“Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she’s not really ill, there’s a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper.”
“Mother’s Little Helper” by Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
West Virginians are taking a lot of little yellow pills… and blue ones, white ones, pink ones. A stunning finding from Gallup finds that West Virginians are more likely than residents of any other state to report using drugs to try to feel better.
Gallup asked at least 450 residents in each state last year the following question: “How often do you use drugs or medications, including prescription drugs, which affect your mood and help you relax—almost every day, sometimes, rarely or never?”
West Virginia topped the list with 28.1 percent of respondents—more than one in four—saying they use drugs almost every day. Rhode Island was next at 25.9 percent. The national average was 18.9 percent, with southern states making up six of the top ten drug use states. The lowest percentages were in Alaska, Wyoming and California.
Gallup says the drug use is divided among people who take prescribed medication because of an illness, such as chronic pain, depression or anxiety, and others who are using and abusing illegal substances “for recreational purposes on a near-daily basis.”
Perhaps with all this drug use we should at least feel better, but that’s unlikely. Gallup reports that daily drug use to relax is linked to lower well-being. However, it’s unclear whether the consistent mood-altering drug use causes lower well-being or people who are not as happy or healthy are more inclined to self-medicate.
Part of the problem is that opiod pain pills are so readily available. According to a 2014 report from the Centers for Disease Control, West Virginia doctors wrote 416,063 prescriptions for opiod pain relievers just to Medicaid patients. Overall in 2014, West Virginia averaged 139 opiod prescriptions for every 100 persons. The national average was 83 scripts per 100.
One West Virginia doctor I know, who emailed me about the findings but didn’t want his name used, said, “Almost every patient I see has the diagnosis of ‘anxiety/depression’ and is taking something. It’s we physicians that are giving the prescriptions. We have to say ‘suck it up… life isn’t always perfect.’ “ The doctor told me most of us seem to think a pill will solve any physical or emotional discomfort.
Gerry Schmidt, Chief Operating Officer at Valley HealthCare System in Morgantown and president-elect of the National Association of Addiction Professionals, agrees. “People want a quick fix,” he said. “But a pill is not going to fix it. You have to change the situation, you have to change your life behaviors, you have to work on yourself.”
West Virginia is at the top of the list for the use of mood-altering drugs, but it’s a nationwide problem. The 2014 CDC report finds that the United States consumes more opoid pain relievers than any other nation.
Yes, opiods are effective at relieving true suffering, but they’re also deadly when abused. The CDC reports that opiods were involved in approximately 17,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2011.
The solutions to this problem are not easy. Doctors need to prescribe more judiciously. Individuals need to take more personal responsibility for their well-being and government has to provide more rehab beds than jail cells for non-violent illegal drug users.
The Gallup poll about so many West Virginians taking drugs—both legal and illegal—to improve our mood probably makes us feel worse about our state.
That’s a good starting point for recovery.