People who use opioids run the risk of abusing them. Your medical history and how long you’ve been using opioids are essential to consider, but it’s not easy to anticipate who will become addicted to them and misuse the medicines later.
Whether legal or illegal, stolen or shared, these medications are responsible for the majority of overdose deaths in the United States today.
Addiction is a disease in which something that was once enjoyable has become something you can’t live without.
Doctors define substance addiction as an insatiable desire for a drug, obsessive use of the drug, and continued use despite severe consequences.
Opioids are highly addictive, in part because they engage the brain’s powerful reward centers.
Gallus Detox, the alcohol and drug detoxification center, clarifies all misconceptions surrounding this type of addiction, and we are here to talk about them.
Table of Contents
What Are Opioids?
Opioids are a class of medications that function by integrating with opioid receptors in your brain cells to relieve pain. Opioids can be extracted from the poppy plant, such as morphine, or produced in a lab, such as fentanyl.
When opioid drugs pass through your bloodstream and bind to opioid receptors in your brain cells, the cells send out signals that reduce your pain perception while increasing your pleasure.
Opioid drugs’ effectiveness in alleviating pain can potentially make them harmful.
People often take opioids at low dosage to improve their sleep habits, but in greater quantities, they might reduce your breathing and heart rate, which can lead to death. Moreover, the pleasurable feelings you get from taking an opioid can make you want to keep experiencing them, which can develop into addiction.
By carefully following your doctor’s directions and taking your medication exactly as prescribed, you can lower your chance of harmful side effects. In addition, make sure your doctor is aware of all of your other prescriptions and supplements.
Short-Term And Long-Term Effects Of Opioid
Endorphins, the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, are released when you take opioids.
Endorphins reduce pain perception and increase pleasure emotions, resulting in a brief but profound sense of well-being. When an opiate dose wears off, you may feel compelled to reclaim those pleasant feelings as soon as possible. This is the first step on the road to possible addiction.
When you take opioids on a regular basis, your body’s generation of endorphins declines. The same dose of opioids no longer produces such a tremendous rush of positive emotions.
This is referred to as tolerance.
One of the reasons why opiate addiction is so frequent is that persons who acquire tolerance may feel compelled to raise their doses to maintain their high levels of pleasure.
Since doctors are so aware of the dangers of opioids these days, getting your doctor to increase your dose or even renew your prescription might be challenging.
Some people believe they require more supplies to obtain opioids or heroin at this point illegally.
Some illicitly obtained medicines, such as fentanyl, contain impurities or significantly stronger opioids. Because of fentanyl’s strength, this specific combination has been linked to a high incidence of deaths among heroin users.
Risk Factors Of Opioid Addiction
When you consume opioids in ways other than prescribed, such as smashing a pill so it may be snorted or injected, they become highly addictive. If the tablet is a long- or extended-acting version, this life-threatening activity becomes much more perilous.
If you want to get euphoric high and ingest all the medicines at one, you run the risk of overdosing. In addition, ingesting more opioids than prescribed by your doctor or intaking them at a higher dosage raises your risk of addiction.
The amount of time you utilize prescribed opioids has an effect as well. Researchers discovered that taking opioid drugs for more than a few days increases your chances of long-term use, increasing your chances of being addicted. After only five days on opioids, your chances of remaining on opioids a year after starting a short course increase.
A number of other elements, including genetic, psychological, and environmental factors, have a part in addiction, which can develop swiftly or over time. Opioids are also major contributors to respiratory depression, a condition common among today’s teens.
Opioid-related deaths are also increasing in number every year. In fact, people who consume opioid for the first time end up having suicidal thoughts.
How Do You Prevent Opioid Addiction?
What is the one most important thing you can do to avoid becoming addicted to opioids?
Recognize that no one is immune and that we all have a role to play in breaking the drug’s grasp on our loved ones and communities.
Opioids are considered safe when used for three days or less to treat acute pain, such as that caused by surgery or a bone fracture. If you require opioids for acute pain, work with your doctor to get the lowest amount feasible and take it for the shortest time possible.
Opioids are unlikely to be a safe and effective long-term therapeutic option if you suffer from chronic pain. However, there are various options, including nonpharmacological therapies and less-addictive pain drugs. If at all possible, choose a treatment strategy that allows you to live a life free of opioids.
You must keep the opioid medications safely in places where nobody can reach and dispose of the unwanted opioids safely so that they don’t end up in the wrong hands.
For information on local prescription takeback initiatives, contact your local law enforcement department, your trash and recycling service, or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
If there isn’t a take-back program in your area, you can ask your pharmacist for advice.
Final Thoughts
If you’re using opioids and have developed a tolerance, seek help from your doctor. There are alternative, safe options available to assist you in making a change and maintaining your current level of New Vista Health.
Do not discontinue using opioid drugs without consulting a doctor.
Quitting these drugs too soon might have serious consequences, including worse pain than before you started using them.
Your doctor can assist you in gradually and securely weaning yourself off opioids.