Opioids are no new sensation. In the 1830s in China, millions of government officials and 27% of the population were addicted to opium. The addiction was so pervasive that it led to major economic collapse and social unrest during the Qing Dynasty. A full-blown war broke out over the opium trade between China and Britain.
Flash forward to today, and our world is still devastated by opioid addictions. These painkillers work by blocking pain signals from reaching the brain. They are highly addictive and are everywhere, from home medicine cabinets to back alleys. The goal of this article is to explain how an opioid addiction begins, why it is so pervasive, and how an opioid recovery center works.
The Beginning of an Opioid Addiction
For most people, the first encounter with opioids occurs with a legitimate medical prescription. A doctor may prescribe an opioid medication for a surgery, dental procedure, injury, or chronic pain condition. Taken as directed for a short period, opioids can provide necessary relief. The problem is that they are powerful drugs, and the line between therapeutic use and physical dependence is thinner than most people realize when they first fill a prescription.
Research has shown that the risk of continued opioid use increases with each additional day someone takes an opioid prescription, even in the first few days. For some people, a short course of pain medication prescribed for an acute injury can become the start of an unhealthy relationship with opioids.
Others encounter opioids through their environment. For example, a teenager could access unused opioids left in a medicine cabinet after their parent's surgery.
Illicit opioids open up a whole new frontier of risk. They may be laced with fentanyl or other highly addictive synthetic opioids. These drugs are cheap and stronger than anything a clinician would prescribe, and they're not hard to find.
Easy Access Raises the Risk
The more readily available an opioid is, the more likely it becomes that someone who is in pain, emotionally distressed, or simply curious will try it. And the more often someone uses an opioid, the greater the likelihood that they will develop a dependence on the drug.
You can do your part by getting rid of any unused opioids that may be in your home. A few tablets of pain medication sitting in a bathroom cabinet may seem harmless, but they are anything but. Those tablets are accessible to everyone in the household, and data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) consistently show that 43% of the time, prescription opioids are misused by people for whom they were never prescribed.
Pain Management Leads to Dependence
Chronic pain is one of the most common pathways to opioid dependence. People living with pain, whether from injury, illness, or a condition that doesn't respond well to other treatments, are in a difficult position. Opioids work. They relieve pain reliably. So, for someone who has been in significant pain for months or years, that relief is a restoration of their quality of life.
The challenge is that our bodies build a tolerance to opioids pretty quickly. Over time, the same dose provides less relief. The body begins to require higher doses of opioids to feel normal. This creates a dependence on drugs. You become their slave. If you try to reduce or stop your use, you experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, like severe pain, anxiety, insomnia, and nausea. While most individuals with chronic pain only want to find relief from their pain, they end up trapped in the cycle of a dangerous addiction.
Risk Factors
Opioid exposure doesn't affect everyone equally. Some can take opioids for a few weeks and never become dependent, while others may only use them for a few days and quickly descend into addiction. Several factors indicate risk for developing an opioid addiction:
- Genetics: Family history of addiction is one of the strongest predictors of your risk for addiction.
- Early life experience: Childhood trauma, neglect, abuse, instability, and exposure to substance use are also associated with high rates of addiction in adulthood.
- Social environment: In certain communities, it's easier to get opioids, and their use is normalized. People in these communities carry a higher risk of addiction.
- Poor mental health: Just as opioids decrease physical pain, they also reduce emotional pain. Many people with depression or anxiety use substances to cope.
Just because you have some of the risk factors does not make addiction inevitable. But it does mean you should be extra vigilant in avoiding exposure to opioids.
Specialized Opioid Recovery Centers
Not all substance abuse treatment centers specialize in opioids, but opioid addiction requires special care. It may start for reasons that are different than those that lead to other drug addictions and requires a unique treatment approach. This approach must be well-rounded and address both physical dependence and the underlying emotional challenges contributing to the addiction.
For care specific to opioid addictions, visit our treatment centers serving SLC, Logan, and St. George, Utah, and Boise, Rupert, Middleton, and Heyburn, Idaho.
