After an injury, your doctor might prescribe you some type of prescription painkiller. However, these days there’s an extra emphasis on opioid safety. With how many people have become addicted to these drugs, it’s important to know how you can take them safely…
Opioid Safety: Manage Pain Safely
Opioid risks
In order to understand why opioid safety is important, it helps to know why they’re so dangerous. The recent issues with these drugs can be traced back into the 1990’s. Drug companies began to develop more of these pain-killing drugs, which they claimed weren’t addictive, unlike past powerful painkillers.
This led to many doctors prescribing them at increased rates. However, as time went on, it became apparent that these drugs could in fact be dangerous and addictive. With so many of these drugs already being prescribed, large amounts of people quickly became addicted.
Addiction risk
The issue with opioids, and the reason why opioid safety is so important, is because of how addictive they can be. At first, it mainly starts with the drug’s pain-killing effect. On the one hand, these drugs are very effective. However, it’s this efficiency which causes people to become hooked on them.
This is especially true for those with chronic pain. Like with any drug, your body will build a tolerance to them over time as you continue to take them. This causes people to take more and more of the drug to numb the pain, and in turn, causes them to develop an addiction. In fact, this addiction can even cause them to seek out stronger, illicit drugs like heroin if their tolerance gets too high.
Safer pain management
Opioid safety really comes down to watching how you use your prescription. You should always stick to taking the dosage your doctor gives you, even on days when the pain is bad. If you have any concerns about your prescription, be sure to talk to your doctor or pharmacist before you start taking it.
You can also try and manage your pain through other means. For example, you might find that over-the-counter pain relievers help reduce your pain to tolerable levels. Or, you may benefit from a healthier lifestyle. Being able to talk about your pain and frustration to someone like a therapist can also help you manage your pain safely.