Prescription Drug Addiction | Types, Symptoms & Effects

There are many different kinds of prescription drug addiction. Some of the most common are:

Each prescription drug class has individual effects on the body and mind, but they are all related to common general harm.

If you or a loved one is struggling with abuse and prescription drug addiction, seeking treatment is always a good decision. Apart from an overdose, the different classes of prescription drugs can affect your health in the following ways:

• Stimulants cause a mimicking of the body’s natural dopamine and norepinephrine. This creates euphoria but also constricts blood vessels and increases blood glucose. When misused, stimulants can cause dangerously high body temperature and heart rate.
• It also comes with sleep problems, psychosis, paranoia, hostility, a loss of appetite, and weight loss. Abusing ADHD medications may lead to heart failure or seizures.
• Opioids can cause confusion, drowsiness, low blood pressure, nausea, and constipation. Large doses of opioid medication can result in a slow breathing rate or cause you to stop breathing completely. It can also lead to coma and death.
• Abusing CNS depressants, like sedatives or anti-anxiety medications, may lead to memory problems. Abruptly stopping the use of these drugs can also lead to seizures, which is why detox is best done with medical supervision.

It isn’t always easy to tell if someone is addicted to prescription drugs. Often, they will try to hide it or even lie about it. Some signs of prescription drug addiction include:

A person addicted to prescription drugs may need larger and larger doses of the medication to achieve the same effect, meaning that the body becomes used to the drug and builds tolerance to it. They may experience strong cravings for the drug and go through withdrawal symptoms when attempting to stop or when they do not have access to more of the drug.

These effects cause drug-seeking behaviour, making someone engage in risky and criminal activities to sustain their prescription drug addiction. Someone addicted to prescription medication will compulsively seek the drug despite the negative consequences on themselves or others.

This may include manipulating or stealing from family members. It may be difficult to identify, but sometimes the closest ones to a person suffering from addiction attempt to help or protect them but instead enable their drug use. Actions like constantly lending money to a loved one who is spending it on drug use or being in denial of their need for treatment can sustain their addiction.