Have you heard about the severe health consequences when you mix alcohol and painkillers? If not yet, then you need to so that you will avoid mixing your cocktails with any opioid substances.
Both your tequila and pain killers are depressants, so both can slow down your brain and body processes. Considering that, can you imagine the effects if you mix and take these two substances together?
Let’s talk more about it.
What are Opioids?
These substances are known as pain relieving medicines and they’re very effective in what they do. Some of these drugs are made from the opium poppy plant (like morphine for instance) since they have strong pain relieving effects, which can be used before or after surgery.
At first, you will feel a euphoric sensation after taking an opioid, yet at a higher dose, it produces a sedating effect. This is the main reason why you need to abide by your doctor’s prescription when taking this drug since it can potentially kill you.
Why Is It Dangerous to Mix Opioids and Tequila?
Opioids and cocktails are both depressants, so when you mix them, you are at risk of severely depressing your breathing and heart rate. If it goes to a point that your lungs suddenly stop working, then it’ll just take less than a minute for you to get brain damage due to the absence of oxygen.
Conversely, there are also cases where individuals taking opioids are consuming liquors and they were admitted to the hospital. Some of them even didn’t make it to the emergency room, because their respiratory system stopped working.
How Serious Is This Problem in the US?
There are over 2 million Americans who are reported to abuse these pain killers while consuming other substances like alcohol. Around 78 individuals die from opioid overdose and they were found to drink alcohol as well.
By mixing these two substances, you are magnifying its depressing effects on your body, which is risky and can lead to sudden death.
What are the Common Side Effects of Taking Tequila and Opioids?
Basically, your doctor will never advise you to drink alcohol when taking any pain relieving substances since it can lead to depressed breathing, coma, or even death. In line with this, here are the common health consequences upon mixing both your tequila shots and opioids:
- Depressed breathing
- Slower heartbeat
- Lower body temperature
- Sleepiness
- Stammered speech
- Lightheadedness
- Inability to make sound decisions
- Loss of body stability and muscle control
- Sudden shifts of euphoric and depressing moods
- Dry skin and mouth
- Vomiting and nausea
- Coma or Death for severe cases
What Are the Common Opioids Mixed with Tequila?
This distilled spirit has a high alcohol content, so taking three shots is enough to give you that booze. In parties or pubs, we cannot deny the circumstance that some are really taking opioids together with their Patron. They’re doing it for fun and out of curiosity for some adolescents.
The common opioids abused together with alcohol are morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. After taking any of these drugs, your tequila shots amplify the sedating effect of these pain killers.
The risk factor of mixing these two is slowing down your respiratory system to a point that you can get a coma, or worse, sudden death from complications.
Additionally, these two substances can damage the brain, leading to dementia, or maybe frequent memory loss. The inadequate supply of oxygen to the brain due to slowed breathing is more than enough to damage its function.
Why You Should Never Mix Your Tequila with Other Substances?
Have you seen on medicine labels that they emphasized the prohibition of mixing it with alcohol or any other substances? It’s made that way to avoid complications and harmful side effects like nausea, headache, vomiting, drowsiness, and unconsciousness.
Besides these life threatening effects, tequila or any other liquors can reduce the medicinal benefits of any drug. For the case of opioids, it can heighten its sedating impacts, which can lead to lung and heart failure.
Mixing Tequila with Stimulants?
Conversely, some people also drink while taking stimulants or uppers. They are doing this to conceal the sedating effect of alcohol, so they cannot feel their level of intoxication as well.
Overall, you will feel a mixed vibe of rush and sleepiness when mixing alcohol with stimulants like Adderall.
Why Do Women Get Drunk Quickly With Tequila?
Several factors affect how fast you get drunk, and gender is one of them. Generally, women get drunk faster than men, and if they are taking tequila shots, the faster it is.
This happens because women have less water in their system, which helps dilute alcohol in their bloodstream. When they take three or more shots of tequila, their blood alcohol concentration increases quickly than men.
Nevertheless, if we take into account tolerance, some women have impeccable tolerance from distilled spirits.
What are the five long term effects of tequila?
Drinking in moderation will help you get the health benefits of alcohol, yet if you binge drink every day, then you’re prone to damaging your body. Below are the five long term health consequences when you heavily drink alcoholic beverages:
- Growth of cancer cells in your mouth bowel, breast, throat, and liver
- Heart problems like stroke
- Liver cirrhosis and fatty liver
- Alcohol use disorder (AUD)
- Brain damages
These are the highlight severe illnesses you’ll get if you let your drinking patterns go uncontrolled.
How Can You Recover from Alcoholism?
Recovering from your alcohol use disorder is never an easy path, and you need to start by accepting your condition and the need for treatment. The first thing you can do is to find a doctor or an addiction specialist whom you can talk to about your concern.
After that, you can find a reliable rehab center for you to enroll in an alcohol treatment program that fits your needs. Be sure to check on their credentials and services before enrolling in any rehab treatment facility near your city.
The best time for you to start your treatment is today.