Can You Be Addicted to NOT Taking Drugs?
The short answer is yes.
Consider these statements:
- “I don’t know. My mind feels more clear.”
- “Honestly, I just feel more alive.”
- “This is my body, and I can do what I want with it.”
These could be the words of a cocaine addict, but they could also be of someone who refuses to take their prescribed anti-depressant or anti-psychotic.
What exactly is an addiction? The UK’s National Health Service defines it as:
… not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you.
Since drug avoidance causes harm, shouldn’t such behavior be considered addictive? But even without playing with semantics, we can see that the on- and off-ramps from prescribed psychoactives, like Lexapro, are similar to the withdrawal symptoms you get from taking ilicit drugs. Taking the wrong drugs is just as bad as not taking the right ones.
“Medication nonadherence” is the formal term for what is apparently already an epidemic. Around 25% of all prescribed drugs are never filled, and around 50% of drugs prescribed for chronic conditions are not taken. A common statistic is that 125,000 lives per year in the U.S. could be saved if people took the drugs they…
