When most people think of addiction, they visualize a derelict on a street corner or in a back alley, homeless and wasting away from a nasty and illegal drug habit. In truth, an addict could be the teen next door, a co-worker, the man or woman in the pew next to you at church, an athlete recovering from an injury, or even your doctor. Prescription drug abuse is epidemic, killing thousands of Americans every year
An estimated 4 million Americans over the age of 12 use prescription pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for "nonmedical" reasons every month. Living in a society increasingly striving for "political correctness," we now call prescription drug addiction a "dependence."
In reality, this "dependence" is simply part of different phases and definitions of drug abuse." For example, drug abuse is merely the inappropriate use of a controlled substance. Chronic drug abuse is a sustained use over a long period, when the user can't "live without" the medication. Binge usage is an occasional or recreational use of a drug. Dependency is a physiological phenomenon, and we're all susceptible. When the body becomes accustomed to the presence of a substance, the body itself can become addicted. Finally, addiction is a mental dependency (with or without physiological dependence). Usually there's an underlying mental health issue.
Whatever we call it, prescription drug abuse is on the rise, and it kills. Opioid use alone has gone up from 76 million prescriptions in 1991 to 219 million in 2011. Opioid deaths have increased more than 400 percent from 1999 to 2010. Oddly enough, traffic-related deaths have been decreasing since 1980.
Instead of changing how we label addiction, a better approach might be to take a close look at who is addicted - or dependent - on prescription drugs. Prescription drug abuse isn't particular about its victims.
NOTHING NEW
Prescription drug abuse isn't new; it's just getting worse. The Rolling Stones made reference to prescription drug abuse in the song "Mother's Little Helper," recorded nearly 50 years ago. The opening verse laments:
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