Pain Medication Addiction

Submitted by Mark Berman Tue 04/05/2011

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It has been called "America's Stealth Addiction" -- pain medication addiction. An ABC News report said 5.2 million people use pain medication for non-pain purposes, compared to 2.4 million who use cocaine.

Statistics show such pain medication addiction is understandable. According to a report on DrugRehabs.com, 76 million people say they have experienced pain that lasted more than 24 hours. 32 million of those say they pain lasted more than a year.

So it makes sense that millions of people are taking pain medications and that a number of them could have pain medication addiction.

DrugRehabs.com reports these are some warning signs of pain medication addiction:

-- Needing increasingly larger doses to achieve the same level of comfort
-- Undergoing changes in personality and withdrawing from family, friends, and social situations one previously enjoyed
-- Expressing a need for continued medication long after the injury for which the drugs were initially prescribed has healed
-- "Doctor shopping," going online, or taking other steps to get more pain medication than was originally prescribed
-- Experiencing blackouts, memory loss, or forgetfulness

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