Opioids

The road to addiction is one filled with intricate nuances, and each individual's experience is unique. However, for many people struggling with opioid use, OxyContin has played a key role in their dependency and addiction. Developed and prescribed to provide long-term pain relief, OxyContin is a powerful opioid that can quickly become habit-forming, even when taken as directed. The uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms associated with suddenly stopping this medication leave many people trapped in the harmful cycle of opioid use disorder.

Opiate addiction is a real epidemic that lives worldwide, affecting every aspect of a person's life. Finances are depleted, personal relationships are lost, and family suffers. In 2020, approximately 75% of deaths related to drug overdose were due to opioids. Opiate addiction, like any addiction, weighs heavily on the mind and body. Seeking treatment is essential to a long-lasting recovery and can help to prevent relapse. Avalon Malibu is a superb choice for the treatment of any addiction. Four board-certified physicians are onsite who specialize in psychiatry, internal medicine, addictionology, and neurology. We also work with certified specialists in Chinese medicine, acupuncture, neurofeedback, and other holistic methods. If you or someone you know is facing addiction of any kind, don't wait. Take action now.

Florida is known for many different things, including substance use. Addiction in Florida is prevalent, with opioids being one of the most popular substances. In this blog, we're going to discuss opioid abuse in Florida, how prevalent it is, as well as treatment options. As always, it's never too late to pursue sobriety and make a choice other than substance abuse. Give us a call today at Avalon Malibu if you're interested in learning more.

The opioid crisis is a widespread epidemic that has impacted millions of lives. Since 1999, the CDC reports that over 932,000 individuals have lost their lives due to drug overdose. In 2020 alone, nearly 70% of drug overdose deaths involved an opioid drug. Understanding the dangers and risks of opioids, such as fentanyl, is more important than ever. This way, people can make informed decisions and limit their use when possible. Fentanyl is one of the most dangerous opioids when it's not used appropriately. This drug alone is responsible for a fair share of the ongoing opioid crisis.

Valium, or Diazepam, falls into the category of prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines. Known on the streets as benzos, these drug types have a sedating effect. In the medical world, Valium is often prescribed by doctors to help with symptoms including muscle spasms, seizures, anxiety and panic attacks. As with many prescription medications, however, Valium can become a drug of choice for abuse if it’s using isn’t carefully monitored. If you or someone you know is abusing Valium, the issue shouldn’t be taken lightly. Valium abuse can be fatal, and seeking support is often a matter of life and death.

With the opioid crisis, many people are in search of pain management techniques to help them work through the pain without having to use medication they once used before that could potentially lead them to addiction. If you experience chronic pain, this may be a challenging time for you as you learn to navigate healthy ways to manage your pain while avoiding prescription drug abuse, addiction, and overdose. Thankfully, there are a variety of holistic practices that you can incorporate into your daily routine that may help with pain:

Although America is struggling with opioids, those aren’t the only drugs of concern. Over-the-counter (OTC) medications that can be easily bought in gas stations and grocery stores are more popular than ever – drugs like Tylenol and Advil are becoming a go-to for many. It makes sense – OTC drugs are saving Americans an average of $77 billion in clinical cost savings and $25 billion in drug costs savings, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. While these medications are beneficial in that way, there are other risks associated with their use. For example, a new study conducted by researchers from the Boston University School of Health found that nearly one in five users exceed the recommended daily dose for over-the-counter drugs during a one-week period. Many consumers aren’t as concerned about this issue because they aren’t addictive like opioids, but this is a dangerous perception to hold. NBC News reports that taking too much over-the-counter drugs can cause health complications such as gastrointestinal bleeding and heart attacks. Furthermore, lack of research into OTC drugs means that many people are taking drugs that aren’t even meant to help reduce the symptoms they are experiencing. Dr. Liffert Vogt of the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands wrote in an email to Reuters, “…Many people use [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs] for indications other than pain, such as the flu, allergies, fever – and there is no medical base that indicates that [these] or acetaminophen are of any use under these circumstances.” The biggest concern is that while efforts to reduce the opioid epidemic are influencing doctor’s prescribing decisions, consumers aren’t necessarily encouraged to change their ways – leading them to abusing other drugs that are available. Overall, our culture has centered around poor management of chronic pain, and opioids are not the only problematic response we are experiencing to this. If you’re struggling with addiction, seek help today. There are many resources available, and healthy ways to cope with pain.

With the uprising of the opioid crisis, pain medication is landing front in center as a concern of many Americans. Too many overdoses have occurred due to opioids, and the government is working to enact a plan to educate the communicate on the dangers of misusing these drugs, as well as the importance of either staying away from or highly monitoring prescription medications that are highly addictive. No matter your reason for taking pain relievers, these are the medications you should be most concerned of due to their addictive properties:

The over-prescription of opioid painkillers in the United States has pushed us over the edge in nearly every aspect; with so much drug overdose deaths occurring, our life expectancy is lowering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 63,000 people died in 2016 from a drug overdose – a nearly 21% increase from 2015 and three times the amount of deaths related in 1999. Individuals in the 25-54 age group are most at-risk, as many have been prescribed the medication for injuries or post-surgeries, and many others abusing medication that isn’t theirs. The unfortunate circumstance of America is that our population is dying not just due health reasons such as cancer or old age, but also due to reasons that could have involved more preventative measure. Unintentional injuries such as both vehicle accidents and drug overdoses are becoming the leading cause of death in the United States. Previous declines in life expectancy in the United States were due to health epidemics such as the AIDS virus and fatal influenza rates. Barnett, assistant professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School for Public Health, stated in an interview, “If just as bad as anybody could have feared. As a country, we have not reached the peak of this problem.” While several steps from the government has been taken – such as expanded healthcare education to communities and referring medication that is said to be less addictive than others – there is still more work that needs to be done. As a nation, we need to come together and support one another more. We need to broaden our knowledge on ourselves, others, and how various circumstances can impact one another. Many people feel that if someone becomes addicted, it’s not their problem so they shouldn’t worry about it. Essentially, each person contributes to the larger sense of home that we call America and because of this, we need to look further into what we can do as individuals to help our communities thrive more.

With the opioid crisis and nation-wide concerns of illicit drug use, it’s no surprise that addiction is a hot topic right now. Many “natural” drugs can be extremely dangerous, and can result in individuals experiencing paranoia, confusion, dizziness, coma, and even death. Synthetic, or man-made, substances pose additional risks, as individuals aren’t aware of everything they are consuming; disproportional doses of drugs and dangerous combinations can lead to lethal consequences. News reports have lately announced a new drug that has hit the market, and it could kill you in one dose. Known as “grey death”, this drug can be dangerous to even touch with gloves. There have been overdose cases involving this drug in Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio lately – and it seems the drug is a dangerous cocktail consisting of heroin, fentanyl, the elephant tranquilizer carfentanil, and a synthetic opioid called U-47700. Users can inject, swallow, smoke, or snort the drug. The name “grey death” comes from the drug’s appearance, which looks like a concrete mixture that appears as either chunks or rocks. Many scientists are stumped by the color of the drug, as they have stated that none of the drugs mixed should produce that color. What makes grey death so dangerous is its potency. News reports have revealed that just one flake of carfentanil can tranquilize a 2,000-pound elephant. The “grey death” drug is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent than morphine. The drug has been said to be able to float by air and to be absorbed by touch alone. Deneen Kilcrease from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the Associated Press, “Grey death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis.” Grey death is very fast-acting, and a lethal dose isn’t even visible. “You need smaller and smaller amounts because [these drugs] don’t get metabolized. They go straight to the brain,” stated Dr. Francesco Leri, a professor at the University of Guelph who studies behavioral pharmacology and neuroscience. Since the drug can be taken in such small doses, many people are sending and receiving packages of it through postal mail. Always be alert as to what you are taking and consult a doctor before consuming any unknown substance. Seeking medical attention beforehand could save your life.

The interesting challenge about making a generalization as to whether people should or should not take opioid medications for pain management is that no two people are exactly alike. Many doctors are suggesting that opioids do not need to be considered for the treatment of pain until every other method has been tried. Increasingly, studies are finding that more holistic approaches to pain management work in providing pain relief. Opioids can be a last resort medication or prescribed for severe pain. Many other doctors continue to point out the fact that not everyone can or will get addicted to opioid medications. People can have a predisposition to addiction which makes their brains more susceptible to the heavy effects of opioid medications. As the opioid epidemic has revealed, however, people who do not have a predisposition to addiction will still respond in an additive manner to the opioid medications. Part of the reason the opioid epidemic has grown to such proportions is that people were surprised by their developed dependency on the opioid medications. Even more surprising was the fact that the drugs stopped treating pain and when they weren’t taking the drugs, they were craving them. That being said, it is difficult to definitively claim whether or not it is safe to take opioids. When taken by the rules of the prescription for only the length of time prescribed opioids can be effective in managing pain. People are capable of responsibly taking opioid pain meds and not becoming addicted to them. In small doses, opioids can have a profound effect on relieving pain and helping a patient cope with physical trauma, recovery from a surgery, and more. Another question which commonly comes up in regards to taking opioid medications is whether or not it is safe for someone in recovery from substance abuse to take opioid medications. Until the use of opioids is no longer a standard for pain treatment by doctors, it is likely that in the event of a serious accident, physical trauma, injury, or surgery, someone in recovery will be prescribed an opioid. The risk is very, very high for relapse into addiction. Doctors should be made aware of the addiction history and seek out non-addictive alternatives or require careful monitoring of medication management. People in recovery regularly go through surgeries which require them to take the opioid medications without abusing them or relapsing into opioid addiction.