Most of think about our golden years as a time where we will spend with our grandchildren, spend our retirement, and travel. However, for an increasingly large amount of elderly, it is spent on drugs. Yes, the newest generation to be affected by addiction are our grandparents. There are several reasons for this increased drug use, the elderly often times experience more pain and depression than the rest of us, often times doctors are quick to prescribe narcotics to the elderly in order to handle constant pain, and sometimes, after living a long and hard life, elderly people want to spend their remaining years "having fun". Now, this certainly does not mean that all elderly people are abusing drugs, or even most of them, however it is true that more and more older adults are falling prey to addiction.
As people get older it is inevitable that their bodies will experience pain. The most common medicine prescribed for chronic pain is Vicodin, Lortab, or OxyContin, all of these are addictive drugs, that will create an opiate dependence. Because of this chronic pain doctors are often quick to prescribe medicine that is very addictive. The thing to remember is this; prescription drug abuse does not discriminate; anyone can become addicted. Without proper monitoring, our grandparents, our parents and our loved ones are susceptible to becoming addicted.
The only real way to handle a prescription drug abuse problem is to enroll in an effective drug rehab. If you or anyone you know is in need of help help for an addiction to drugs or alcohol please contact help immediately.
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