How to Prevent Opioid Addiction

The opioid addiction crisis is still sweeping the country and shows no signs of slowing down despite the best efforts of medical professionals. Calabasas opioid treatment is getting more attention and for a good reason.

Opioids are drugs that mimic the natural effects of opium, hence their name. However, unlike opium, they are artificially manufactured substances.

They work by activating certain receptors in the brain while inhibiting the Central Nervous System at the same time. The receptors release endorphins which are the ‘feel-good’ hormones of the body.

The biggest risk of using opioid treatment is addiction and abuse. About 50% of opioid users have abused their medication at one point or another.

Too much abuse can lead to overdose. The following are some ways to prevent opioid addiction and abuse.

Ask Your Doctor for Different Medication

If your doctor prescribes opioids and after some time taking them you feel like you are getting addicted, you should ask your doctor for a different kind of medicine. If your doctor cares about you and your health, he/she will make the change.

Unfortunately, many doctors are paid by powerful and wealthy pharmaceutical companies to prescribe their medication. The only way to bypass this challenge is to find a doctor that is more interested in helping patients than filling their bank account.

Your doctor will either prescribe you non-opioid medication which has less chance of addiction or abuse or prescribe non-medication solutions.

Try Other Pain Relief Solutions

If you are using opioids as a solution for chronic pain, it is time to try other alternatives if you find that you are getting addicted to your opioid medication. In fact, it may save you a tremendous amount of money since regularly filling your opioid prescription is quite expensive.

There are numerous pain relief options that don’t involve chemically altering your physiology. Such options include stretches, massage, ice/heat application, and acupuncture among others.

These options have a much lower risk of addiction than opioids. If they work, you can completely eradicate your pain issues without the help of medication.

Group Support

With the rapid rise of opioid addiction cases, many addiction treatment programs have come up with a section for opioid use. Such programs often include group therapy sessions typical of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

You can benefit significantly from receiving support with your addiction tendencies from others. You will likely gain a perspective that you cannot find when dealing with such issues alone.

You can also receive support if you relapse and start using opioids again. There is no tool more effective for addiction treatment and prevention than accountability.

Use a Pill Dispensing Tool

Anything is possible with modern technology including a device that can be programmed to produce pills only at particular times. Though you will ultimately be in control of the machine and can still abuse your opioid medication, it increases the amount of resistance to doing so.

You can program the pill dispenser to produce the pills exactly as per your prescription and it will not produce anymore, hence reducing the chance to abuse your drugs. It is one of the ways in which technology can be used to prevent opioid addiction.