How to Detect Someone With Opioid Substance Abuse Addiction

How to Detect Someone With Opioid Substance Abuse Addiction
By Cortence Batiste

When family or friends experience substance abuse addiction from a loved one, it can be devastating and painful. Feelings of helplessness are common because attempts to stop the addiction can seem impossible. Many are left wondering how the signs of abuse were missed before they appear to spiral out of control. Here are some tips on how to detect someone with Opioid substance abuse addiction they you may know.

There are many signs that can point to someone having an Opioid substance abuse addiction that we may not recognize easily. One of the first items that you may want to consider is a trigger or catalyst that is often paired with the abuse which is called a co occurring disorder. Does the individual that you suspect have any co occurring disorders such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks or mood swings? There are many co occurring conditions and mental health diagnosis that you may want to research which could be helpful in identifying why someone could find themselves caught up in the dangerous cycle of Opioid abuse. The signs start to appear very clearly once the addiction reaches a climax of interfering with work, personal relationships, health, social activities, and school performance just to name a few areas.

Some other common symptoms of Opioid substance abuse would be a noticeable change in a few areas of an individual's day to day lifestyle. They may appear more fatigued. They may battle bouts of constipation more regularly than normal.They also may experience regular episodes of nausea that were not a common problem before. Displaying high amounts of elation or hyperactivity in their personality which is not the status quo for how they normally are may also appear. The side effects may co- exist or only a few of them may affect the individual in question. Pay attention to any changes that were non existent before the drug use began.

It is very painful to see our loved one's struggle and be powerless to help them. The first step in helping them is not to turn a blind eye to the changes that you see occurring in the individual. One way to help yourself in being effective in detecting someone with Opioid substance abuse is to keep a journal of all the changes that you are seeing. It is very common for drug abusers to convince those that care about them that they are imagining things. They can easily manipulate and persuade you into believing that they are fine. When the reality is that their lives are more often than not spiraling out of control.

When you are able to detect that your family member or friend is unable to control their use of the drug there are ways that you can help. Opioid drug abuse is resulting in an alarming number of deaths. According to Chief Actuary "Jim Lynch, during the Opioid epidemic from the year 2000 to 2013 more people died of a drug overdose than those soldiers that were killed in the Vietnam war. 3 times as many were lost to drug addiction than war. That is a startling fact that many people are not aware of the risk involved this is Opioid drug war that we are fighting. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) provides the data for opioids, and the Vietnam statistics come from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and National Archives. Please do your research and find a highly regarded substance abuse facility that can provide the care that will help to turn your loved one's addiction around and result in a happy ending instead of a losing battle that so many other families have had to endure.

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