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Putting some explanation into my last tweet regarding medication abuse stigmas that aren& #39;t talked enough about on social media; a thread.
Drug abuse does not have to involve street drugs. Drug abuse comes in many forms, and it& #39;s a serious condition no matter your weapon of choice. I& #39;m just over 4 years sober, and I have a lot of passion about sobriety.
Lately on social media, I have seen a lot of people bragging and following trends abusing meds such as laxatives and melatonin. This thread is purely to inform you about the science behind these drugs, and what they could cause in the long run.
Also side note; this is my third time trying to post this and make it a coherent thread. So I apologize if your feeds are flooded.
When medications such as laxatives are abused, you trick your body into thinking it has secondary help passing stool. This causes your bowels to get lazy and rely on this secondary help. Overuse of laxatives will decrease the peristaltic action in your bowels
and cause severe constipation in the long run. Long term use of laxatives will only cause you to become dependent on bowel care and you may even end up losing complete control over your bowels.
Laxatives work chemically and mechanically to pull water out of your intestines to soften or loosen your stool. By pulling out all the excess water you will become extremely dehydrated in a short period of time. You are not loosing fat, you are loosing fluid.
Unless clinically indicated by your doctor, laxatives should be used no longer than 2 weeks. To improve bowel health add more fibre into your diet, maintain physical exercise, stay hydrated and work at balancing your hormones.
The stigma around using laxatives to for weight loss is extremely unhealthy and for sure not something to brag about. If you& #39;re looking for weight loss options do some research, talk to your doctor and create a pro-active action plan to improve.
Another form of recreational drug abuse I have been seeing lately is the misuse and overuse of melatonin on @tiktok_us - and I& #39;m talking about taking half the bottle in one night as a trend.
Melatonin is a naturally produced hormone in your body that helps regulate your sleep/wake cycle and 24 hour clock. By taking excess amounts of melatonin you disturb the natural production and your body stops producing it causing a dependence.
This could result in severe insomnia, dependence on a sleeping pill (melatonin is only indicated for max 2y use), depression, anxiety, restlessness, night terrors, mood swings and even decreased hunger patterns.
If you& #39;re having trouble sleeping; first of all, call me, I live in a time zone 3 hours behind Ontario, i& #39;ll be awake. Try to take a warm bath, use essential oils, try to stay of social media and your phone before bed, try not to nap during the day & don& #39;t drink coffee past 5pm
I can not stress enough that I will be here for you, even if we don& #39;t know each other. Getting through any type of addiction is extremely difficult no matter what you rely on.
My main point is that this is not to offend or upset anyone, but to spread information about things that aren& #39;t talked about enough. Take care of yourself first 
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