There are many side effects and adverse reactions that can occur with the use of opioids as 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. More than 10% of high school seniors have started taking Vicodin for reasons other than reducing pain.

If you are addicted to pain killers or other drugs or think you may be, you can start working to increase the body's endorphin production naturally; some ways are laughing, touching, massage, acupuncture, acupressure, walking, anything that makes you feel good that's natural. More than 415,000 people received treatment for pain killer abuse or addiction this past year. Treatment options for pain killer addiction include: medications, such as methadone and LAAM (levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol), and behavioral counseling; usually, the patient is medically detoxified before any treatment approach is begun.

Addiction is both a biological and psychological condition. 2.2 million people aged 12 and up first abused painkillers within the past year; this is more than the number of people who started using marijuana and has overtaken the use of cocaine. 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.

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. Pain killer addiction includes: opiate dependency, opiate addiction, narcotic dependency, narcotic addiction, and pain killer dependency or painkiller dependency. Chronic pain affects one out of three or four adults; millions of people suffer from severe disabling pain.

Physical dependence on a drug suggests that sudden stopping of the drug may result in negative consequences. Opioids used as the doctor has prescribed are supposedly not dangerous according to some well-established medical groups; but if this is the case, why are so many people addicted to them? If you think you are addicted and want to get off pain killers or other drugs, it's best to get detoxified as fast as you can and then go through some type of rehabilitation; it's important to have others to lean on and learn from and offer support to you.

Taking the time to spend in a treatment center, detoxing, is of the utmost priority. If you don't have insurance, check with your local mental health agencies to see what is available that's free. It's important to get help and not to try getting off pain killers on your own.

All other demands of children, a job, school, or any other responsibilities may make inpatient treatment seem like an intrusion but it's not. If you can't do an in-patient rehab, find out how you can do outpatient rehab and pay for it under your insurance plan; check your insurance policy to see if it's covered. It's important to go through rehab following your detox stay: make it a part of your plan of action.

Knowing some of these facts and understanding endorphin production will help get you on the road to pain killer addiction recovery fast; start working on it today and hopefully you'll notice changes tomorrow. The many problems that are associated with pain killer addiction and abuse have experts, doctors and authorities searching for solutions. Experts say that only a small segment of patients with a medical need for using narcotic pain medications ever become addicted.