Our country is severely over medicated and this is a fact that is seen by all the recent celebrity deaths that have been attributed to prescription drug overdose in the past five years. Even Whitney Houston, who was recently found dead in her hotel bathroom, is believed to have died from a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol. Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson, and Heath Ledger are a few other celebrities that also died of prescription drug overdoses. There are many other non-celebrities who have died from prescription drug overdoses as well, but because these people were not famous their deaths did not get the same amount of media attention.

Prescription drug abuse is one of the leading causes of death in America today. Many sources say that prescription drug addiction up for 430% in past decade. Many people, including teens, believe that because they get these medications from their doctors, they are safe. Unfortunately this could not be further from the truth.

Teen Prescription Drug Abuse is on the Rise

The use of prescription drugs is up quite a bit amongst the teen population at this time. Many teens have learned to take prescription medications from the time that they were small children because they were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD or other emotional disorders. These teens grow up thinking that taking medications to get through their day is normal. They think nothing of taking different medications, even from their friends, to improve their mood. The problem with this is that many of them do not bother to research the medications that they are taking and what kind of contraindications that they could have with other drugs.

This phenomenon has gone to an even scarier level than just taking medications from friends. There is now a popular type of party that many teens go to every weekend. It is called a pharm party. What happens at these parties is that every person who is going to attend goes through their medicine cabinets at their homes and gets together every type of drug that they can find that they think will get them high. This is called pharming. These often include opiates, benzodiazepines, muscle relaxers, ADD/ADHD medications, and even some anti-depressants. The kids then pool all the medications that they could get their hands on with all the medications that their friends could get their hands on as well. They dump them all together in a bowl or a bag and mix them together with no labels, no warnings, no nothing. Then everybody reaches in and grabs an assortment of unlabeled pills that they sometimes have no idea of their identity or what effects that they cause. Some of these kids are going to get really high from the pills that they take, some are going to feel slightly strange and sick, and others will take a deadly combination that will land them in the hospital or worse.

Parents are often unaware of what is going on until they get a call from the hospital. They often do not even know what their kids look like when they are not on some type of medication. Schools and educators who are in charge of drug education programs in school often do not even address many of the dangers that are associated with these drugs because they are more concerned about the dangers of illegal drugs. It is true that the use of most illegal drugs, besides marijuana, in high school students is for the most part down. The use of prescription drugs is way up however.

Doctor or Drug Dealer

Doctors give out prescriptions for drugs that are habit forming everyday. This is a real tragedy because often time the people who are getting these prescriptions do not even know that the drugs that they are about to take are addictive. Below is a list of some of the most commonly prescribed drugs that are habit forming:

  • Benzodiazepines
  • Opiate pain killers
  • Many ADD/ADHD medications
  • Muscle relaxers
  • Many anti-depressants

There are many people who have called up a Narconon rehab center and other centers as well looking for help with their prescription drug abuse problem. Some of them said that they had lead perfectly normal lives until their doctor had prescribed some drug to them that they ended up getting hooked on. There have been people who have been in car accidents or had to have some type of surgery who have gotten addicted to prescription opiate pain killers to deal with the pain from these injuries. Sometimes these people needed to take these drugs for weeks or even months at a time. When they try to come off, they find that they do not feel well and they want more pain killers. There have even been people who started off taking prescription pain medications in a situation like this and ended up becoming addicted to heroin because it cheaper on the street than many pharmaceuticals and that was all they could get when their doctors cut them off with no help with withdrawal.

Another family of drugs that is highly addictive and is used by many people on an everyday basis with a prescription from their doctor is benzodiazepines. Many people go to their doctors complaining that they suffer from anxiety. They ask their doctor for help and their doctor prescribes then a benzodiazepine as a solution. The problem is that benzos are extremely addictive, both physically and emotionally. They have one of the most difficult and dangerous withdrawals that a person can experience from any drug, be it legal or illegal. The withdrawal from benzodiazepines is in a way very similar to that of alcohol withdrawal, but is much worse. Anti-depressants can also cause a very severe withdrawal when a person tries to quit using them. There have been many people who have become suicidal, homicidal or violent when they tried to come off of their anti-depressants not under the supervision of their doctor. Any time a person comes off any type of medication that is physically addictive, it is very important that they do so under the supervision of a highly trained physician so that they are able to avoid any danger to their health or even life that the withdrawal could cause them.

Most Narconon centers offer a medical withdrawal for those individuals that need it. Narconon of Georgia has a highly trained physician who specializes in medical withdrawal. If you or someone you know is trying to end their addiction to prescription drugs call Narconon right away. Counselors are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week via the telephone or by e-mail.