Question by ♫lovee♫: can a person be addicted to non-narcotic ddrugs?
i am addicted to taking night time cold pills with caffeine pills for the buzz and i can’t stop or i get depressed and my boyfriend is scared for me. this is affecting all my relationships cause when im not on the pills i am angry and violent and depressed and cry but i am all jittery and shaky and i feel rlly high when i am on them together. Can a person be addicted to non-narcotic drugs? i just need to take the pills last night i tried not to and felt like i wanted to kioll myself and just die and i cried for houirs. please help me? my mom is in narcotics annonymous and im afraid she will think this is a joke cause its not a real drug.
But if i stop i want to die. I have suffered depression for a long time. and i used to do pot but now i just take these pills and right now i feel like i am gonna puke and im shaking but if i dont feel like this i want to die its horrible either way.
Best answer:
Answer by Meredith
Yes… You can become addicted/dependent on any medication. Sleeping medication and caffeine are addicting medications/drugs that are abused commonly. It doesn’t have to be a narcotic to be addicting. The feelings you are having while off these medications are a part of withdrawal. ( mood swings and irritability) . U should stop using these medicaitons. If it’s too much for you to “cold turkey” you should gradually take yourself off by lessoning the dose each day but if you are unable to do so you chould check yourself into a hospital so they can take you off. If you don’t get off this medication, things will only get worse, you will need higher amounts to make you feel better or even normal. Please stop now. I’m sure you don’t want this to be your life and if you don’t stop this will control your life and deaden your relationships. I wish the best for you.
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The fact that your mom is in 12-step recovery means that you may have an addictive personality too. That addictive personality may be manifesting itself in what seems like a minor case of OTC dependency, but can actually be quite serious itself and progress to worse things.
I have a long history of drug addiction going back to age 1992, when I was 12 yrs old. I progressed to the harder drugs before getting sober in 1997. I was addicted to OTC cold medicine the entire year of 1999 and went right back to coke in 2000. I know the relapse was linked to my dependence on the OTC cold medicine, I might have prevented that relapse had I taken the OTC dependency more seriously. Luckily, after a few more periods of relapse & recovery, I’ve been sober since 2007.
I would replace the caffeine pills with coffee, at least temporarily. You can quit the cold medicine, you’ll just have insomnia for a while & you probably won’t feel too well, but it won’t last long at all. I would ask your family doctor for help if you can’t do it on your own.
Good luck
Edit:
That’s because your body isn’t used to being without it. You are probably unknowingly trying to treat your depression by covering it up with OTC medication. Your doctor can treat it more efficiently with better and more effective medicines. You will only feel bad for a day or 2, really. You should totally see the doctor, they can treat the depression better than you can. And you can probably do all of that without having to tell your mom about it, unless you choose to.
Yes you can become addicted to just about any substance from caffeine to paracetamol – you need to go see your doctor – you can’t just come off these pills cold turkey the withdrawal affects will be unbearable, talk to your doctor about maybe going on anti-depressants and you can gradually come off the pills that you are taking and go on something a bit safer to counteract the withdrawal symptoms you might get… just be careful, if one day’s withdrawal is that bad now… imagine how much worse it could get if you don’t do something about this – talk to your doctor and explain to them what you’ve explained to us on here. Good luck! x