by Julie Schweitzer WHNP
If you watched Superbowl 50, you most likely saw the commercial titled “Envy”. It is an advertisement for medication to help with OIC (Opioid Induced Constipation). The commercial itself is quite funny if it weren’t for the seriousness of the true problem of opioid addiction. Opioids are medications used to help relieve pain such as Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet, Morphine and Tramadol. These medications are intended to help with acute pain, such a post surgical pain relief, injury and even some dental procedures. Heroin which is made from morphine is also classified as an opioid.
Opioid addiction has become a real problem for the United States. Daily you will read or hear about a story of a teenager killed from addiction, most often unbeknownst to them that their recent “fix” was laced with other drugs or that their friend was too afraid to call for help. So what, as parents do we do to help prevent our kids from becoming a statistic. It is important, first, to understand how this addiction happens.
Opioids work by reducing the level of pain signals reaching the brain, the same area of the brain that controls emotion. In turn, the effects of painful stimuli are diminished, giving “pain relief”. Side effects to opioid use include drowsiness, mental confusion, nausea, constipation, and can lead to respiratory depression and death if too much has been taken at one time.
So why, with side effects that are not ideal for any person to experience, does one become addicted to opioids? Well, euphoria, defined as a feeling of intense excitement and happiness, is also a side effect to the use of opioids. These pleasurable effects make one want to keep taking opioids until eventually the brain begins to develop powerful urges to use the drug.
As one continues to use, and their addiction becomes stronger, they may develop a tolerance and begin to increase their consumption or the way the drug is delivered into the body by injecting or snorting. Opioid addiction does not know gender, race or socioeconomic status. Opioid addiction does not care if you are 15 years old or 70 years old. One does not start off becoming an addict while using their pain medicine to control their current acute pain.
Not all addictions start at home but often parents will have left over pain medicine from a surgical procedure a year ago. It was kept for that “just in case” situation that you may need something for pain. The Yuck Yuck stickers are not going to deter your kids from what is in that bottle, keep your prescriptions away from your kids, not just the little kids, but the grown kids too. If you find in your medicine cabinet left over meds, visit www.dea.gov to learn where you can discard safely all old medications. Do not flush down the toilet or place in trash.
As parents, talk with your kids. Talk with them about the dangers of drugs before they have a chance to become addicted. As a mom, every time I read a story in the news about the loss of a person from drugs, no matter the age, I send these stories to my kids. I have them read the story out loud so I know that they are reading them. I want my kids to understand the suffering families go through, I want them to understand that you don’t experiment with drugs, for when you do it once, you will be hooked.