Many people taking medication to control chronic pain are afraid they'll become addicted to those drugs, according to WebMD.
Some people do become addicted, and the results can be devastating. But there are ways to limit your risk.
According to the article in WebMd, a woman named Candy Pitcher of Cary, N.C., knows all about the fear of addiction. One summer day in 2003, a tree cutter working at Pitcher's home started to topple from his ladder. "If he hits the ground, he'll break his back. I have to catch him!" she thought.
Pitcher broke the man's fall, which crushed a vertebra in her upper back. Ever since then, she's had chronic pain. To manage it, she's had a prescription for a drug that's widely feared and often misunderstood:morphine.
"I've never been 'high' from morphine," she says, nor has she ever been tempted to take more than the prescribed amount. But she says she's wary of becoming addicted.
Tolerance and dependence are not the same as addiction, according to WebMD.
Tolerance is common in people using opioids (such as hydrocodone,oxycodone, and morphine) for chronic pain. It means the body has become used to the drug, and it has less effect at a given dose, Reisfield says.
Dependence means that there are unpleasant withdrawal symptoms if a person abruptly stops taking a drug.
People who aren't addicted can develop drug tolerance or dependence. And both can be absent in people who are addicted to certain drugs, said the article in WebMD.