Opioid Addiction happens to good people – your friend... your neighbor... your minister... YOU!

Opioid Addiction is defined as a medical condition characterized by the compulsive use of opioids despite adverse consequences from continued use and the development of a withdrawal syndrome when opioid use stops. It involves both an addiction to and dependence upon opioids.

 

Opioids include substances such as morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, etc. The necessary descriptive characteristics of the medical diagnosis are a preoccupation with a desire to obtain and take the drug and persistent drug-seeking behavior. The opioid dependence-withdrawal syndrome involves both psychological dependence and marked physical dependence upon opioid compounds.

Opioid Addiction does not have to be the result of illegal “street” drugs only, it can also come as the result of becoming dependent on prescribed drugs such as painkillers.

Opioid Addiction is a real and devastating condition. In fact…

•In 2009, drug overdose deaths surpassed Motor Vehicle Accident deaths.

•There were 2.4 million reports of abuse or dependence on illicit opioids in 2013.

•A 2005 study showed that opioid abusers were 12 times more likely to be admitted to the hospital than non-abusers.

•In 2011, there were 420,040 Emergency Room visits involving non-medical opiate use.

•In 2007, prescription opioid abuse was estimated to cost the United States $55.7 billion (including health care, workplace and criminal justice costs).

•Direct health care costs for opioid abusers are eight times higher than non-abusers.

Not only has the Opioid Addiction and overdose epidemic become news nationally, but the crisis is now beginning to affect us close to home. Click here to read the article, “Opioid Crisis Comes to Randolph,” as published in the November 5, 2016 edition of the Asheboro Courier-Tribune.

Opioid Addiction does happen to good people. But it does not have to continue to adversely affect you and your loved ones. We’re here to help you – every step of the way.