Even Pain Killer Addiction Requires Professional Treatment

Painkiller Addiction and Drug Dependency

The chemical nature of painkiller addiction makes it particularly tough to beat. Prescription painkillers like morphine, codeine, and oxycodone are linked to the same kind of drug dependency that underlies heroin abuse. Getting better means getting help at a qualified drug rehab center.

Prescription painkillers like morphine, codeine, and oxycodone belong to a class of drugs called opioids. When taken in proper doses, opioids can be extremely effective in alleviating chronic pain conditions. Unfortunately, large doses of opioids trigger euphoric highs by activating pleasure pathways in the human brain, thus predisposing prescription drug abusers to repetitive cycles of use and abuse.

The threat of prescription drug addiction is compounded by the low that follows the high: Over ingestion of drugs like morphine, codeine, and oxycodone is followed by a period of restless anxiety, which gives prescription drug abusers strong incentive to use again. Even more troubling, chronic prescription drug addiction is known to warp the body's endogenous opioid system, leaving users incapable of experiencing pleasure without the aid of artificial chemical stimulation.

The side effects of long-term prescription drug dependency speak for themselves: chronic anxiety, appetite suppression, insomnia, gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory dysfunction, and fetal complications in pregnant women. Again, if you've come this far, you already know what's at stake, and you already know things can't stay the way they are. Before tomorrow can get brighter, though, you've got to resolve to do something about today.

Drug Treatment and Drug Rehab Programs

Like all forms of the best prescription drug addiction treatment, prescription drug addiction recovery plans must address both the physical and psychological roots of the disease. Through drug detox and addiction counseling, prescription drug rehab programs treat addiction in its entirety, and aim to help patients make a successful return to independent sober living.

The physical dimension of prescription drug addiction speaks to the extent to which prescription drug abuse warps the body's internal chemistry. Chronic prescription drug addicts, as noted above, ultimately lose the ability to maintain normal metabolic function without an infusion of prescription drug chemicals. Such a state of drug dependency creates conditions under which addicts literally need drug use and abuse in order to survive, and makes the first stages of drug recovery particularly difficult.

Thankfully, professional drug detoxification programs can help recovery patients navigate the withdrawal process with as little discomfort as possible. Using advanced medical therapies, doctors and caregivers at drug detox facilities ensure that an addict's system is entirely cleansed of drugs and drug byproducts, thus providing a firm foundation for the remainder of his drug rehab experience.

But remember: Drug detox is merely a prelude to the intensive addiction counseling that follows it. Prescription drug addiction is also, after all, a psychological disease: a product of cognitive and emotional conditions under which an addict is incapable of facing the world or himself without first getting high. Only expert therapy programs can help recovery patients break those bonds, and regain the sort of self-esteem and self-control that are vital to long-term sobriety.

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Cliffside Malibu is an exclusive prescription drug addiction treatment center located in Malibu, California. For further details about Cliffside's treatment methods, amenities, or other general information about our prescription drug addiction programs, please call 1-800-501-1988 or visit our Web site at www.cliffsidemalibu.com.

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