The Aftermath of Drug Overdoses: How to Cope with the Emotional Effects

A drug overdose is defined as the ingestion of a drug or other substance in quantities higher than recommended or practiced, resulting in a toxic state or death. While some drug overdoses are caused intentionally to commit suicide or as a form of self-harm, many are accidental, the result of intentional or unintentional misuse of a drug or medication. An accidental drug overdose occurs when a person ingests more of a drug then is medically recommended or practiced, and this is sometimes done intentionally with prescribed or unprescribed drugs, in an attempt to produce a feeling of euphoria. Use of illicit drugs in large quantities or after a period of abstinence can also result in an accidental overdose, as the margin between a pleasurable drug-induced euphoria and an overdose is small.

Possible Causes of Drug Overdoses

It is possible for a drug overdose to happen entirely by accident – by taking the wrong medication due to an incorrect label or by unintentionally taking extra doses of medication due to forgetfulness.

Most overdoses are due to one of three causes:

1. The person uses more than the recommended dose of a drug in an attempt to increase its effects.
2. The person obtains an unregulated drug and misjudges the strength of the dose taken.
3. The person is experiencing suicidal thoughts and deliberately attempts a fatal overdose.

Accidental drug overdoses happen more often than you might think. In 2016, more than 64,000 people died from drug overdoses – a 21% increase from the previous year – and approximately three-quarters of these overdose deaths involved opioids, a class of drugs that includes prescription painkillers and heroin. Unfortunately, research shows that people who become addicted to prescription painkillers often move on to heroin when it becomes too difficult or expensive to get their hands on prescription pills.