Eight Ways to Avoid Becoming Addicted to Prescription Pain Pills

Accidents happen every day and some of them cause injuries that can be painful and debilitating. When you go to the doctor for your injuries after being in an accident, there’s a good chance that he or she will prescribe you medication to ease some of the pain that you’re feeling. It’s important to know that many prescription pain pills can be addictive. The following guide provides a few tips to use to decrease the chances of becoming addicted to the pain pills that you’re prescribed.

Track Your Pain

Many people don’t realize that the intensity of the pain that they feel will change over time. It can be hard to think about the past accurately if you don’t track the symptoms that you’ve. It’s best to get an agenda or calendar that has ample room to write daily messages. You need to track the intensity of pain you’re feeling and where you’re feeling it. Additionally, if the medication eased the pain and how long it took for the pain to subside. You also need to track how long it took for the pain to return and what activities you were and weren’t able to do. This allows you to accurately track if the medications are working for you and provides you with detailed information you can give to your doctor when you go to appointments. Being able to monitor your pain progression allows him or her to assess if other steps need to be taken to manage your pain.

Consider Physical Therapy

Many people make the mistake of thinking that physical therapy is only available to athletes or people who have a surgery. This isn’t the case, though. Physical therapy is designed to help you heal your body in a safe way to build strength, flexibility and reduce pain as well as inflammation.

When you go to the physical therapist, you’ll need to provide detailed information about where you’re feeling pain, how you were injured and any treatment that you’ve received along the way. A customized therapy plan will be created for you. You’ll do numerous exercises in the office and be provided with exercises that you can do when you get home to continue to improve your flexibility and strength. There will be times when the exercises may feel painful, but you always need to be honest with the therapist about how you’re feeling so that you don’t injure yourself worse.

Read Your Medication Guidelines Carefully

When you start taking a new prescription, it’s important to read the guidelines that come with the medication carefully. You need to know how much of the medication to take and how often you need to take it. Some medications need to be taken with food and some don’t. Some prescription medications cause drowsiness which is important to know if you plan to drive or take care of children while you’re on the medication. Reading the guidelines also lets you know what the side effects are and if there are any drug interactions that you’ll need to worry about. Some medications shouldn’t be taken together because they can cause one of the medications to stop working or cause a bad interaction.

Take the Medications as Prescribed

Every pain medication is only supposed to be taken once every few hours. Taking the medication more often than prescribed could lead to you to becoming addicted. Addiction can cause major damage to your body, mind, and future. It’s best to set an alarm to let you know when it’s time to take the medication. However, you don’t need to take it if you aren’t feeling any pain. It’s best to try to prolong the time between the medication dosages so that you can assess how much pain you’re really in and to ensure that you’re taking the pills for the pain and not for the way that they make you feel.

Talk to Your Doctor

If you notice that the pain pills aren’t diminishing the pain enough to help you live a comfortable life, talk to your doctor. Its best to communicate with your doctor about the way that you’re feeling rather than taking more medication than is prescribed to you. The doctor may be able to write you a prescription for a different medication that may work better. There are some doctors that require you to bring in the remainder of the first prescription that they wrote you before they will provide you with a new one. This often happens because the doctor wants to decrease the chances of you becoming addicted to the medications by having access to the first prescription later down the road.  

Get Help Right Away if You Do Feel Things Are Out of Control

If you notice that you’re taking the pills more than you should or that you feel a craving to take them more often, get help right away. Prescription pill addiction is a slippery slope that can quickly lead you down the path of complete and total despair. It’s best to go to a rehab center like the Haymarket Treatment Center in Chicago that can help you detox from the drugs that you’ve been taking. Rehab centers like this start determining the severity of your addiction and what things need to be done to decrease the chances of a future relapse.

It’s best to take prescription pain medication very cautiously as an addiction can occur in a very short period of time. You want to monitor the way that you’re feeling and be upfront and honest with yourself about why you want to take the medication. If you’re no longer feeling any pain, stop using the medications right away. Take any leftover pills to a local pharmacy for proper disposal.