The U.S.A. is currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. What is the opioid crisis? It’s the situation that we are in where the frequency of opioids being abused and overdosed has rapidly increased, creating many different problems all around. This essay will focus on how the opioid crisis began, the mental effects of opioids, the physical effects of opioids, and possible solutions to the opioid crisis.
First of all, how did the opioid crisis begin? In the late ‘90s, drug producers (of medical drugs) told the medical community that the opioid pain relievers were not addictive. With this information, doctors started prescribing the medicines in greater quantities. However, the pain relievers were actually extremely addictive, and it soon became clear that they were. But it was too late to stop. Thousands of people had already died from an opioid overdose, and even more were addicted. In 2016, opioid overdose killed more than 42,000 people. Additionally, “almost half of all opioid deaths in the U.S. now involve a prescription opioid”, drugabuse.gov says. To add to all of the above facts, the CDC reports that “On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose”.
Countless studies that were conducted have all show that drugs are very harmful. There are numerous types of drugs with many different mental effects. Opioids belong to the category of psychoactive drugs. Psychoactive drugs are drugs that affects your central nervous system and “alter your brain”, as Sara Bellum (teens.drugabuse.gov) puts it. These psychoactive drugs can create changes in mood, awareness, and behavior. They can also cause more specific mental health problems like depression, psychosis, problems with sleeping, mood swings, and anxiety. Along with everything else, drugs in general can cause aggressiveness and suicidal thoughts. There is also a different, standalone (as in, it isn’t caused by psychoactive drugs) mental health condition: substance-induced mood disorder. Substance- induced mood disorder can be caused by alcohol, prescription drugs and painkillers (including the opioids), illegal drugs, and toxic chemicals. These substances can cause substance-induced mood disorder regardless of whether they were abused or not.
Most of the time, substance induced mood disorder looks like other mood disorders, including major depression, dysthymic depression/disorder, bipolar disorder, and several others. But, unlike other types of mood disorders, substance-induced mood disorder has, as Amy Gelman (in Coping With Depression and Other Mood Disorders) says, “a single, identifiable cause”. “These disorders must be treated somewhat differently from mood disorders that have organic physical and psychological causes,” Gelman continues. A third and final connection between drugs and affected mental health is the relationship between substance abuse problems and mood disorders. This would be the relationship between substance abuse problems and mood disorders. The relationship between substance abuse problems and mood disorders is covered in Coping With Depression and Other Mood Disorders. According once again to Amy Gelman, “There are three basic types of relationships between mood disorders and substance abuse disorders”. Those relationships are:
- the mood and substance abuse disorders are two different problems due to “similar biological and psychological causes” (Gelman)
- mood disorder causes substance abuse
- and lastly, substance abuse causes mood disorder
There are a lot of different mental health effects stemming from opioids (and just drugs in general), and there could even be specific problems based on who you are. But, what about the physical effects?
As with mental effects, there are many different possible physical effects from taking opioids (and none of them are good). Some of these are long term, some of them are short term.The short term effects include “drowsiness, slowed breathing, constipation, unconsciousness, nausea, and coma”, says drugfreeworld.org. Long term effects can include dependence on and addiction to the drug. “The body adapts to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms occur if reduced or stopped”, drugfreeworld.org adds. Additional symptoms include “restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, and cold flashes with goosebumps” finishes drugfreeworld.org in its article.
These effects of opioids (whether it be the deaths, mental/physical effects, and grief/unhappiness caused by them) are horrible. The prescription opioids were given to patients to stop pain, but it caused more in the end. It seems as though this problem cannot be undone, and more and more people are addicted every day. Addiction to opioids escalates into the severe problems. However, the opioid crisis (and all that it has caused) may come to an end. Bringing it to an end will not be easy, of course, but it is possible. The opioid crisis being undone can start with providing therapy to everyone addicted to opioids, and making treatment more accessible. The next step to solve the opioid crisis would be to stop providing opioid pain relievers, and to prescribe an alternative in its stead.
Most people consider the opioid crisis to be a truly a horrendous event, and see that it needs to come to an end. The obvious negative mental and physical effects outweigh the temporary positive effects of the opioid pain relievers. After going over a possible solution to this problem, it still does not seem like this will end, because just providing treatment and therapy to those addicted and affected will not just end all of the problem. But, hopefully the situation improves more, and the opioid crisis comes to an end.
