Spiritual Purposes

Almost half of all Americans know someone addicted to the pain pills they are prescribed to. Heather VanderSloot knows the thoughts an addict has because four years ago she was an addict.

Millions of people throughout the world are taking drugs on a daily basis. If you were to ask someone why they take prescription drugs, most people would be taking them for the right reason. However, it’s estimated that twenty percent of people in the United States alone have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.1 Prescription drug abuse is a serious and growing problem that often goes unnoticed. Abusing these drugs can often lead to addiction and even death. You can develop an addiction to certain drugs that may include: narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.1 Prescription drugs are the most common abused category of drugs, right next to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and

Every individual has his or her own reason for abusing prescribed drugs but this does not justify their decisions.

Many people have developed an addiction due to an injury and which were prescribed painkillers to manage and treat the pain. Prolonged use leads to dependence and once a person is addicted, increasing amounts of drugs are required to prevent feeling of withdrawal. Addiction to painkillers often leads to harder drugs such as heroin due to the black market drug being cheaper. Prescription drugs remain a far deadlier problem and more people abuse prescription medication than cocaine, methamphetamine heroin, MDMA and PCP combined. Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities.

After reviewing this article, I have determined that the dimensions of health involved with this issue are physical, environmental, and intellectual. For starters, this issue affects a person's physical health because it causes the body to deteriorate until eventually the person dies. Those who become addicted fail to take proper care of their body with healthy products but rather ingest harmful ones. Another dimension involved is environmental because depending where a person lives will depend how accessible these painkillers are. In an area where a doctor over prescribes painkillers, or people illegally sell painkillers, there should be a higher addiction rate because painkillers are easier to obtain. The final dimension involved

Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and

Through my observations of the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I believe that my analysis could be beneficial to the realm of medicine. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) released a study that displayed, “health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.” Considering the mass amount of prescriptions being written nationwide, it is not surprising that one of the members in the NA meeting I attended was able to easily obtain painkillers from her doctor. The specific interaction I encountered during the Narcotics Anonymous meeting where the woman described that her addiction was being supported by the constant prescriptions written by her doctor

Opioid use has to begin somewhere. Patients that are prescribed opioids for pain treatment run a risk of developing dependency on the prescribed medications. Numerous individuals who take the opioids for extended amounts of time may begin to progress towards higher tolerances of the prescribed medicines. Due to this higher tolerance, individuals may feel like they need to take more than what was prescribed. Eventually this can lead to craving opioids in order to function or to “feel better” throughout the day. In fact, it has been estimated that between twenty-one and twenty-nine percent of patients that are prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them and close to ten percent develop an opioid use disorder (https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis, 2017). “Some people experience a euphoric response to opioid medications, and it is common that people misusing opioids try to intensify their experience by snorting or injecting them” (https://www.samhsa.gov/disorders/substance-use, 2015). This means of drug intake, generally leads to the exploration of more easily acquired drugs with stronger effects.

Some people feel that it is users choice. I would attest to that. But I have a family member that turned to drugs once his son passed away at the age of 6. He has stated that he did the drugs to forget about the pain that was in him, to forget the loss of his child. It is not only a personal problem that dramatically affects individuals’ life but is a major social problem that affects society as whole.

Opioid abuse, misuse and overdose is a problem in The United States. You can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without some mention of the epidemic. This issue has caused the practice of prescribing or taking narcotic pain medication to be looked at under a microscope. Patients are fearful to use some necessary pain medication, because they may become addicted. Other patients who genuinely do have pain and need medication are having a tougher time obtaining the help they need. The problem of abuse and addiction is tough to solve since for some people the medications are the only way they can function and live a semi-normal life. A patient with pain may be hesitant to visit the doctor and

They are often people who were issued pain medication by a doctor, which resulted in dependence on the drug. According to results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an estimated 2.4 million Americans used prescription drugs non-medically for the first time within the past year, which averages to approximately 6,600 initiates per day. This population would seek help if not for the fear and shame they feel about being labeled as a drug addict. These stigmas perpetuated by people believing that addiction is a character flaw or a sign of weakness can create such fear in a person that they won’t ever reach out for the help they need. They worry about losing their jobs and family, so they opt to go without treatment despite the consequences to their health, which could eventually lead to death. In the “Addiction” article published by the Gale group, it states that “According to the CDC, in 2013 more than sixteen thousand people died from prescription opioids, an increase of 50 percent in three years.” Addiction does not discriminate; it makes no distinction between a person’s age, sex, color, or financial circumstance. However, the stigma surrounding addiction and drug use leaves many Americans unwilling to help fund better treatment.

Today the recent growth of prescription opioid painkillers has made opiate use far more domesticated and widespread than ever before.  Even though heroin use has declined, the use of prescription opiates has increased. The use of prescription opiates for people who are dependent on the drugs for pain reduction has lead to an increase in abuse. When a family member or friend begins taking the drugs, not because they need them, but because they want to feeling, it becomes an addiction. Even though an addict is dependent on opiates, a person who is opiate-dependent is different because of the psychological, physical, and financial effects.

The first being dependent patients who may be intentionally or inadvertently misusing their medications. Although this group may have genuine pain problems, some patients have become dependent as they rely on the drugs to improve how they feel or difficulties trying to cope with challenges in their life. Inadvertent dependence can arise from various reasons such as inappropriate prescribing, limited health literacy, poorly formed medication instructions or lack of communication by health care providers. The second group that abuses pharmaceutical drugs are those who use these medications for non-medical purposes. These individuals may be obtaining the medicines for self-treating purposes, personal recreational use or to trade on to others who abuse

The medical system is made by doctors, by people practicing medicine. It is not a social system; it is a system based on doctors and according to what doctors believe is the right way to take care of the patients. The bottom-line was that patients should not be judged, patients were seeking help, and the system should give them that help. So, they should not be judged for their drug addiction or their behavior. They instituted the system to help people, so when someone seeking for assistance comes to my father, he tells them, "I can help you in this, and this, and this. Although I cannot help you in that, I will do my best to catch you up with your situation." The system is all based on interdisciplinary collaboration between professionals

The use of drugs is a controversial topic in society today. In general, addicts show a direct link between taking drugs and suffering from their effects. People abuse drugs for a wide variety of reasons. In most cases, the use of drugs will serve a type of purpose or will give some kind of reward. These reasons for use will differ with different kinds of drugs. Various reasons for using the substance can be pain relief, depression, anxiety and weariness, acceptance into a peer group, religion, and much more. Although reasons for using may vary for each individual, it is known by all that consequences of the abuse do exist. It is only further down the line when the effects of using can be seen.