Your health is important and taking prescription drugs you do not need is not only unnecessary, it can also be dangerous.
Health problems, addictions, and accidents are all common results when misusing prescription drugs. Opioid painkillers, like OxyContin and Vicodin, and sleeping aids with Zaleplon or Diphenhydramine, are notoriously misused in the United States. These prescription drugs can cause addiction and havoc when taken long-term.
Why Misuse of Prescription Medication Never Works
Prescription medications like anti-anxiety medication, sleeping aids, and painkillers are design to work as quickly as possible when first used. However, after periodic and long-term use, our bodies build a tolerance for the particular drug. This inhibits the drug from suppressing the symptoms; which leaves the user needing a higher dosage to experience the same effect as before.
Tolerance and resistance to prescription drugs are intrinsic responses within our bodies, but the reasons vary depending on the drug. For example, when we take opiates, our brains starts to reduce the production of the related neurotransmitters, adjusting for the over-abundance of the particular chemical. For alcohol, our bodies will start to overproduce the enzymes responsible for breaking down alcohol in order to remove the poison. In general, our bodies try to compensate by regulating a neurological or metabolic process which essentially cancels out the drug’s effect. Consequently, our bodies will require larger doses of a particular drug to maintain the same desired effect as before; and the side-effects will increase with each additional dose increase.
Common Examples of Prescription Drug Misuse & Their Effects
- Painkillers: Using painkillers long-term can cause physical dependence as well as increased tolerance. Consequently, user will then take more of the drug. Users who misuse painkillers seek a high. Unfortunately, some painkillers can be as addictive as Heroin, since they are made from the same opioid compounds, and will cause similar side-effects.
- Sleeping aids: Are easy to get a prescription for and have little acute side-effects. Unfortunately, chronic side-effect of long-term sleeping aid use include dementia and Alzheimer’s. As a person ages, the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s further increases with the use of sleeping pills.
- Antidepressants: Linked to school violence, antidepressants are becoming much more common within our youth. Agitation, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, restlessness, and dependence are all chronic side-effects of antidepressant misuse.
A Natural Solution To Stop Taking Prescription Drugs You Don’t Need
What’s your motivation? Our live-with-excess culture seeks a quick-fix for all problems, including short-term pain, restlessness, and stress. We want things that make us feel good, and we want them now. As self-indulging consumers, we over rely on the opinions of medical “experts” and feel that we must interfere with our body’s natural responses to our environment when we experience pain, sadness, or stress.
But are all of these symptoms and emotions normal? Pain is always a sign that there is something wrong, and we can use this sign to our advantage. Pain is our body’s natural way of pointing us in a certain direction. We must figure out the underlying cause of the pain, instead of simply masking the symptoms. Stress, sadness, and anxiety are all normal emotions in our bodies that need to be tackled with our thoughts and actions – not a pill. Stress, sadness, and anxiety are part of human life and must be controlled with positive thinking, good decision-making, and a healthy lifestyle. Finally, in a world where more than 9 million Americans rely on sleeping aids every night, we must avoid oversleeping, exercise regularly, and eat healthier, in order to remove our dependence on sleeping aids and most unneeded prescription drugs.
Resources:
http://brembs.net/learning/classical.html
http://www.ulifeline.org/articles/390-the-dangers-of-misused-prescription-drugs
http://audreythenurse.com/2016/05/24/sleeping-aids-increase-risk-of-dementia-alzheimers/
