Darell Dickerson English 101

The Mirror

I sit and watch Allison Smith look in the mirror and pick at the blemishes on her face, I realize life is a constant battle, and everyone is fighting an addiction. For this lost soul, her battle is with prescription medication, the new epidemic in America’s drug wars. I get comfortable on the beige microfiber sectional, and patiently wait for Allison to give me her story of how she got to this point in her life. I began to look at the various picture’s of Allison hung on the wall’s, before this disease took a hold of her life. The difference between Allison in the photos and Allison in the mirror are so astonishing, that you immediately realize the effects the drugs have on her life.

Allison notice’s my attention on the photo’s, and states “those where my model days before the accident”. “The accident”, I replied? She informed me that she was involved in a serious car crash in 2009, where she had to have a metal rod placed in her leg. Allison joined me on the sectional, and continued to elaborate on how she became addicted to Oxycodone, due to the frequent pain caused from the accident. Allison didn’t follow her physician’s prescribing instructions for the medication. She began taking the medication more frequently than prescribed.

Oxycodone is prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain, it works by locking onto the brains MU opiate receptors. This obstructs the transmission of the spinal cord pain messages at high doses. Oxycodone signals the body to manufacture dopamine in the brain, and produces a similar elation as evoked by street drugs.

I asked Allison, “What made you take Oxycodone more frequently”? She replied “it was a rush of pleasure. I had long periods of relaxation, no anxiety, and a relief of physical pain”. “When I took the medication it allowed me to escape the reality of the