Prescription drug abuse is often thought to be safe, but that’s far from the truth. In reality, there are many dangers of prescription drug abuse. Some of the biggest ones are:
- Overdose: As physical tolerance increases, it becomes easier and easier to justify taking more pills. The higher your tolerance, the greater risk that you’ll take too many and experience an overdose, which can be fatal.
- New Drugs: While most people insist that they will “only” abuse prescription medications, this is rarely true. It can be hard to find prescription drugs in the long term, so many people transition to readily available substitutes, like heroin and fentanyl.
- Withdrawals: When your tolerance gets high enough, going any length of time without drugs can make you seriously ill. These are called withdrawals, and the symptoms range from horribly uncomfortable to deadly. For most people, withdrawals are what keep them abusing drugs long after the “fun” of getting high has gone away.