Woman thinking about her addiction to her prescription medicationFor many people, it’s hard to understand how something helpful can also be dangerous. That’s certainly the case with prescription medication. When taken as prescribed by a physician, prescription medications provide the pain relief value intended. It’s when people start abusing them that things get dangerous.

Frequently Abused Prescription Medications

While most any prescription medication is eligible to be abused or misused, pain medications are by far the most notorious in this category. If fact, some people treat opioid-based drugs as recreational substances and use them to get the desired effect of “getting high.”

There are three general categories of drugs that often get abused as prescription medications. As mentioned above, pain medications are the most commonly abuse prescribed medications. These would include drugs such as Oxycontin, Codeine, morphine, Demerol, and Vicodin, among others. All of these narcotics are highly addictive and quite dangerous if taken in excess over an extended period of time.

Another category that is subject to prescription drug abuse is anti-anxiety such as benzodiazepines. Those include popular name brands such as Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Klonopin. The last category would include common stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin. By the way, cannabis is now a prescription medication in many states. That makes it subject to prescription medication abuse as well.

The Dangers of Addiction to Prescription Medication

As with any other addiction, medication addiction takes a serious toll on one’s life and health. The need to constantly procure the drugs often becomes an obsession that creates havoc in one’s life. When doctors will no longer prescribe the medication, the black market seems like a good idea, where laws get broken and real danger lurks.

By the time addiction takes over, the individual finds themselves needing larger doses. As the dosage of medication increases so does the risk of overdose. It becomes a vicious cycle that can only end in one of four ways: prison, insanity, death or getting help.

Getting Help

There are no shortcuts when it comes to beating an addiction. The only tried and true option is treatment from a reputable rehab facility. The process starts with an admission that the individual is suffering from an addiction and wants or needs help. From there, it’s a matter of finding a treatment center that fits the individual’s needs.

Beaches Recovery in Jacksonville, Florida, has a great reputation for serving patients and setting them firmly on the road to recovery. With vast knowledge about medication addiction, we provide the perfect environment for getting the kind of addiction treatment that can last a lifetime.

More About Beaches Recovery

At our 30-bed facility, we provide a wide range of treatment options. We start with a pre-screening process that allows us to determine the proper course of action for each of our patients. If you need a stint in a detox facility we now offer detox services under the care of professional clinicians. Once you complete detox, the focus turns to counseling and treatment.

Beaches Recovery places a great deal of importance on tailoring a treatment plan for each patient. That’s why we offer such a broad range of treatment options. Here’s a look at our menu of treatment options:

Our JCAHO accredited facility accepts a variety of payment options, including primary health care insurance from top insurance providers like Aetna, BCBS, Humana, VA CCN and Magellan. If you have recently come to the realization that you have an addiction to prescription medications, we encourage you to step forward and contact us for immediate help. The number at Beaches Recovery is 866.605.0532. With your dedication and focus, our counselors will be able to teach you the truth about your addiction and provide you with the life skills you will need to stay on the road to recovery.