You may think this doesn’t apply to you. That’s where you’re wrong.
The other day, my husband told me about a lady he worked with who was leaving her boyfriend. The reason? Opioid addiction.
He’s a great guy, super nice and personable. He had been prescribed oxycodone years back after surgery — and couldn’t prevent addiction from forming.
Now his life is dedicated to the drugs: they control everything. Although it broke this woman’s heart to leave, there was no room for her in his. Not anymore.
Opioids took everything from him.
I don’t know if this man knew what he was getting into when he started taking the oxy. I don’t know if he’s tried to get off them and failed. But I do know one thing.
He was prescribed the drugs. He didn’t set out to become addicted.
Did you know that in the United States, 130 citizens die every day from overdosing on opioids? The scary thing is, most of these people are no different than you.
You may think you would never take opioids for any reason, and you may think those who do are putting themselves in a dangerous position.
When I was prescribed opioids following surgery in 2010, I had no idea what they were. The pain I was in was excruciating and all I wanted was something to make it go away.
I trusted my doctor, thinking his purpose was to keep anything bad from happening to me. So when he prescribed me opioids, I didn’t think anything of it.
I received the prescription with no warnings or precautions, and the duration was not controlled in any way by the doctor. It was basically, “You need this drug. Take it as long as you feel pain.”
This led to a 2 1/2-year battle with the drugs, something I didn’t anticipate in the slightest.
I didn’t set out to have a problem with opioids, and that’s probably the scariest thing of all.
However, I was one of the lucky ones. Opioids are dangerously addictive, and sometimes getting off them can seem impossible.
Many doctors will warn you. They’ll tell you of the addictive properties in the drugs, and they’ll strictly control how long you take them for.
However, mine didn’t.
You can’t always rely on doctors to take care of you. You can’t expect that they’ll have your best interests at heart and make sure they’re doing what’s right by you.
Because I had no awareness of opioids, I didn’t know that they change the way your brain perceives pain. All I knew is when I went too long without a dose, pain and other problems set in immediately.
The only thing that made me wise up to the danger I was in was personal experience. But all the struggles I went through and all the suffering I faced could have been avoided.
If only I was aware.
Don’t make the same mistake I did. Learn about opioids. Never take them without your dose being strictly controlled, and only in the direst of circumstances.
The drugs aren’t worth it.
Don’t think you’re different, that you can take opioids without consequence. You can’t. They will destroy you.
I know. They almost did to me.
