Opioid Painkiller Addiction is Claiming Thousands of Lives in New Mexico
New Mexico has one of the highest rates of prescription drug overdose deaths in the nation. According to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every 3,953 New Mexico residents died of an opioid drug overdose in 2015. [ link to government website, below] Overdose deaths represent a fraction of our current problem: for every person who dies from an opioid overdose, there are many more people with a opioid painkiller addiction who cannot stop using.
Overdoses can occur for many reasons. One leading cause of overdose is relapsing after a period of abstinence during which your body’s tolerance to opioids goes down. Another reason for overdose and death is obtaining a street version of your opioid that has hidden ingredients which are many times stronger than the dose your body is used to/can tolerate.
In some cases, people die after overdosing due to lack of access to medical help or due to a shortage of the opioid antidote, naloxone. The antidote shortage is caused by an unprecedented number of opioid overdoses which are decimating our nation like a plague.
New Mexico Department of Health
[/x-box-perceptive]Opioid Painkiller Addiction is a Rapidly Growing Crisis Nationwide
We have always had some people addicted to opioid drugs. However, we have never before had such high numbers of opioid addicts before. Many people who are currently addicted were endangered by a new trend which began in the late 1990’s of prescribing narcotic painkillers to people who were not suffering from cancer and/or terminal illness.
The onset of the current epidemic of opioid painkiller addiction occurred soon after Purdue Pharma began aggressively marketing their new time-release opioid drug, OxyContin©. Because the new drug was deemed safer to prescribe to those who are not terminally ill, many more people with a medical problem were prescribed OxyContin©, the oxycodone drug that was previously only available to cancer patients.
The onset of opioid painkiller addiction began for many patients when their dose of OxyContin© stopped working before the twelve hours elapsed until their next dose. They took another pill to relieve excruciating pain, without fully understanding the danger of becoming addicted. If their prescription ran out before it could be refilled, this only compounded the problem.
People who sought to buy opioid painkillers on the street were exposed to counterfeit drugs which contained ingredients the prescription painkiller did not have. Some patients went to more than one doctor for painkiller prescriptions.
Opioid painkillers were deemed unsafe to prescribe to most people until the development of OxyContin©, which is supposed to provide pain relief for 12 hours. Despite recent evidence indicating overprescribing, some physicians are still prescribing it and we have a growing painkiller addiction epidemic. People who would never have sought out an opioid drug such as heroin or morphine were exposed to the opioid drug oxycodone when their physician prescribed OxyContin© for a painful medical condition.
After initial exposure, some sought out the drug for the euphoric feeling it can produce, others were looking to alleviate pain, and for many patients, they became addicted because they took too much initially to alleviate pain and they wanted to experience the unnatural feeling of heightened euphoria that they experienced when they took too much of their prescription drug.
Painkillers Can Produce a Feeling of Euphoria
Opioid drugs act by attaching to endorphin receptors in the brain. Opioids have a chemical structure that resembles endorphins, a chemical the body produces naturally to reduce pain and produce a euphoric feeling. We can stimulate our natural endorphins by exercising, eating foods like chocolate and hot peppers, and with sex. While our natural endorphins help reduce pain and make us feel good, opioid drugs are many times more potent and produce a feeling of euphoria that is so powerful that people want to seek that feeling again and again, even if they suffer negative consequences from abusing an opioid drug.
Chronic Opioid Use Can Change Your Body’s Chemistry
One consequence of painkiller addiction is that the body builds up a tolerance to the drug so that you must use more and more to get the same effect. Many people who started using to get the feeling of euphoria the opioid produced and became addicted, continue using opioids just to avoid going through the pain of withdrawal. Their tolerance is so high that they cannot experience the same feeling of euphoria they felt when they started using, ever again. Moreover, they have damaged their body’s ability to feel the natural euphoria that endorphins produce. For some, prolonged painkiller addiction destroys their natural ability to experience the highs and lows of pleasure and pain; they have flatlined their natural endorphin response by using the powerful opioid they are addicted to.
When you use an opioid drug for a prolonged period of time you can become physically dependent on the drug. Dependence on a drug means that you will go through physical withdrawal when you stop using. You normally don’t die from opioid withdrawal however you could die from complications that accompany accelerated withdrawal such as aspiration pneumonia from breathing stomach contents into your lungs. Moreover, withdrawal symptoms are painful. Physicians manage withdrawal in patients who have been prescribed an opioid for pain management by tapering off the opioid drug slowly.
Painkiller addiction can be distinguished from dependence by behaviors that accompany addictive drug use. Painkiller addiction is seeking out more of your opioid drug than is prescribed or using an opioid drug without a prescription. People who are addicted are usually also physically dependent.
We Can Help You to Recover from Opioid Addiction and Regain Your Health
A big problem for many people who have become dependent on opioids is finding an accessible recovery program. There are numerous reasons why traditional treatment is not a viable option, especially since opioid recovery must include maintenance medication to manage the chemical imbalance caused by opioid dependence.
Bright Heart Health offers recovery from painkiller addiction and dependence that you can access through your smartphone, tablet or computer. We are the first recovery program available online. Bright Heart Health has been endorsed by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency as a qualified program that can reach urban and rural populations that have no access to other treatment.
There is currently a shortage of qualified doctors who can prescribe the maintenance drug Suboxone©, deemed the safest drug for opioid dependence maintenance by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The problem of reaching underserved populations can be greatly reduced or even solved through online help.
Bright Heart Health includes a staff of Physicians, Psychologists, Social Workers and other painkiller addiction recovery specialists. After an initial office visit, we offer:
• Prescription maintenance medication
• Individual, group, and family therapy
• Anger management
• Monitoring your recovery progress and motivation through proven tools
• A treatment program that you can access anywhere in safety and privacy
We accept most major insurance, including Medicaid. If you are uninsured, we may be able to help you anyway. Our goal is to help every New Mexico resident who is struggling with painkiller addiction to receive the support they need to recover. We are passionate about helping people to recover hope.
Give us a call at (844) 884-4474 or email us now. We will get started without delay to assess how we can best help you to recover your health and regain your life.