Addiction to Painkillers

Addiction to painkillers is often overlooked when talking about drug addiction. Prescription drugs are normally the main culprit but much pain medication is just as problematic as it is available over the counter with little or none confirmation from GPs. Just because these drugs are easy to acquire does not mean that they aren’t addictive. Instead, it means that it is even easier for people to develop a physical and psychological addiction to their painkillers as the following trainee dental nurse’s story shows.

A 29 year old trainee dental nurse has recently pleaded guilty of forging prescriptions and stealing from pharmacies throughout the county of Gwet in South-East Wales over a period of six months to fund her codeine addiction. In total she stole around 23 prescription forms from the workplace which were then forged and fulfilled at different pharmacies.

Her first theft was just eleven days after she started work at the dental practice where she worked. She began taking codeine when she began to suffer from chronic migraines and used the drug to help alleviate her problem. Her defence stated that the ‘medication she was on has had a significant effect on her rational thinking’, ‘that she shows a significant degree of remorse’ and has since had her addiction to codeine fully addressed.

Her prosecutor stated during her trial that she had ‘been dependent on the dihydrocodeine pain killers and said she was not in her right frame of mind’ but that there was ‘some planning involved in the offences as she forged the names in her own name, her maiden name, mother, sister, next door neighbour, her friends and a variety of addresses and members of the public who were registered as patients where she worked’.

Codeine in particular, is easy to become addicted to due to the feel good side effects of the drug such as elation or sleepiness. The drug is safe to take under medical instructions but taking large or frequent doses can cause severe side effects including nausea, constipation, breathing problems and seizures. Codeine is particularly dangerous when combined with alcohol or other drugs and can even result in death.

Common signs of codeine addiction include..

·         The user becoming aggressive or defensive when confronted about their painkiller use.

·         The user experiencing nausea, constipation, breathing problems or/and seizures.

·         The user becoming secretive or embarrassed about their use of the painkiller.

If these common signs seem familiar then you could be looking at someone or be someone with a genuinely dangerous addiction.

Contact Rehab Recovery for free help and advice on 0800 088 66 86 today, or send us a message requesting a call back and we’ll give you a discreet ring for a chat about your concerns.

For the full story of the dental nurse, please see the SouthWales Argus .