Painkiller Abuse Hits Close To Home For A Majority Of Americans: Poll

There are people who have conditions with chronic pain.

Pain can ruin your life.

So they turn to prescription medications to help then live again. These if abused can lead to dependency.

What is the answer? How do you manage chronic pain and not become addicted?

I live with pain in my knee, hips, ankle. It's not fun but so far all I use is Ibuprofen. Sometimes I use a lot, sometimes I go for weeks at a time without any. I sympathize with people who have to deal with pain.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Having this issue with my mom. She is addicted to a cocktail of prescription medication that includes some serious opiates. She is more or less nonfunctional at this point. She also has a "Dr. Feelgood" (a D.O.) that I want to strangle. My dad has liver and bladder cancer and my sister and I have to pick up the slack because in the state that she is in she is little help and emotionally not coping. It's a tragic thing to watch and there is nothing we can do. My sister will barely speak to her (although there is more water under that bridge than her abusing those meds). Either way, what is already a thoroughly messed up family dynamic is nearly impossible because of her addiction. It's just sad.

a reply to: amicktd

I agree and by no means am I trying to make these things absolutely legal where you can just go to your local Wal-Mart and pick it up off the shelf. For harder stuff, decriminalization is fine. That way the users don't get penalized, but the sellers can still be arrested.

Though you are right, when it comes to addiction you have to personally want to quit for it to do anything. No one is going to force you to quit. They may be able to prevent you from using for a while, but that only lasts while under their control. You have to want it yourself in order to see actual results.

a reply to: redhorse

What sucks is that it gets worse. I had a friend who started on pills. Then he upgraded to heroin. He ODed twice, was in and out of rehab before he finally ODed again and now he's no longer with us.

a reply to: Wildbob77

Medical Marijuana.

Chronic Pain & Medical Cannabis

Cannabis helps cancer and HIV patients and others who suffer from the most severe cases of chronic pain. While some people can't walk without experiencing severe pain, others are unable to eat regularly due to a decreased appetite from other prescribed medications.

Cannabis helps you deal with non-stop chronic pain and function better throughout the day, increasing your quality of life

If you are suffering from chronic pain, you may experience greater relief if your doctors add cannabinoids – the main ingredient in cannabis or medical marijuana – to an opiates-only treatment.

A combined therapy of opiates and cannabis could result in reduced opiate dosages.

These guys agree with me, and I'm sure they know a thing or two about chronic pain:
Former NFL players advocate for medical marijuana in football

a reply to: Wildbob77

It is kind of a vicious cycle. Opiate abuse for pain can actually worsen the pain. Opiates cause glial-sp cells to form in the spinal column - cells that cause inflammation. Painkillers are nothing but a band aid approach.

I have often noticed that people with "pain" problems generally go for the easy approach of reaching for the pain meds. A lot of the time their pain would be reduced through exercise but they fall into a rut with opioid addiction that leads to a sedentary lifestyle and increased weight gain.

Has anyone seen the new ads out now that are for a new drug to treat a new condition called opioid induced constipation? Lmao . They have to keep coming up with pills to treat the side effects. It is a pretty primitive approach if you ask me.

This topic hits close to home for me. I have had a couple of family members die from their addiction to pain medications. I watched my brother go from pain meds to methadone to heroin. The methadone was the worst though . Literally watching someone legally and medically turn into a drooling vegetable half the day. Nodding out in the middle of talking to you.

Honestly the prescribing doctors need to be under the closest scrutiny. They are the source. The next thing that needs to be done is to stop through the mail importation. These are the ways people are getting these drugs. Some may buy them from the street but the prescription came from a doctor not some cartel.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I just don't understand. I was on percocet for a couple of weeks after my lateral ligament reconstruction on my ankle. They made me feel sweaty and gross and if there was a 'high', it sucked. How do people get addicted to these things? I was so happy when I didn't need them anymore. I hate being sweaty

a reply to: NihilistSanta

This I can agree with and verify.

I have chronic migraine. What made them chronic? The painkillers. I am now so sensitive to painkillers of any kind that my neurologist even rationed my Tylenol while I was pregnant to prevent that pain-train starting back up again. I can use opiate painkillers, but only for a very limited time or I risk starting up the migraine cycle. That's how my body "asks" for more.

I have a bone spur in my neck that also guarantees some level of nerve pain too. I used to use low-dose muscle relaxer to help control it and stop it from triggering migraine attacks, but I was forming a migraine pain response to those too.

These days, I just live with it. It's amazing what you can endure when you know you don't have much choice.

a reply to: rukia

I'm with you. I had morphine once. I didn't make me high. It just killed my bladder reflex so I couldn't pee.



Now, demoral ... that one has a bit of potential for prescription hang-up.

I'm with ya on that one. I've had pain that required Lortab (extracted tooth then badly sprained/strained ankle) but I never, ever wanted to take them when there wasn't pain. They just made me feel out of sorts and kinda drunk when the pain was gone.
On the other hand, my Beloved has been on Lortab since the late '80s for bone pain. He has serious issues from an accident that messed up his leg, pelvis, wrist and back. When the weather changes or he overdoes the exercise, he still resorts to them. Despite the fact that he's been taking them all these years without any issues of addiction, when the new rules came into effect, he began having to go actually see the doctor each time he needs a refill. It is crazy. Seems that any mug on the street can get them but people who actually need them must jump through hoops.

originally posted by: rukia
a reply to: Krazysh0t

I just don't understand. I was on percocet for a couple of weeks after my lateral ligament reconstruction on my ankle. They made me feel sweaty and gross and if there was a 'high', it sucked. How do people get addicted to these things? I was so happy when I didn't need them anymore. I hate being sweaty

It's actually quite easy, though I t sounds like the prescription you were given was in excess of your pain needs if you were having unwanted side effects. Typically, for those with chronic pain issues, you start off at rather low doses. What most people are completely unaware of is that even if you are not taking them in excess, physical dependency is a foregone conclusion. It only takes a few weeks of regular use for your body to develop enough of a tolerance that dependency and physical withdrawal become an active part of your life.

That's how it started for me, very low doses of one medication every 6 hours eventually turned into massive doses of time released medication twice a day with additional high doses of pain meds for breakthrough pain all day long. Medication that I took and was able to walk around and drive completely sober on, would have put the average person in the hospital or a morgue. The fear of withdrawal is an extremely powerful motivator. After over 2 decades of agony and another decade of having my life revolve around a timer and my medication schedule, I finally had major surgery 10 weeks ago thinking it would at least alleviate some of these issues. Surgery required even higher doses of more powerful opiates which made attempting to detox off pain meds even more difficult and now I've got to go back and do PT again due to complications so the surgeon throws you back on more meds because you're sleepimg 2-3 hours a day and the cycle begins all over again.

Sure, there are definitely people who want to get F'd up on pills and that's why they take them. Far, far more of us begin taking them for real medical issues and legitimately severe pain. It's not the high that always gets you, it's the fear of withdrawal. I've lost track of how many friends I've buried the last 20 years(the first time I had a friend OD was in 95. He survived but the brain damage left him a shell).

My former guitar player is finishing up a 3 1/2-7 year run in state prison because he started off taking hydrocodone and eventually ended up buying ther people's scrips, including OxyContin. When his "guy" ran ou of pills, he turned my friend on to dope. Within a few months he was arrested with an accomplice climbing on top of commercial buildings and destroying their HVAC systems to steal the copper to sell for scrap. His first time in, he did shock and got out after 8 months. Was home for 3 months before he decided he could go and use again(because prison was more interested in punishment than treatment). The very first time he relapsed, he nodded out in his car with rig in full view and got arrested for possession or paraphernalia, possession of drugs and violating his parole. He went back to serve his full sentence. Again, with no treatment.

If treatment options were actually available and the stigma of addiction removed and people understood that a disease is a disease and that if you don't punish cancer patients when a tumor comes back, you shouldn't be punishing people when other illnesses resurface either.

The entire system is predicated on failure and filling cots in prison. If people could get their heads out of their asses and take a long hard look at Portugal and how they have tackled this issue, it has the potential to transform our entire society. Not only are OD's drastically reduced and treatment options increased and easily accessible, but HIV transmission has been drastically reduced(along with Hep C and other blood born pathogens). I agree with Krazyshot... Still arrest the dealers but not the users. When Mexico has a more realistic view of personal use of drugs, were doing something VERY wrong.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

"White privilege" is like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. It is made up.

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: Krazysh0t

"White privilege" is like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. It is made up.

Really? Just as a playful example, have you checked the "Criming While White" hashtag on twitter? White people from all over the country started confessing the crimes they got away with & how differently they were treated (in a good way).

Here are some articles showing various accounts of it, back in 2014 when the hashtag started.

#CrimingWhileWhite is exactly what's wrong with white privilege

#CrimingWhileWhite Is The Only Thing You Need To Read To Understand White Privilege

#CrimingWhileWhite, #ICantBreathe dominate Twitter talk in Eric Garner case

So should I believe your post that it doesn't exist? Or should I believe the various white people from around the country who admit situations where it existed for them? Oh, & here's the hashtag if you want to follow the latest examples.
twitter.com...

a reply to: enlightenedservant

yea, my white privilege really served me well while i was in the suck with people of all colors, or even more when i was homeless and worked my ass off sometimes not eating for two days straight, so i could afford a hotel room and look presentable for work, or spending nights out on the pavement because i broke down and had to eat, all whilst supporting a family and a wife that left me/and cheated, being homeless alone and thinking of ending my life on a daily basis. Yup lots of white privilege

glad those days are past

a reply to: TechniXcality

So 1) I should ignore the accounts that other white people admit to in their own lives, and 2) you only acknowledge something if you can recall an instance of it happening in your own life?

I just want to address the "doctors handing out opiates like candy" comment I see so often.
Bull#
These days you have to get in to see a pain specialist to even get them and they are booked up months in advance.
Your average doctor won't give you anything stronger than a few Vicodin (hydrocodone) for a broken arm.
No, they don't give them out like Halloween candy anymore.
If they do the DEA comes down on them like the Gestapo.

There is a pain (physical and emotional) epidemic in this country along with the addiction issues they present.
Many of the manual labor jobs require repetitive physical tasks that end up destroying lumbar discs or limb joints.
That's why there is such a demand for these drugs.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

How can I acknowledge something #ing called "white-privilege" when I am white and as being so it has afforded me jack # in this world, if anything it was worse to be white and down because you are marginalized and expected to be more, it's rediculous and more racial # from the most racial and divisive individuals on earth.

How can it be white privilege when being white privileges you nothing?

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: enlightenedservant

How can I acknowledge something #ing called "white-privilege" when I am white and as being so it has afforded me jack # in this world, if anything it was worse to be white and down because you are marginalized and expected to be more, it's rediculous and more racial # from the most racial and divisive individuals on earth.

How can it be white privilege when being white privileges you nothing?

So once again, you ignore the accounts that other white people admit to in their own lives? And you only acknowledge something if you can recall an instance of it happening in your own life? By your logic, lynching isn't real because I've never been lynched. And terrorism isn't real either because I've never been in a terrorist attack. So what's all the fuss about?

Did you even the read any of the links I listed? No, you clearly didn't. So how can you comment on something that I said if you didn't even read the links I used to make my comment? Other white people directly admitted to how white privilege helped them avoid punishments that minorities wouldn't have avoided. But you think I should reject all of their accounts from their own personal lives because you can't recall any incidences of it happening in your own life? Really? How does that even make sense?

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: TechniXcality

So 1) I should ignore the accounts that other white people admit to in their own lives, and 2) you only acknowledge something if you can recall an instance of it happening in your own life?

Yes, because when white privilege is talked about, it is a racial phenomena. You get told you have some kind of nebulous "privilege" simply because of your skin color.

If you derived no perceived "privilege" in your life, then there is no white privilege.

I only have my current life and education because I was an athletically and academically talented girl. I grew up poor with parents who certainly could not afford college. My way out was no different than that of dozens of gifted black athletes. Where was my white privilege? I had to use the same path they did to escape my poverty - the physical gifts of my body.

It is too a "racket".. When I started as a cop it was "The Crack War" where the Urban male (read black or other; non-voter; low income) was incarcerated in PRISON for using coc aine base or 'rock' while the sub-Urban got PROBATION for using coc aine hydrochloride or 'powder'. These Urban males are just now getting out of prisons.

The prisons now are a business and are privately run.

www.google.com... BQcQsAQIPQ&biw=1440&bih=720

www.cnsnews.com...

THEY need bodies for the prisons.

THEY started out w/opiate based pain meds to get everyone 'hooked' then THEY stop this over-prescribing and up creeps Hair-On.

When The Taliban ran things Afghanistan only produced 7% look at it now...

I'm also prescribed 2 pain meds and have been for 14 years. My dose is actually smaller now than when I started, but I exercise, meditate and do other healthy things, heck I'm in better shape now than when I played pro baseball or when I went through the police academy.

THEY want/NEED the $$$ associated with it..

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