Although we always trust doctors to have our best interest in the heart, sometimes the over-prescription of medications can lead to issues in the future. If you or a loved one has been prescribed opioids by a trusted doctor, you may find it hard to kick the habit of taking a pill every day to help with the pain in a post-surgery period, after an accident, or after a dental procedure.
If you have become reliant on these opioids, you need to figure out how to live life without this dependence. Let’s see the steps you can take to lead a healthy life!
Find a drug alcohol treatment center that can treat alcoholism and opioid addiction
First – what is opioid addiction? Opioid addiction can occur in anyone, regardless of age, gender, or background, and involves a person being addicted to substances that are typically prescribed by professionals that can help relieve pain due to a chronic illness, post-surgery period, or from an accident. Oftentimes, athletes will take opioids to recover from an injury or surgery – and end up becoming addicted to these substances.
Since doctors overprescribe opioids, people of all ages can become addicted and dependent on these medicines to make it through the day to day life. In this case, it becomes a case of life and death, since opioid addiction can lead to long-lasting harmful side effects. Unfortunately, prescribing opioids is very common, and can be used for chronic conditions, surgeries, accidents, sports injuries, and dentistry procedures.
The most common opioid drugs that can lead to addiction include opium, fentanyl, heroin, hydrocodone, methadone, morphine, codeine, or tramadol. If you or a loved one finds they need to rely on one of these substances to survive, you need to look into a drug alcohol treatment center, or you can contact The Edge Treatment.
Not sure if you or a loved one is addicted to opiates? Look for these symptoms when trying to diagnose yourself or someone else. Look out for a shallow breathing rate, mood swings, irritability, lack of responsibility in daily life, irrational decision making, lowered motivation levels, and anxiety attacks.
Furthermore, alcoholism coupled with opioid addiction can lead to severe long-term consequences. Alcoholism is the dependency on alcohol whether it be drinking every day, drinking too much when you consume alcohol, or feeling dependent on this substance. If you drink along with taking opiates, you can cause long-term damage to various organs in your body in a short time.
It is highly dangerous to combine alcohol with any type of prescribed medication that you can get from a doctor’s office, whether it be an opioid or not. Alcohol can have strong side effects and unwanted after effects consumption alone, whether it be a poor feeling the next day, or long-term physical effects, like liver damage. If you combine drinking alcohol with taking prescription drugs, like methadone, codeine, hydrocodone, or oxycodone, it can lead to unpredictable mood swings.
Conclusion
Alcoholism and opioid addiction alone are serious issues that require inpatient or outpatient medical treatment. However, if you find that you have these two disorders together, then you will need to visit a drug alcohol treatment center to treat these two issues simultaneously.
