Do I have a problem with prescription medication?

Understanding and admitting that you have a problem with prescription medication is the first big step towards seeking help, finding appropriate treatment and getting your life back. This is, in itself, an important milestone, and we understand how difficult it can be.

When considering your current behaviour patterns, relationships and lifestyle choices, do any of these issues apply to you?

Behaviour patterns

• Your medication was prescribed for physical pain or ailments you no longer have – but you are still taking the medication.
• You have fabricated medical complaints or exaggerated your physical symptoms so that a doctor would prescribe you medication.
• You spend a considerable amount of time going to different doctors – often under a false name - to obtain more prescriptions for medication.
• You have gone to a number of chemists to obtain over the counter medication.
• You have started purchasing medication over the Internet. When your medication arrives, you often hide the packaging from your friends and family.
• You conceal your use of prescription medication from your family and friends.
• Your medication often leaves you feeling a bit ‘spaced out’ or detached – but this helps you feel less stressed in your day.
• You are suffering financial consequences because you are spending considerable amounts of money on buying prescription medication.
• A great deal of your time is spent thinking about your next supply of medication, planning how and where you can obtain it and who can write your next prescription.

Social

• Your relationships are suffering as a result of using medication – your partner or spouse is dissatisfied with your relationship, your children are neglected or you spend less and less time with valued friends.
• You are doing less of the things that were important to you, for example, seeing friends or family, going out or enjoying hobbies.
• You find that your values are slipping and that you are doing more and more things that have previously been against your value systems.
• You are increasingly preoccupied and withdrawn from those you care about.
• Your responsibilities at home or work have suffered. Your performance in your domestic or professional life has deteriorated. You are not taking proper care of your children, or your children are having to take care of you.

If you can relate to any of these, it may be time for you to get help to deal with your dependence on prescription medication.

At Life Works, we believe that prescription medication has become a problem when you continue to take it in spite of negative consequences – whether they are professional, relationship, health, financial, legal or other problems.

As a leading private behavioural health facility for the treatment of behavioural health issues, Life Works is able to help you.

If you need help or advice about your prescription medication use, please call us on 0800 081 0700 to speak to one of our counsellors in confidence or email us for more information.

We can answer any questions or concerns you may have and help you find the right treatment.

Not sure if you have a problem?

Denial is common and symptomatic of prescription medication dependence. You may deny that you have a problem both to yourself and to others, through:

• Minimising the effects of your prescription medication use.
• Criticising those around you for making too much fuss about your prescription medication use.
• Concealing your use of prescription medication from your loved ones.
• Considerably underestimating the amount of prescription medication you are taking.
• Placing the blame for your medication use on other people or situations in your life, such as “I take prescription medication because my daily life is so stressful”.

It is worth considering why you feel the need to do any of these things, if you don’t have a problem with prescription medication. It is likely that you are relying heavily on prescription medication but you are not ready to admit this to yourself or to anyone else.

Why admitting you have a problem can be so hard

Denial is a key characteristic of prescription medication dependence. It is one of the few illnesses which perpetuates itself, as one of the symptoms of prescription medication dependence is that it tells you that you don’t have a problem. This is one of the reasons why individuals stay trapped with prescription medication dependence for a lifetime – unless they get help. We advise you to stay open to the feedback from others and professionals and look at the evidence.

Why it is so important to get help

At Life Works, we know that prescription medication dependence is an illness. This is central to our Clinical Philosophy and underpins our approach to treatment. We use the latest neuroscientific thinking to inform our understanding of how problems with prescription medication affect the individual and how we can provide effective treatment of these problems.

Having a prescription medication problem means that you have an illness which affects different parts of the brain and seriously impairs your ability to make choices. This means that over time, your decision-making ability and your behaviour become more and more focused on prescription medication, to the detriment of everything else in your life – your partner, your job, your family and your friends. Getting your medication becomes your number one priority. You may have done things that you feel deeply ashamed about but you couldn’t avoid doing them because you had to be able to obtain your prescription medication.

Feeling ashamed or guilty about your behaviour can be incredibly difficult and often increases your need to take medication, if only to get relief from these feelings. And yet, the satisfaction or relief you feel each time becomes more and more short-lived. Each time you take your prescription medication, you are left wanting more, and often feeling dissatisfied and desperate for more relief. But over time, this will worsen the problem for you, increasingly isolate you from those who care about you and leave you with feelings of loneliness, fear and desperation. Sadly, many individuals do not ask for help when they really need it, to the extent that their prescription medication problem worsens to the point of crisis - medically, physically and emotionally.

Is it really a problem?

Prescription medication dependence is a progressive, life-threatening, psychiatric illness. If left untreated, it causes serious long term health problems – for example, seizures, irregular heartbeat, high body temperature (dangerous), anxiety, paranoia, slowed breathing and heart rate and slowed brain functioning.

In some cases, individuals with prescription medication dependence die. This is not uncommon.

Being in this situation can often be terrifying, exhausting, depressing, upsetting and deeply shaming. The future may seem totally bleak and pointless, and the only thing that seems to make you feel better is taking medication.

What is recovery?

There are many misconceptions about what being “in recovery” means. Recovery is commonly misunderstood, especially by people who have not received treatment and also among their friends and families.

At Life Works, we truly understand that the prospect of recovery can seem frightening. You may believe that recovery offers you nothing but a lifetime of having to live with your own problems, frustrations and feelings without even being allowed to take prescription medication. Imagining your life like this may seem incredibly daunting and overwhelming. Faced with a choice between your life as it is, or recovery, it is understandable why you may have reservations about recovery.

However, by finding the strength to seek professional help, you will get the support and guidance you need to start reaping the benefits of the first stage of recovery.

We believe recovery is about so much more than getting detoxed and abstaining from prescription medication. We define recovery as getting your life back, especially those aspects that are valuable and precious to you. It also means putting more into your life than you may have previously and finding meaning either once again, or for the first time ever. Recovery means creating a healthy, fulfilling and meaningful life that is characterised by abstinence from medication and other drugs, more effective tools for coping with the stresses of life, and a greater connection with yourself, those close to you and the larger community.

At Life Works, we strongly believe that recovery is not about what you are taking out of your life, but rather what you put back into it. Prescription medication dependence is a disease of isolation and the life of someone dependent on prescription medication tends to get smaller and smaller. Recovery is about expanding and enhancing your life.

By taking that first step and receiving treatment for your stimulant problem at Life Works, you will be able to start leading the new life you deserve.

Life Works is a leading behavioural health clinic for the treatment of prescription medication dependence.

If you need help or advice about your prescription medication dependence, please call us on 0800 081 0700 to speak to one of our counsellors in confidence or email us for more information.

We can answer any questions or concerns you may have and help you find the right treatment.