Teen painkiller addiction is a common addiction among teens. It has become a bigger problem within the last decade. Painkillers are readily available to teenagers because they are in many households. Even houses that do not have prescription medications in them often have non-prescription painkillers. Painkillers can be dangerous if they are not taken as directed, yet it is easy for teenagers to access them and take a few without being noticed. Teenagers can obtain over the counter painkillers for cheap, and can thus become addicted easily.

People use painkillers to relieve their pain without losing consciousness. Typically, the two major categories of painkillers are non-narcotic and narcotic. Teen painkiller addiction involves both of these painkillers. Non-narcotic are over the counter drugs, but they can also be prescription drugs. Narcotic pain killers are typically used only for chronic illnesses, or given to people who are injured or to deal with a surgery. Opiate painkillers are also commonly abused, such as Demerol, Vicodin, Codeine and Oxycontin. Within the past few years, it has been reported that there was a 40 percent rise in the abuse of Oxycontin over the course of three years.

What causes teen painkiller addiction? Teenagers may start to abuse painkillers or become addicted for various reasons. One of the most common reasons is because of peer pressure. They desire to fit in with other teenagers in their school or in their neighborhood, so they start to imitate their actions and attitudes. Another issue is that they may often be able to obtain prescription drugs easily. They may do this because they do not believe the drugs will be harmful to them since they are obtained by prescription, and there is also not a lot of risk associated with obtaining prescription drugs.

You can prevent your teen from being a victim of teen painkiller addiction. This is very important since it is such a wide spread problem. There are signs that you can look for if you suspect that your teenager is addicted to or abusing painkillers. These signs include stealing, selling, or forging prescriptions, losing prescriptions so that they must obtain a new one, or getting prescriptions from various doctors instead of just one. To prevent this from happening, keep track of your teen’s prescriptions, and keep all prescription meds away from children. If you are not using pills, dispose of them by flushing them down the toilet.

 

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