Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine as well as its chemical cousins, including one usually used to tranquilize elephants. It has a huge abuse potential and has already affected millions of people. Fentanyl overdose has been in news since at least 2005, but it is quite frightening to see that its use has exploded in the recent years.
Fentanyl is not a long-lasting drug and is therefore used for surgery recovery only. It is sometimes used to treat breakthrough pain, which means that your doctor may prescribe it if you have already been taking an opiate but your pain has broken through the opiate barrier. Fentanyl provides pain relief over time mainly due to its time-release formulations. Usually available as a path and a lollipop, regular use of fentanyl leads to addiction and causes serious side effects. You should consider receiving fentanyl addiction treatment to avoid its harmful effects.
Are You Abusing Fentanyl?
You certainly are if you are taking it to get a high. Some common symptoms of fentanyl abuse include drowsiness, euphoria, mellowness, and lethargy. The problem is that fentanyl leads to tolerance and requires you to increase its dose to create that intended high.
Common Side Effects of Fentanyl
If you are taking fentanyl on a regular basis, you will first start noticing some more common side effects. For instance, some fentanyl users experience problems like vomiting, nausea, altered heart rate, vomiting, confusion, sweating, hallucinations, constipation, itchy skin, and seizures.
Fentanyl Overdose Symptoms
When you take an excess amount of this drug, you experience some serious and even life-threatening overdose symptoms. Some people use a fentanyl patch and apply heat to it to create a high rapidly, but this can also lead to overdose. Some of the most common symptoms of fentanyl overdose are extreme fatigue, difficulty swallowing, cardiac arrest, fainting, dizziness, severe confusion, non-responsive to pain, and altered level of consciousness.
If you do not receive fentanyl addiction treatment in a timely manner, you would end up experiencing long-term psychological effects. Sustained fentanyl abuse may lead to the following problems:
- It puts you at an increased risk of sustaining anoxic injury, which refers to damage done to the body tissues because of significantly low levels of oxygen in the body. Overtime, this can damage multiple organ systems and cause serious complications.
- It puts you at an increased risk of experiencing serious overdose symptoms. You quickly build tolerance to whatever dose of fentanyl you are already taking, which means you will have to increase the dose constantly to create a high, and this will eventually lead to overdose that can cause life-threatening complications.
- It damages your personal life and relationships. You will be in a state of confusion all the time with no sense of responsibility, and this is going to hit you financially and may even push your loved ones further from you.
- It makes your existing health conditions even worse. This is especially true if you are already suffering from clinical depression. Sustained fentanyl abuse can make depression symptoms worse and increase your risk of doing harm to yourself.
The crux of the matter is that fentanyl addiction can lead to serious complications, which is why it is important to understand the importance of receiving fentanyl addiction treatment in a timely manner. Be sure to understand it and look for the best treatment option for your addiction.
