Prescription drugs

Physical and psychological dependence

If a teenager or young adult is addicted to prescription drugs, he or she can't go a day without them, even though there is no medical need for their use. Medicines can be both psychologically and physically addictive.

Tranquillisers and sleeping pills are a tool to help you get through life and its problems. They remove your attention from the hole in your life or provide structure if your life is so cramped that you have trouble sleeping. The addiction to prescription drugs affects both body and mind. You go through life in a numb and intoxicated state. Your emotions are dulled, not just the negative ones, but the positive ones as well.

The effects of prescription drugs are largely due to how they affect the brain. The most important effects are sedation, sleep enhancement, reduced anxiety, muscular relaxation, memory loss and anti-epileptic properties. These effects occur because BDZs act on certain brain receptors. Despite the pharmacological similarities between different BDZs, there are important differences with respect to their clinical applicability.

When used over longer periods of time, a degree of tolerance will develop: increasingly higher doses are needed to produce the same effect. In case of drug tolerance, patients run the risk of becoming physically and psychologically addicted. When they decide to quit, withdrawal symptoms may occur. These symptoms are often similar to those that users hope to eliminate with their drug use, such as anxiety and insomnia. In addition, withdrawal may cause physical problems, such as trembling, sweating, tingling, gastrointestinal problems or pains.

Chronic use will lead to prescription drugs addiction

Every year, 45 fatal accidents and thousands and thousands of injuries are caused by tranquilliser use. Prescription drugs only take away the symptoms of a problem. They do not eliminate the cause of stress, anxiety or insomnia. And when used over a long period of time, this type of medication will only aggravate the problem, leaving you with a prescription drug addiction. Your previous problems, such as anxiety, tension and insomnia, come back, sometimes even heavier than before. Withdrawal symptoms can be very intense when quitting after a long period of use. Consequently, many people will start taking these pills again, ending up in a vicious circle.

Medical and therapeutic supervision

As soon as you find the courage to get out of your ‘sleeping mode’, you often go through a rough phase. The origins of your problems, which have been pushed away over the years, resurface and you experience withdrawal symptoms. Good professional supervision and counselling can help you to get through this period. Our specialised clinic will provide sufficient support during the reduction period to ensure that withdrawal symptoms become less intrusive. Additionally, they will teach you to deal with negative emotions differently, so they no longer need to be suppressed with pills.

Treatment of a prescription drug addiction

At Yes We Can Youth Clinics we help teenagers and young adults to overcome their prescription drug addiction and to live and function in society in a pleasant way. We help young people with an addiction to slowly demolish the wall they have built around themselves, to leave their destructive life behind them forever and to face a bright future. Yes We Can Youth Clinics strives to reduce any medication that the teenager or young adult already receive to zero or as little as possible during the treatment.

Contact us

Yes We Can Youth Clinics can effectively treat teenagers and young adults who are suffering from a wide variety of mental health issues. If you have any questions, any at all, you can always contact us. We cannot stress enough that we are always there for you, whether you sign up for a treatment in our clinic or not. 

You can reach us by phone from Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (GMT +1) via phone number: +31 (0)85 02 01 222. After business hours – weekdays after 6:00 p.m. and on the weekends – your call will be forwarded. Please note that it might take longer than usual to answer your call. If we cannot answer the call right away, please leave a message and we will call you back as soon as possible. You can also fill in our contact form.