Dealing With Chronic Pain to Avoid Prescription Addiction and Rehab

There’s so much talk about the dangers of prescription addiction these days that many people are afraid to take any prescription painkillers at all for fear of needing to seek prescription drug abuse treatment. For others, who’ve already struggled with and overcome addiction, they know they need to be extremely careful of taking anything that could cause them to relapse. But a new Institute of Medicine report claims that 116 million American adults struggle with chronic pain everyday, and many are to face that pain without narcotic painkillers.

How To Lessen Effects of Drug Addiction

For those battling ongoing pain, there are many natural ways to lessen the effects. Everything from weight loss to yoga, bike riding, stretching, regular icing of the area and taking supplements like fish oil, glucosamine and chondroitin can help. These measures won’t likely make the pain completely disappear, but they can get it the point where it’s tolerable enough to not necessitate the use of painkillers.

The use of narcotic painkillers like Percocet and OxyContin long-term is a much-debated in medical circles and can be quite controversial. On one side are doctors who do everything they can to avoid prescribing opioid painkillers to their patients so they don’t fall into drug addiction, while other doctors, many of them pain medicine specialists, believe narcotics can be used safely on a long-term basis.

Narcotic Painkillers are Addictive

Most doctors agree that narcotic painkillers can be addictive. According to the new Institute of Medicine report, studies show about 3 percent of chronic pain patients who regularly take opioids develop abuse or addiction, and 12 percent develop "aberrant drug-related behavior." You only have to look at the rates of those seeking OxyContin Abuse Treatment to recognize it’s a growing problem. Even those who don’t become addicted can become desensitized to the drugs, so they need higher and higher doses to combat the same amount of pain. In time, the pills do little for the pain they are taken to treat.

The important thing is to look for the root of the pain and find ways to alleviate it so that taking medication on an ongoing basis is no longer necessary. One doctor compares it to taking medication for toothache pain without ever bothering to treat the problem with the tooth.

For those who are currently battling chronic pain, Health Magazine offers the following five tips for improving the problem:

1. Exercise
2. Alternative therapies
3. Sleep
4. Supplements
5. Heat and ice

Prescription Drug Treatment

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction to prescription painkillers, call La Paloma to find out more about our Opiate Abuse Treatment programs at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about drug treatment, financing or insurance.