Overwhelmed overachievers turn to prescription drugs for an edge.
Almost 6 percent of American women, that’s 7.5 million adult women, report using prescription medicines for a boost of energy, a dose of calm or other non-medical reasons, according to the latest numbers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“Many may not consider what they’re doing abuse because they’re using a prescribed drug,” says Susan R.B. Weiss, chief of NIDA’s Science Policy Branch. “Many of these medications are being taken as performance-enhancers.”
While street drug use has been declining in recent years, prescription drug abuse has been up since the 1990s.
The trend seems to be partly driven by more and more women popping pills. While men make up the majority of abusers of street drugs, including meth, cocaine and heroin, women are just as likely to abuse prescription pills as men.
Studies show that women are more likely — in some cases, 55 percent more likely — to be prescribed an abusable prescription drug, especially narcotics and anti-anxiety drugs.
“Not surprisingly, availability increases abuse patterns,” Weiss says.
This alarms some drug abuse experts because women also seem to be more vulnerable to addiction to these types of drugs once they start taking them.
Perfection through pharmaceuticals?
To blame may be what some are calling the superwoman syndrome. Overworked, overwhelmed and overscheduled women juggling families, friends and careers are turning to stimulants, painkillers and anti-anxiety meds to help launch them through endless to-do lists.
“Women load their lives with so much that they get in over their heads, and some turn to prescription pills to cope,” says Talia Witkowski, a psychologist in Los Angeles.
Witkowski, 30, began abusing her prescription attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs in high school, and has been clean for three years.
“For many women, even those whom you would never suspect, pills offer an escape,” she says. But what many women don’t realize is that they are conducting a dangerous experiment on their health and their mind.
Read the entire article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35526012/ns/health-behavior/
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