As I said before, it is important to acknowledge an addiction.  Becoming powerless over a physical and psychological need (compulsive use, craving, or needing it to feel good) for a habit-forming substance, such as a narcotic analgesic, cannot be overcome just on your own, even though you are the crucial factor.   

Risk factors for addiction include your family history, history of alcohol or drug abuse, trauma such as childhood physical or sexual abuse, being a risk taker, or having easy access to opiods.

It is very important to understand how addiction begins, progresses and is finally established, as well as detecting the early signs of addiction by patients, family members or physician.

How does addiction evolve?  The journey begins when a high, a mood change, produced by taking opiods whether for medical reason to relieve pain or for other non-medical reasons, is experienced.  This addictive “mood change” is new and intense and produces either a sense of arousal (power), satiation (satisfaction), or fantasy (illusion).  

Because addiction is a gradual process, many changes will have taken place deep within the addict long before anyone suspects there is a problem.  In many cases, the addict does not like the way they are feeling and they seek a mood change experience by abusing opiods.   At this stage, there is almost constant internal conflict between the “Self” and the “Addict”, much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”  The “Self” tells you "don’t take the opiods for other reasons than real physical pain.”  But, the “Addict” says “It’s okay. Opiods will make you feel great, perfect and powerful.  They won’t hurt you." Eventually, in this struggle, the “Addict” increasingly wins, the “Self” loses, and the user becomes controlled by the addictive personality. 

During the addictive process, the early stage of addiction is the most difficult to detect, but there are certain behavioral changes only you or your significant other will be able to notice:  isolation, lying to friends and family, spending a lot of money, trying to find excuses to get opiods prescription such as “I lost my prescription” or “Yes, my pain is so severe.”

When the addict enters the second stage and begins to do whatever it takes to get the medication such as getting prescriptions from multiple physicians and multiple pharmacies or even buying them illegally, the prescribing physician and pharmacists are eventually able to detect a problem.

However, because the prescribing physician knows sees the patient only in a staged environment (during an office visit), their role in detecting early signs of addiction is quite difficult. 

If you have risk factors for addiction and need opiod to relief pain, you should make your physician aware of this important information.  Your family and close friends can help prevent an addiction by reporting unusual personality or behavior changes to your physician.