Is My Teen Athlete at Risk of Opioid Use?

Instead, I sacrificed one season in order to strengthen my body. Since then, I have had multiple successful and healthy seasons as a lobo athlete. At Banyan Heartland, we’ve witnessed the effects of substance abuse and have helped countless people find sobriety. We offer a medically-monitored detox in Illinois as a first step in the recovery process, as well as a variety of other programs in which patients can continue their addiction treatment. Young athletes are often exposed to opioids for the first time through legitimate prescriptions following a dental or surgical procedure.

In 2016, Pearson and others at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey realized opioid abuse was a national issue. Lucas said his goal in speaking about what he experienced is eco sober house boston to help student-athletes avoid becoming addicted to opioids. Lucas said that before playing in the NFL, he had no addiction to medication and four pills would help him, if needed.

Properly Dispose of Extra Medication

When a child’s brain is still developing, we need to take everything into account before they receive a prescription. Addictive substances have extreme consequences on young brains, and we must educate our children, coaches, and parents early on the potentially disastrous effects of these drugs. Opioid addiction has led to thousands of deaths nationwide, with 68% of the United States’ 70,000 fatal overdoses occurring in 2017 being attributed to a prescription or illicit opioid.

Furthermore, according to theCDC, there was a shocking 60% increase from 2019 to 2020 in opioid overdose deaths of young people in America — ages 15 to 24. The CDC also reported a 225% increase in opioid-involvedoverdose deathsover the decade of 2010 to 2020. Opioid addiction can start with a simple tooth extraction or sports injury.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps relieve pain and increase pleasure. It also plays an important role in many body-mind functions, including attention, memory, learning, movement, motivation, and mood. Continued opioid use causes the brain to rely on opioid-induced dopamine as a primary source of pleasure. The human body produces natural opioids which activate the brain’s opioid receptors.

This investment goes beyond our schools, and can also be used for community-run programs like youth recreational leagues, where many children begin their athletic careers. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) announced that he is introducing bipartisan, bicameral legislation known as the Student Athlete Opioid Prevention Act. The legislation will create a federal grant program through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration , a branch of the U.S. The opioid epidemic has led to thousands of overdoses and drug-related deaths. Prescription painkillers are highly addictive and taking them differently than directed can easily lead to addiction.

Does Naltrexone take away the “feel good” effects of the other pleasures in life?

Academic probation kept her off the team as a junior, and by the time she returned as a senior, she was not the same player. Patrick quickly became addicted to the medication and even took to crushing and snorting his pills. But he reckoned that playing high was better than playing in pain—which was better than not playing at all. “Us athletes,” he says, “we’ll do anything in order to keep playing.” Within a few years Patrick had made the transition to heroin. His Roxy prescription had lapsed; his fondness for the high had not. At first he illegally purchased pills from friends; then he ventured into the worst pockets of Newark to get his heroin fix.

That’s why we encourage individuals who have developed a dependency on drugs or alcohol to seek addiction treatment right away. Individuals can reduce the risk of unpleasant or dangerous side effects of opioid pain relief. They must follow their doctor’s instructions and take the medications exactly as prescribed. It is vital that people educate themselves to become fully aware of the risks of prescription opioids.

Painkillers and Professional Athletes

Such awareness can help prevent opioid misuse and addiction, and the devastating consequences these can have. Opioids can be effective for pain management after a serious injury or orthopedic surgery. But opioids are also highly addictive and are not intended for long-term use.

If you’re taking opioids and you’ve developed tolerance, ask your doctor for help. There are other, safe choices available to help you make a change and continue feeling well. Quitting these drugs abruptly can cause severe side effects, including pain worse than it was before you started taking opioids. Over the past two decades, addiction to opioids, which includes narcotic painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet—as well as heroin—has soared across the nation. In Anne Arundel County, 1,083 overdoses of heroin and other opioids were reported in 2018, according to the county Health Department.

On March 9, 2016, Monroe became the first active player in the NFL to advocate for the use of medical marijuana in replacement of opioids. Getting Off the T Train, Monroe wrote about his use of opioids after every football related surgery. He believes the NFL’s reliance on opioids is not good due to its severe dependence. The Washington Post reported a lot of those drugs were opioids.

How Can Parents Prevent Opioid Abuse

These chemicals create an analgesic (pain-relieving) effect and feelings of elation and euphoria, naturally. Drugs alter the way that neurons send, receive, and process signals via neurotransmitters6. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit signals from one neuron to another. This interaction triggers chemical changes between neurons that result in both feelings of pleasure and pain relief. All opioids depress the central nervous system and decrease the number of pain signals that the body sends to the brain.

This will take a team effort at every level to win this battle. I mean everyone — coaches, schools, teachers, doctors, parents. We know how powerful these drugs are, and they will take a real fight. If we can help prevent addiction by training coaches and educators and educating our students on the signs and dangers of opioid and substance abuse, we can take an essential step to winning this battle. A University of Michigan study found that student athletes had a higher risk of using opioids for non-medical reasons. Abuse of these painkillers is not required to cause the beginning of an addiction.

• The legislation will create a federal grant program through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration , a branch of the U.S.
• Opioids are safest when used for three or fewer days to manage acute pain, such as pain that follows surgery or a bone fracture.
• Some common prescription opioids include morphine, hydrocodone , and oxycodone .
• Through churches and schools around Albuquerque, they lead a 12-step recovery program for addicts and alcoholics and introduce them to sponsors.

The Washington University researchers found that 63 percent of the retired players who used prescription pain pills while playing in the NFL obtained the medications from a nonmedical source. When her son became an addict in 2010, Jennifer Weiss-Burke began an awareness and advocacy group for relatives and friends of drug-dependent children. The group—Healing Addiction in Our Community, which Michael Duran was to have addressed the night he died—has grown to 50 members. It includes several families of young athletes who have overdosed on opioids. Weiss-Burke is also cofounder and executive director of Serenity Mesa, a long-term treatment center for young people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, which opened on May 26.

When consumed in high doses, these drugs can be incredibly dangerous. Of those players who reported no use of prescription painkillers within the past 30 days, 68 percent said they lived with moderate to severe pain. Of the players who misused the drugs, 96 percent reported experiencing moderate to severe pain. From March to August 2010, Cottler’s research team interviewed 644 former NFL players by telephone. The players who participated in the research retired from the NFL between 1979 and 2006, played an average of 7.6 seasons, and averaged 48 years in age. Researchers asked them a series of questions about their health, pain levels, NFL-related injuries and their use and misuse of prescription painkillers and other substances.

It’s common for athletes to rely on painkillers to get through their season.

This article will cover facts about plantar fasciitis risks, symptoms, and the treatment options. Read this articleand refer to you or your child is addicted to opiate pain meds, heroin, alcohol, or other harmful drugs. 2) Discard any unused opiate pain medications or lock them away.

Data shows that 52 percent of NFL players had access to opioids, with 71 percent admitting to misuse. Painkillers have had a negative impact not only on professional athletes, but also those playing at the high school and college levels. There are multiple reasons student-athletes may turn to drugs, including using them to improve their athletic performance, to cope with academic and social pressures, or to help treat injuries. As a student-athlete, the best thing you can do is to surround yourself with individuals who first and foremost care about your long-term health and well-being. Not to say that many coaches don’t have the athlete’s best interest, but it’s important to have family members, friends, or physicians whom you can turn to when in doubt. In many cases, coaches and team doctors will just want to do what’s best for the team and put athletes’ health at risk in order to win a competition.

Compton said comparing NFL players to the general population is valid. I had this act going like I was this great student and daughter and I was absolutely dying inside. Luckily I was blessed with amazing parents that talked to Chad Johnson and they figured out a way to get me to Tranquil Shores.

Most Common Prescription Opioids in Sports

” can lead to more serious problems, including overdose and addiction,” Cottler said. “We found that there were very few men who only did it once or twice,” Cottler said. “After every game, at least two https://sober-home.org/ of us had a concussion. It was part of everyday play. How are you going to monitor this? Players are not going to tell you they have a concussion. Concussions were at every practice and every game.”

Jonathan Pearson, executive director, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, expressed his determination to help student-athletes. Lucas described how at one point he sneezed and lost feeling in his body from the waist down. He retired shortly thereafter and eventually underwent back surgery. We tend to look at these tragedies as stories without beginnings; stories that are created in a vacuum, and stories that, frankly, we’re often willing to overlook, provided we can preserve our culture of professional sports. It’s easy to say from our living rooms on Sundays or water-coolers on Mondays that it’s “too bad” about this pitcher or “such a shame” about that linebacker. The duration of treatment depends upon what type of program you or your loved one choose.