A Woman's Pain With Prescription Drug Abuse

I’m sure that we know many women in this situation.  Maybe the main woman that we know in this situation is the one that we see in the mirror every day.  She’s hiding a huge secret from everyone.  She has a problem, or maybe she is unaware that she has a problem at all.  She has become accustomed to utilizing prescription drugs (pain pills) as her mechanism to cope.  She believes that it is numbing her pain, but in all actuality, it’s numbing the reality of her life.  She’s not dealing, she’s not coping, and she’s not focusing, because unbeknownst to her, she has become dependent on a substance and she can’t stop.  

Her Physician continues to write the prescription, the Pharmacist continues to fill the prescription, and she continues to take the pills. This is a repeating cycle that has recently led plenty of our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and daughters to death.  To paint this truth more vividly, 18 women die every day from prescription drug abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

So what are we going to do about it?  How are we going to make sure that more of our sisters are living, rather than dying?  This reality is striking, sad, and ridiculous.  Why are the Physician’s writing the prescriptions not being held accountable?  There are many components to this obstacle that I will have to come back to, but the focus of this post is how to help a sister in need of liberating herself from the chains of prescription drug abuse.

Know the signs of prescription drug abuse:  Stealing, forging or selling prescriptions, taking a higher dose than prescribed, excessive mood swings and hostility, increase or decrease in sleep, seeking prescriptions from more than one doctor, appearing to be high, revved up, or sedated, and continually losing prescriptions so more can be written (Mayo Clinic).

Intervention/Treatment:  Talk with the person and explain to them how their use of prescription drugs is affecting their lives and the lives of their loved ones and that you are willing to help, with the direction focused on them receiving treatment.  Offer to help them find adequate counseling and treatment for their addiction and make sure that they get there.  It may be wise to speak with a drug and alcohol counselor or therapist prior to doing this.  

Let’s stop this alarming number from increasing.  Not doing anything about it, is just as bad as giving them the prescription drugs to take when you’re aware that the problem exist.  Choose to empower!

Peace & Blessings,

Edquina