Prescription Drugs Are Addictive Too

I was labeled ADHD as when I was 14 years old. I fit the diagnostic criteria for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. I was full of life and energy. I was bored in school but usually found other ways to entertain myself throughout the days. One day my teacher phoned my parents and told them that these behaviors were symptoms of a mental disorder called ADHD and that if I wasn't properly treated for it, I wouldn't be allowed to stay in school.

Doing what they thought was best, my parents put me on the medication prescribed to me. It was soon after this that I became addicted to the drug and started abusing it. I figured out how to manipulate the mental health system to get what I wanted. Eventually I began selling this drug to my friends in school, but I soon grew bored of the prescription and turned to marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, ecstasy and alcohol. I entered long-term rehab at the age of 22 after overdosing, nearly reaching death, twice. Once a bright and energetic young kid, I was now a fully dependent drug user. And it all started because I became addicted to my ADHD medication.

I wish I could say my story is a novel one and that nobody else has experienced this same pattern of events. Truthfully, millions of children and adults have been mislabeled with ADHD throughout the United States. And thousands of those diagnoses have resulted in a worsened condition or illicit substance abuse.

This is why it is important to seek alternative treatment for substance abuse. A prescription drug simply acts as a band-aid for the real underlying situations, and this is true no matter what age you are.

I completed a long-term, in-patient treatment program and re-established life skills that I had become dependent on both prescribed and illegal drug for.

Your prescription may be your problem. Look for a drug free, long-term treatment program.