I receive a call from my sister and she was crying. She stated that mom had died from an OxyMorphine Overdose! I broke out in tears for what seemed like the hundredth time since she had died. I couldn’t believe she had gotten ahold of this drug. We knew it was not a medication she had been prescribed because we had cleaned out her apartment days after she died.
The truth hit me, and that is my mother was a Prescription Drug Addict. I share her story in this paper because it is the reason I chose to research and write about Prescription Drug Abuse. In my research, I have found alarming statistic, facts, and information that provided me with a little bit more understanding of how my mother died and …show more content…
For Opioid Painkillers a person can have constipation, nausea, feeling high (euphoria), have a slowed breathing rate, be drowsy, confused, have poor coordination and increased pain with higher doses. (CNS) Depressants and Anti- Anxiety Medications can cause drowsiness, confusion, unsteady walking, slurred speech, poor concentrations, dizziness, problems with memory, and slowed breathing. Stimulants can reduce appetite, cause agitation, high body temperature, Insomnia, High Blood Pressure, irregular heartbeat, Anxiety, and Paranoia (Diseases and Conditions Prescription drug abuse, 1998-2016).
Out of the three classes of prescription drug abuse, Opiate leads the statistics with more than 16,000 deaths a year with at least 50 people overdosing a day. The state of Utah, where I live, is number five in the nation for opioid-related deaths. They say that every month in Utah, 24 individuals die from prescription drug overdoses (Prescription Drug Overdoses, 2014). I will be forever haunted by these numbers because my own mother was part of these