A survey of 12,000 high school seniors indicates that 12.3% of the teens have abused prescription opiate-based painkillers to get high, confirming the rising trend in Teenage prescription drug abuse. Either ignorant of the dangers, or by choosing not to care, teenagers are putting themselves in great danger by abusing these drugs, which can very easily lead to accidental overdose. The study also concluded that most teens who engage in prescription drug abuse are also more likely to abuse other drugs and to have addictive problems. When I was a using, I considered prescription drugs like Vicodin and Oxycontin to be harmless. I wasn’t shooting heroin so what was the big deal? The big deal was that regardless of the substance, I was desperately addicted.
I tried them with a friend who had found them in her parent’s medicine cabinet. I began to use my after school job money to buy more pills from kids at school. I stole my mom’s prescriptions to trade for opiates. When I didn’t have them, I got really sick. My whole life began to revolve around getting more pills. I was constantly calculating how many I had versus how many I would need and how I was possibly going to get them. At the end of my using, I was consuming potentially lethal amounts of pills because my tolerance was so high. I needed help. Visions Adolescent Treatment Center helped me detox and begin the recovery process. We covered all aspects of my life, finding new ways to handle life without using drugs. It was a difficult process, but as the number of teenage prescription drug abusers increases, I am so glad I made it out alive.
Originally posted on August 8, 2009 @ 7:15 am
