Diet Pill Addiction: It Isn’t Worth the Weight
The American obsession with physical image and an ideal size two model has driven a number of individuals to engage in unhealthy activities, including the excessive use of diet pills. These pills are available as over the counter medications and in prescription-only formulas. Unfortunately, the latter of the two is readily available on a number of websites, which require no physical examination and no prescription.
Diet pills are not considered to be drugs by the Federal Drug Administration and so they are not regulated or controlled like prescription medications. Diet pill manufacturers are not required to disclose that their product can become addictive. As a result, a number of individuals will put themselves at risk of developing an addiction to a diet pill, without understanding that risk.
Once an individual begins using such pills, an addiction can quickly set in, leading to other problems. The side effects caused by diet pills can be varied and some more difficult than others. Diet pills contain such chemicals as laxatives, caffeine and ephedrine and these additives can cause serious problems and permanent damage.
In the process of consuming diet pills, individuals can develop a number of different complications, including depression, dizziness, diarrhea, stomach pain, irritability, memory loss, heart palpitations, tremors, anxiety, restlessness, trouble sleeping, high blood pressure, headaches, congestive heart failure, memory loss, and stroke.
There are a number of signs associated with individuals who are struggling with a diet pill addiction, including deeper emotional issues or an obvious eating disorder. Individuals with an addiction to diet pills are often taking the pills for more than a month, and he or she may have taken several different diet pill brands while on a "diet".
Much like other addictive medications, the diet pill is no longer a focus of a weight loss pattern, but rather a satisfaction for a craving. And, as the individual continues to satisfy that craving, it will require increasingly more of that substance to achieve the desired effect. This pattern mimics that of any other drug addict, continuing to seek the next fix and demanding more each time.
Psychiatrists suggest that diet pill addiction could be a sign of deeper emotional or psychological problems. As a result, those who have developed an addiction often must seek treatment for the addiction and should be taken off the medication in a controlled environment and under the care of a physician.
Simply stopping any medication to which an individual has developed an addiction can lead to serious side effects and can easily put the addict at risk of severe withdrawal symptoms with damaging results.
