Why Do Ordinary People Get Addicted to Prescription Painkillers?
11/13/2008 You may have seen the TV commercial with the guy sitting on the bench waiting for a bus – he’s obviously in pain, but tells a companion he won’t take prescription painkillers because he’s afraid he’ll become addicted. He’s not wrong. Many people get addicted to painkillers, even when they’re taking them as directed by their doctor. But the addiction creeps up on them and they don’t even know there’s a problem. How can that happen? It starts with a reason to take the drugs – an injury, accident, surgery, illness and so on. The patient takes the painkillers for a week or two or three, but when the prescription is up and the patient tries to stop taking them, the pain returns. The patient, and even the doctor, neither of whom are very educated on the subject of prescription drug addiction, naturally assumes that the body has not yet fully recovered from the injury. So the patient gets another prescription. When the second prescription is over and the patient tries to stop takin
