Author: Emily Oconnor

About Opioid Addiction and Dependency

Opioids are a sub group of opiates, which are sedative drugs that are powerful painkillers, opioids, such as prescription painkillers, are extremely beneficial to the medical field by helping people get through surgery and manage extreme pain. However, opioids are commonly abused, and the more a person abuses opioids the higher chance there is of them developing an addiction to the drug.

Once a person develops an addiction to opioids then they will compulsively seek out and use the drug. As a person continues to abuse opioids they will most likely develop a dependency to the drug. Once a person develops an addiction, and then a dependency, they will begin to go through withdrawals every time they do not have enough of the drug in their body.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a person who has developed an addiction to opiates will begin to go through opiate withdrawal once they stop using the drug. Opiate withdrawal consists of various symptoms that will cause intense psychological and physical distress in a person’s body. Furthermore, a person can expect to begin to feel the effects of the opiate withdrawal symptoms within six to twelve hours from their last use.

Opioid withdrawal can be extremely painful and difficult for a person to go through, which is why many people continue to abuse opioids even after they want to stop. However, if a person does not get help for their addiction, or does not stop using the drugs, they can cause permanent damage to their body.

How Opioids Affect a Person’s Body

Opioid drugs affect a person’s body mentally, physically and behaviorally. For example many people using opioids are obtaining the drugs illegally, and many people begin to commit criminal acts to help them have the means to get the drugs they compulsively seek out because of their addiction. All of this illegal activity can result on a person doing time in jail.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, there has been an estimated of six million people in jail from the years 1980 to 2007. This increase is mostly due to drug addiction and drug related crimes that are being committed because of drug addiction. Inmates have rates of drug dependence and drug addiction that are more than four times that of the overall American population.

In addition to opioids negatively impacting a person’s mentality and behavior, they also will damage their body. Prolonged use of opioids can lead to permanent damage to a person’s organs, such as their kidneys and liver, and it can lead to sudden cardiac arrest or respiratory failure. All in all, opioid addiction is a disease that a person will need to seek out help for so that they save their body the damage that will be inflicted on it before it is too late.