Pain Management
WE TREAT THE DEPENDENCE AND THEN THE PAIN
We understand what you’re going through and are here to help you. A dependency on prescription medication has become common in this country. It is estimated that today more than 4.7 million Americans are dependent on prescription medications. Whether it is a result of a physical injury caused by an accident, surgery, anxiety, or chronic pain caused by cancer or another disease, people from every walk of life are struggling with this problem. This is a problem that does not have any external signs. It is not something that is easily identified just by a looking at a person, and can affect anyone, anywhere; but we can help.
Most dependencies to prescription medications begin from the initial injury or trauma resulting in narcotic pain management. Over time, you need more and more medication to control the pain until you realize that you have become dependent on your medication. Eventually, the pull of the medication takes over every aspect of your day to day life and your life is controlled by the drugs.
Physical dependency means that even if you want to stop taking the drug or drugs, it becomes extremely uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous, due to the withdrawal symptoms. The physical process of withdrawal is complex. The brain has responded to the presence of the pain medication by increasing the number of receptors for the drug. As a result, the nerve cells in the brain stop functioning normally. The body stops producing endorphins - the body's natural painkillers - because it is receiving opiates instead.
The degeneration of the nerve cells in the brain creates a physical dependency on an external opiate supply. Reducing or stopping the drugs leads to a painful series of physiological changes. This is withdrawal and it can mimic the original symptoms that started you on the painkillers or tranquilizers.
At this point, a person may continue taking the medication to avoid the effects of withdrawal, rather than taking it to alleviate the pain or anxiety that triggered the initial drug use and never realize the difference.
One prescription from a physician can, over weeks, months or even years, lead to a dependency. Many people continue taking the drugs long after the initial injury has healed or the pain has stopped. Often the person takes increasingly higher does of drugs like Vicodin, Xanax or OxyContin - more than was first prescribed by their doctor.
Most drug treatment programs do not confront the issue of overprescribing these medications and often blame the person for this and label them an addict and therefore, hinder their path to recovery. We treat the pain and the dependence.
Years of dependency on prescription pain medication can often intensify the pain. It can make it difficult for patients to distinguish which pain is from the initial injury and which pain is from the use of the pain medications.
Once we detox you from the pain medication, you will learn new, non-narcotic ways to treat the pain or anxiety. Our medical Pain Physicians along with Acupuncture, Pain Psychotherapy and EMDR Therapy are some of the ways that pain can be managed without the use of opiates. Exercise and nutrition are also incorporated into the program. Respect, self-esteem and responsibility become an integral part of a treatment program.
At The Treatment Center the goal is to Restore Hope using the interdisciplinary approach. This will help to achieve a life that is either pain-free or one that can exist without the use of prescription pain medications.
