REFLECTION

A questioned that I always asked myself, but never found an answer until I started to research was, “Do people really become addicted to drugs? Or is it all in their head?” I always thought becoming an addict was for the weak minded. I would say “well as long as you got a strong mentally, you won’t fall for it.” I can see now that I was wrong. People really do fall into addiction without even knowing. The medications are so strong and so pleasurable to where you no longer feel pain that your body even feigns for it. Another reason why people become addicts is because they become accustomed to the feeling of ‘high’ and enjoys it. I also learned that there are stages of becoming an addict. I used to believe patients who would come to work stating they were going to die if they did not get their pain medication, but during my interview with Dr. Kayman, a psychiatrist who I work with, told me that patients going through withdrawals is painful, but not deadly. Although my career is not working with patients who are suffering addiction problems, it is still helpful for me to be educated on it. Why? Well because I enjoy working in the health field. I’ve worked as a Medical Assistant for the past two years. As I mentioned before working with patients especially those who are on opioids can be extremely difficult and sometimes dangerous. I’ve had personal experiences with patients at work numerous of times that it lead me to wanting to know of why that would happen. I plan on getting my BA and becoming an x-ray technician in the future. Although I will not be a nurse or a doctor working with patients at that level, as a person working in the health field I can I will still encounter patients who are on opioids. However, I will feel better understanding their addictive problem and knowing I have to be patient with them. Every assignment assigned to me during this semester had me reach deeper into my topic. Learning new things, questioning what didn’t make sense to me and finding answers that lead me to understand it more.  I also got more into this topic because at the clinic that I work at is being sued because a patient overdosed on pain medications. I wanted to understand why these patients relied so much on it and be more supportive instead of criticizing.