This has become a real problem with adults and the kids who find drugs in the household medicine cabinet. Prescription drugs is the second most abused category behind marijuana. There is research that estimates that about 20 percent of the people in America are using prescription drugs for non medical use. The doctor may have good intentions but it looks like some of these drugs are addictive. Some of the ones you may have heard of lately include Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax, Valium, Dexedrine, Adderall and Ritalin. Steroids have also become an addictive drug.
Prescription pill addictions account for over forty percent of hospital emergency admission because of overdoses. This is happening because prescription drugs are so much easier to obtain these days. Getting an online pharmacy to fill prescriptions without a script is really easy to do. The sad thing is that even minors are able to get drugs this way. There is also the twisted belief that because it came from a doctor means it is safer to take. It is only safer if taken for the prescribed time and for the prescribe reason. Problems happen in the home because old drugs are not discarded even when they are not needed for intended reasons any longer. This keeps the access easy and the trips to the hospital high.
There doesn’t seem to be any difference between men and women misusing prescription drugs. There are, however, differences in what type of drug they will use. Women are more likely to use psycho therapeutic drugs, narcotic pain relievers as well as tranquilizers.
The use of many prescriptions drugs for many real ailments can lead into abuse as well. It becomes easier to take drugs for non medical reasons because one is so used to taking so many things already. This can be really dangerous to self prescribe medications when one is already taking so many for things like heart conditions or blood pressure issues. This leads to mixing the wrong combination of drugs together and having bad, even fatal, consequences.
No matter what kind of drug one takes or where it comes from, drug addiction alters how the brain functions. It is a pathological, biological process which is the essence of addition. At some point, it is easy for someone to go from a non addict to an addict without even knowing it is happening.
