Is It Harmful to Combine Alcohol and Prescription Drugs

Research estimates that about 18 million people misuse alcohol and prescription drugs in America every year. Approximately 5,000 people abuse prescribed medicines for the first time every day.

Additionally, studies indicate that about 14 million people in the USA have a chronic, ongoing alcohol addiction. About 87,000 people die from issues and consequences related to alcohol every year.

Although prescription medicines are legal, they can be extremely harmful when misused. Many people who abuse medications end up becoming addicted to them.  At times, these medicines can even be risky even when you use them correctly. The fact is when you combine alcohol and prescription drugs, you will experience even higher risk problems to your health.

Heavy Drinking Of Alcohol and Prescription Drugs on the Rise

Some research indicates that excessive drinkers are more likely to combine benzodiazepines with alcohol. Usually, health providers prescribe benzodiazepine drugs such as Valium, Ativan Xanax, Restoril, and Klonopin for anxiety treatment. However, people have been using these drugs together with alcohol, which creates high risks for harmful side effects.

In many cases, patients have been consuming benzodiazepines for years, believing that they are harmless, which is a mistaken belief. Primarily, combining benzodiazepines with alcohol can result in an overdose. The reason is that both of them act as antidepressants, and mixing them causes an unsafe impact on the central nervous system.

Besides, people are ignorant of these and other drug interaction information. An uninformed person might not realize that the consumption of two antidepressants at once can cause severe or even fatal consequences.

Signs and Symptoms of Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol addiction or chronic alcohol consumption causes mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual discomforts. It mainly occurs if a person indulges in too much alcohol to the point where it produces high risks and harmful effects. For instance, excessive drinkers can endanger themselves or others, hurt their families, lose their jobs, destroy their careers, become unlawful trouble makers, cause accidents, among others.

All of these are signs of alcohol addiction. Other signs include: 

• chronic drunkenness
• health problems due to intoxication
• Headaches and dizziness
• impaired coordination
• poor sleeping habits
• poor memory
• the frequent squandering of money to buy alcohol
• violent or even suicidal behavior, and many more

Signs and Symptoms of a Person Misusing Alcohol and Prescription Drugs

People who mix alcohol and prescription drugs may exhibit mental behaviors such as being irritable, aggressive, paranoid, and depressed. Also, they might display a short attention span, lack of energy, have a sluggish appearance, or lack of motivation.

If you suspect that a person is misusing alcohol and prescription drugs, always ensure to consult or look for more additional information to verify this condition.

Fortunately, there are signs and symptoms of every prescription drug addiction. These signs may appear as physical signs of misuse or manifest in behavioral ways. The most crucial thing is to learn how to differentiate between addiction and the symptoms of medication misuse.

Final Thoughts from The Recover

Any signs and symptoms of alcohol and prescription drug abuse will worsen if a person combines the two. The conclusion is that they can cause high risks of overdose, serious health consequences, and other severe challenges in life. Therefore, it is unsafe to misuse alcohol and prescription drugs together.