Although detoxification is not a treatment for pain killer addiction, it can help relieve withdrawal symptoms while the patient adjusts to being free of pain killers or other prescription drugs. Addiction is both a biological and psychological condition. There are a number of effective treatment options to treat pain killer addiction to prescription opioids and to help manage the sometimes severe withdrawal symptoms that can accompany sudden stopping of pain killers or drugs.

Opioids should never be taken when drinking alcohol (also a drug) or when alcohol may still be in the system. Many chronic pain patients may be under-treated as a result of doctors who are trying to gain control over pain killer addiction, they report. Less common side effects and adverse reactions of pain killers are: confusion, hallucinations, delirium, hives, itching, hypothermia, bradycardia (slow heart rate), tachycardia (rapid heart rate), raised intracranial pressure, ureteric or biliary spasm, muscle rigidity and flushing.

Many other drugs can interact with the opioids and cause a variety of symptoms; this can be fatal. There are many side effects and adverse reactions that can occur with the use of opioids as pain killers. An opioid-dependent pain patient has improved function with the use of the drug while an opioid-addicted patient does not have improvement.

When you're addicted physically to a drug, like pain killers or alcohol, etc., it's because you've suppressed or shut down your body's production of endorphins, which are natural opiate pain killers; when this happens you start craving the drug that you replaced the endorphins with whether it's alcohol, any of a number of drugs or pain killers. Patients can innocently start taking pain killers after a moderate injury or because of a severe injury in an automobile accident, fall or for post surgical pain. Physical dependence on a drug suggests that sudden stopping of the drug may result in negative consequences.

Often people who are addicted to pain killers are plagued with various symptoms to different degrees; many times they don't associate the symptoms with the drug. Chronic pain affects one out of three or four adults; millions of people suffer from severe disabling pain. Pain killer addiction includes: opiate dependency, opiate addiction, narcotic dependency, narcotic addiction, and pain killer dependency or painkiller dependency.

Many insurance plans do cover inpatient detox, check yours if you have insurance. Some insurance companies will pay for one or two weeks; some may pay for rehabilitation too. You must leave the routine responsibilities of your life for a week or two or suffer the inevitable outcome and bad health effects of prolonged drug addiction.

Find out from your local health professionals where the closest and best pain killer addiction treatment centers are. You must make a change in your lifestyle in order to prevent you from taking pain killers and or other drugs again. It's important to go through rehab following your detox stay: make it a part of your plan of action.

A patient being treated with a pain killer can become dependent, but with controlled and appropriate use of the medication, the patient can return to some level of normal living and normal activities following discontinuance of the drug. It's important to remember that when people first start taking pain killers for an acute or chronic pain condition, they don't intend to become addicted. Experts say that only a small segment of patients with a medical need for using narcotic pain medications ever become addicted.