With the thing that happened with Kennedy today, it got me to thinking about how many people I know who are addicted to Vicodin. They always think it is no big deal, as it is not METH, or any other well known and notorious drugs. Plus, in their mind, they label what they take as okay as it is not listed as illegal and doctors do give out the prescription. Yet that is the thing, if it is innocent, then why is it something that is known to be a dangerous addiction? Several famous athletes have been addicted, including Bret Favre and others. I know so many people who take Vicodin, and think there is nothing wrong with it, that I know it would not be a stretch to say that several people reading this board take it. Recently, a woman I worked with lost a $70,000 per year job from this addiction. Not because she was taken it away from work, but rather because she took it while at work and when she was told that all she had to do is stop taking it while working, she could not do that and was fired after being given a chance that most employers would not have given. About three years ago, I was first introduced to how addictive this drug was when after a surgery I was prescribed some and decided the pain did not warrant the drug and did not take it. What I did not realize, is that addicts know doctors give these out when operations are done. One night, a few days after the surgery, my brother-in-laws then girlfriend (now wife), came over and distracted us while she stole pills from the bottle in such haste that some poured on the floor. We did not know it was her, until my mother in law had surgery for breast cancer a couple weeks later and she was caught stealing those Vicodin pills. To this day, she has not admitted it, even though she spent a month in jail awhile back up north for stealing them from her mother. Yet she will say, it is not an addiction. She has not been permitted in our house for three years and never will be. So what I wondering, have others been touched by this addiction or do you not see it as such?
Vicodin, the not so innocent addiction
by free2beme 27 Replies latest jw friends
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aquagirl
I ask the question that i have pondered so many times.Does one get addicted to the drug or the way one feels after taking it?{painfree}...Hydrocone is prescribed for pain and in many cases a severe chronic pain...If you are not in pain,chronicly,it is easy to say that someone who uses this drug"excessivly" is addicted..My personal feeling is that being out of pain is what is addicting..The drug itself isnt that great..It give many folks stomach problems and makes them sleepy, but what it DOES do is eliminate pain,which for many many of us is a constant daily companion.Its easy to get addicted to not being in pain.Being painfree is a wonderful and seductive state.Your question is a valid and interesting one,that I have wondered about and asked many opinions on.I certainly dont agree w/stealing someone elses pain meds,because it means that they wont have them for their own pain.But i can certainly see the appeal of being painfree and still able to function.Hydocodone make this possible for millions...
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free2beme
One of the things I read about this addiction, was in line with your thought on pain. Which was a doctor stating that it was meant for "temporary" relief of pain and never meant to be an on going prescription, knowing how addictive it was. This is something that happened to a lot of WW2 vets too, with morphine, when they came home. They constantly complained of pain to justify the drug. Does that mean you should not take it? I am not a doctor. However, I am very against doctors whose only cure is drugs. Treatment should involve something more and as a society they are just constantly looking for the next best pill. The woman I worked with was 23 and in no pain, was doing it for the high and lack of feelings it gave her. My sister-in-law was on the Oregon Health Plan which is a welfare medical program that is broke, because of this doctors just give pain killers and no treatment. She was inventing reasons to go to the doctor, including dropping a weight on her foot to need another prescription. Which is another sign of the addiction. It is really sad.
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Bonnie_Clyde
My dentist gave me a prescription for Vicodin last week because I had a tooth extracted. Didn't take any, took a little Motrin. Well I'll keep the pills on the shelf for an emergency but will probably never use them.
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Mystery
My son broke his shoulder when he was 14 y/o. He was given Loratab and became addicted. I had several bottles in the medicine cabinet from previous injuries – he used all of those and then began buying them from kids at school. As aquagirl stated:
My personal feeling is that being out of pain is what is addicting..
This was the case with my son, but the pain wasn’t due to the broken shoulder that the pills had been prescribed for; he was bipolar (which we were unaware of at that point) – the drugs gave him a calmness that he had not experienced before. He was doing anything to get pain pills. He was ‘self-medicating’ his mental condition. All of that is a different story in itself.
IMHO I feel that in some cases – like my sons – after the physical pain is gone and the pills are still ‘needed’ that there could be a deeper problem than just ‘yea, he was/is addicted. It started when he was prescribed some for his broken shoulder.’
He has tried to explain to me why; why he ‘has to have them’, why he would do anything for them, why he became this person that I didn’t know because of them. He didn’t want to be this person. He didn’t want to steal. He didn’t want to turn in to a madman. He didn’t want to yell and cuss and scream and destroy my house. He didn’t want to…. But he did. The problem wasn’t from broken shoulder in which the pills were prescribed. The pills were for a much deeper problem.
But i can certainly see the appeal of being painfree and still able to function.
Which pain? The physical or the mental?
If a loved one becomes addicted to painkillers I would suggest that instead of making them stop or sending them to rehab, etc... to find out why they need the high. Becasue if you simply take the pills away, the problem is still there. Next time it could be much worse.
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gumby
I for one can relate to all of this.
This was the MAIN reason I was disfellowshipped. I was taking pills from the brothers and sisters.....stealing them. Why? Because I could funtion with the pills and when I didn't have them, I wasn't happy.
It started about the mid 1980's with a knee operation in Arizona. I had never taken pain meds before except maybe some darvocet for a tooth pulled in 1974.
Back then in Arizona they would give you percodan/percocet ( a stronger opiate) instead of vicodin. I felt good on them I felt like working, it put me in a good mood, they didn't make me sleepy.....they "wired" me. Soon after that I asked my friend and helper ( a brother) if he could give me a few of his wifes pills( she had lupis and arthritis). He did. Soon after that I began to ask others. Soon after that I began to steal them from customers as I worked in various houses in my work. Soon after that I began stealing them from the "friends".
It got to where I didn't want to even start the day without pills. My first thought when going to a job was " I hope they have some pills."
To this day I believe I was hooked on just feeling good without pain and how the pills made me feel. , I liked the euphoria feeling it gave, but they did something else and I'm not sure what it was, perhaps it was my security blanket.
Maybe later i'll share more, but I have to go right now.
Gumby
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gumby
BTTT
Gee, I figured this thread would get more response than it has. Me thinks there's a lot out there who are afraid to say they have a fondness for pain meds. Some people handle their problems and weaknesses in other avenues....such a booze, weed, gambling, shopping, eating, etc., yet all the same, these things are felt by the user that somehow this helps them cope with their problems. Does it?
Gumby
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wednesday
We did not know it was her, until my mother in law had surgery for breast cancer a couple weeks later and she was caught stealing those Vicodin pills. To this day, she has not admitted it, even though she spent a month in jail awhile back up north for stealing them from her mother. Yet she will say, it is not an addiction. She has not been permitted in our house for three years and never will be. So what I wondering, have others been touched by this addiction or do you not see it as such?
who would be so cruel to call the police on this woman.? There are other ways she could have been helped.
there are reasons why people take pain pills and a lot of them are legitimeate. I have a chronic pian disorder. But I get my scripts formthe pharmaccy and use only one pharmcay and follow all the rules Gumby, I'm sorry you had such a hard time with the pills. Sad someone could not have come to your aide.
I will say that the people who have treated me the worst for taking legitimate pain meds are the medical profession.
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Severus
Mary Jane was a sweet flirt, but Vicky is a bitch!
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plmkrzy
Me thinks there's a lot out there who are afraid to say they have a fondness for pain meds.
I think it is a very touchy subject. Maybe it isn't so much that some are as afraid to admit it to others but rather afraid to admit it to themselves. I can relate to that. I went through the trading off one for another. Then I became addicted to jogging.
Now my knees are f%#ked up.