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Prescription-Abuse.org
is an online educational resource on
prescription drug abuse and information on help
available to overcome drug addiction.
Prescription drug abuse occurs when medicine is
used for non-medical reasons or its prescribed
use has lead to dependence.
The following facts and information on this site
are provided so you can become educated in order
to make a informed decision on the proper
treatment option. If you are searching for drug
rehabs and treatment centers for drug addiction,
you are welcomed to call at anytime and our
trained counselors will be happy to answer your
questions. (877) 340-3602.
Whether a person
is genetically or bio-chemically predisposed to
addiction or alcoholism is a controversy that
has been debated for years within the
scientific, medical and chemical dependency
communities. One school of thought advocates the
“disease concept” which embraces the notion that
addiction is an inherited disease, and that the
individual is permanently ill at a genetic
level, even for those experiencing long periods
of sobriety.
Another philosophy argues that addiction is a
dual problem consisting of a physical and mental
dependency on chemicals, compounded by a
pre-existing mental disorder (i.e., clinical
depression, bipolar disorder or some other
mental illness), and that the mental disorder
needs to be treated first as the primary cause
of the addiction.
A third philosophy subscribes to the idea that
chemical dependency leads to permanent “chemical
imbalances” in the neurological system that must
be treated with psychotropic medications after
the person has withdrawn from their drug of
choice.
The fact remains that there is some scientific
research that favors each of these addiction
concepts, but none of them are absolute. Based
on national averages, addiction treatment has a
16% to 20% recovery rate. The message is pretty
clear that these theories are just that,
theories, and we have a lot more to learn if we
are to bring the national recovery rate to a
more desirable level.
There is a fourth school of thought which has
proven to be more accurate. It has to do with
the life cycle of addiction. This data is
universally applicable to addiction, no matter
which hypothesis is used to explain the
phenomenon of chemical dependency.
The life cycle of addiction begins with a
problem, discomfort or some form of emotional or
physical pain a person is experiencing. The
person finds this very difficult to deal with.
Here is an individual who, like most people in
our society, is basically good. He has
encountered a problem that is causing him
physical or emotional pain and discomfort that
he does not have an immediate answer for.
Examples would include difficulty “fitting in”
as a child or teenager, puberty, physical
injuries such a broken bone, a bad back or some
other chronic physical condition. Whatever the
origin of the difficulty is, the discomfort
associated with it presents the individual with
a real problem. He feels this problem is a major
situation that is persisting. He can see no
immediate resolution or relief from it. Most of
us have experienced this in our lives to a
greater or lesser degree.
Once the person takes a drug, he feels relief
from the discomfort, even though the relief is
only temporary. That drink or drug is adopted as
a solution to the problem and the individual
places value on the substance. This assigned
value is the only reason the person ever uses
drugs or drinks a second, third or more times.
There is a key factor involved in this life
cycle scenario that determines which of us
become addicts and which do not. The answer
depends on whether or not, at the time of this
traumatic experience, we are subjected to
pro-drug or pro-alcohol influences via some sort
of significant peer pressure that influences our
decision-making process with regard to finding
relief from the discomfort. Peer pressure can
manifest itself in many different ways. It can
come from friends or family members or through
some avenue of advertising or promotion which,
when combined with the degree of relief we
receive from the drug or drink, determines the
severity of the use. Simply put, the bigger the
problem, the greater the discomfort the person
experiences. The greater the discomfort, the
more importance the person places on relieving
it and the greater the value he assigns to that
which brought about the relief.
For those that start down the path of addiction,
they will encounter other physical, mental and
lifestyle changes along the way that will begin
to cause the individual’s quality of life to
deteriorate. If the drug or alcohol abuse
continues unchecked, eventually the person is
faced with so many unpleasant circumstances in
their life that each sober moment is filled with
so much despair and misery that all he wants to
do is escape these feelings by medicating them
away. This is the downward spiral of addiction.
At this point for most there are only three
inevitable outcomes: death, prison or sobriety.
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Prescription-Abuse.org
has compiled a number of online resources to
help in your search for more information
regarding addiction and prescription abuse...(