It’s hard to imagine just how conflicted someone must be when they suffer from pain issues and develop an addiction to their prescription painkillers. It happens a lot more frequently than we as a society would like to admit. Even with the best intentions, some people get so beaten down with their pain that they become willing to trade an addiction for it.
There is an old saying, “sooner or later, you are going to have to face the music.” In the case of abusing prescription painkillers, facing the music refers to dealing with your addiction issues.
We understand it’s not going to be an easy thing to do. The only way to recover from your addiction is to stop using painkillers. If you stop taking painkillers, the pain might come back with a vengeance. When you analyze things in those terms, it probably feels like you lose either way. That’s simply not true and here is why.
If you get help for your drug addiction problem, you will likely be left with having to figure out how to deal with the pain you feel. If you let your addiction run free, you would be putting your life at risk.
You have to remember your opiate addiction is progressive by nature. As your body develops a higher level of dependence, you have to take more of your drugs to get the relief you want. At some point in the cycle of your addiction, the number of painkillers you are consuming will become toxic to your body. That’s when you will start to suffer irreparable damage to your health. That is unless you overdose first.
The real solution to your problems is a two-step process, which we will discuss below.
Will Detoxing from Opioids Make My Pain Worse for a Long Time?
In order to deal with both your addiction and pain issues, it is necessary to view them as separate issues. You can’t afford to try to resolve all your problems at once.
The first thing you need to do is get help for your addiction. It’s your addiction and not the pain that is putting your life at risk. After, you have established recovery from your addiction illness, you can then go back to address your pain issues.
Drug Addiction Treatment
Considering you have an addiction to opiate painkillers, you will most likely need to participate in a drug detox program. This would be the best way to start treatment while assuring you can get past your withdrawal as safely as possible. For your knowledge, here is a partial list of withdrawal symptoms you can expect to encounter:
- Nausea and vomited
- Difficulty with breathing, high blood pressure and a rapid heart rate
- Body convulsions and tremors in your arms and legs
- Hallucinations and nightmares that interfere with sleeping
- Severe cramps in your stomach muscles
- Decreased ability to concentrate
- Increase in anxiety and depression
After detox, you will need to go through counseling to learn more about how to cope with your pain without using opiate-based painkillers.
To answer the titled question, yes, your pain issues will likely still be issues during and after you are done with your detox program. Addressing your pain is the second step in your recovery process.
Addressing Your Pain Issues
No one expects you to endure pain for the rest of your life. The biggest issue you have is you now know that opiate painkillers might no longer be a viable solution to your pain issues. What you need to understand is there are a lot of different ways to deal with pain. Painkillers just tend to be the easiest and most convenient option.
What you need to do is start working with medical professionals who specialize in pain management. After telling them you have an addiction issue with opiates, they can begin developing a pain management program for you that does not involve prescription painkillers. If painkillers are going to put your life at risk, you have to commit to finding alternative solutions for your pain.
As we stated above, the first thing you need to do is get help for your drug addiction. We are prepared to bring you into our addiction treatment program and start you towards the road to a full recovery. When you are ready to get started, you need to contact one of our counselors at 772-266-5320.
