Watch Out: Addiction and Tolerance in Painkillers

So you’re in chronic pain and your dose of painkillers doesn’t seem to provide you relief. You know you need a higher dose to manage your pain. Are you addicted?

When it comes to painkillers and managing chronic pain, it’s always a good idea to distinguish if you’re addicted or have an increased tolerance.

Image source: drugabuse.com

Chronic Pain and Pain Management

Chronic pain is a pain. It hinders you from having a good quality of life as it affects almost all aspects of it. Painkillers are prescribed to manage pain so you can gain back some normalcy in your daily life and activities. However, these painkillers can cause you to increase your tolerance for the drug or develop and addiction. Either way puts you at risk for overdose.

Increased Tolerance to Painkillers

Many painkillers used to treat chronic pain are opioid (narcotic) painkillers. Among them are codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, methadone, and oxycodone.

These are opioid (narcotic) drugs because they are derived from opium, a substance from the seeds of the opium poppy. It is from these seeds where heroin and morphine come from as well, while not all the painkiller drugs necessarily come from opium.

This said, the dynamics is the same. People who use opioids are hihgly likely to develop a tolerance after months or years. This means they would need to take higher doses to get the same effects they once did.

Tolerance is common and expected from people who take pharmacological drugs regularly, because the body adjusts to the drugs over time. However, this doesn’t mean that people who have tolerance also develop addiction.

Distinguishing Between Tolerance and Addiction

Tolerance is different from addiction, as addiction can lead to troublesome and less rational behaviors. This is marked by self-medication, increasing the dose without consulting the doctor.

Addiction to painkillers also means you live and behave according to your substance use, and continue to behave as such despite arising problems.

Do you have a loved one who you feel may be abusing painkillers? Do you suspect that they may have developed painkiller addiction? Seek help today. Call or text us at 09175098826.