by free2beme 27 Replies latest jw friends
Severus....MaryJane never actually helped with my pain.....it just made me forget about it more and distracted me from it....and it STILL does
Vicodin wasn't ever a bitch to me, but codeine# 3 or #4's made me mean. It affects all people different. If my wife took one vicodin, she'd sleep for 8 hours. Me, I could take 8 -10 at one time and you'd never know it. A person develops a "tolerance" to opiate derivitives and everyone responds different to drugs.
Gumby
Not sure what it is, the English brand names are different to in the states. However, I doubt they would be easy to get here because doctors prescribe very unwillingly here, always overly-concious of the consequencies.
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.
Mystery, I'm glad you wrote about this.........me and my guy are 48 years old............my guy has been tentatively diagnosed as bipolar, which, having lived with him for five years, I can honestly say HE IS. He uses alcohol and when he can get them, prescription pills. His favorite is PERCOCETS. Even though I grew up in an alcoholic home, I guess I wasn't an addict. I just couldn't get the whole addiction thing. 'til I met this guy. He's a wonderful guy...........just manic/bipolar. He woke up this morning and I knew just from his energy that he was spiking. Now, he's crashed, but it took two pints of Captain Morgan and who knows how many beers...........it's a difficult thing to be part of.........
Terri
My doctor sent me home from the hospital with Percocet. Over half the bottle is still in the cupboard because they made me sleepy and queasy, and I just didn't have bad enough pain to need them anyway. So, I guess I'm not susceptible to pill addiction?
So, I guess I'm not susceptible to pill addiction?
err, if that is a question, I would say you couldn't class all pill addictions as the same. After all ecstacy comes in a pill. The chemicals in all pills are different (obviously). Also, some people may find some things highly addictive and others not. For instance, I would say I have a highly addictive nature, and yet I can take or leave Cannibis. I would say actually, I leave it. I don't really like it and don't find it addictive in any way whatsoever.
Addiction and tolerance are not the same thing. Anyone who uses opiates will develop tolerance if they are on them long enough. There are many legitimate uses for pain meds, and cancer is not the only reason people have to use them. just b/c you develop tolernace does not make you a "dope addict". Anyone using these drugs should be under the care of a pain magt. doc who can oversee their care.my pain magt doc tells me he seldom sees addiction in people who use meds to releive pain. the reason is, once the pain is releived,they are ok. That was their goal, not to get high. Tolerance will develop in anyone taking term pain meds.
And then,some folks have a permanent condition which warrants the use of pain meds..for good.after one tries,surgery,chiro,accu,massage and hydrotherapy,it might just be that the only answer comes in the form of a small pill..seems like everyone has a jonze these days..ciggys,sugar,coffee,stupid tv shows..its all good..as the late mr lennon said,'whatever gets ya thru the night'....as long as it isnt being evil to another person that is....im thinking that people have needed an after dinner cocktail or weekend beer thing for years..some of us dont like that particular drug{alcohol}..for some it does more harm than good..some folks cant take pain meds.or sugar,or coffee..lotsa folks hate smoke..whatever..we are only here for a very brief period of time,and my personal creedo is to enjoy it and live it the best that you can...or try to anyway....
Warning: this post is going to be LONG.
When you google Vicodin, you get this, this might help figure out the whole names in and out of the country thing...
Vicodin
acetaminophen and hydrocodone (ah see ta MIH no fen and hye dreo KOE done)
Anexsia, Anolor DH5, Bancap HC, Dolacet, Lorcet 10/650, Lorcet HD, Lorcet Plus, Lortab, Lortab 10, Lortab 5/500, Lortab 7.5/500, Lortab Elixir, Norco, T-Gesic, Vicodin, Vicodin ES, Vicodin HP, Zydone
Let me say this about that. I think the reason that this thread hasn't gotten a huge response is because people are in big, major denial about using these drugs on a daily basis. So many people do. Like any addiction, they find ways to justify taking it.
I have watched relatives milk prescriptions of Loretab, making them last a long time and refilling other relatives prescriptions "to get their nerves under control.' I have at least another handful of relatives (JW's still) who are absolutely, positively addicted to Xanax. The last time I saw my favorite aunt (after the death of my grantmother) she was so high, she was talking like Snow White. Her pupils were HUGE.
She started taking them years ago for 'anxiety' before flying. Now I think she takes them for everything. She has some back pain issues, but she has always also drank a lot, and now she is just totally out of her mind. I have another close relative who is now fighting serious mental illness, which onset after she was taking Xanax and BuSpar (which are not supposed to mix) she got them from different doctors.
I can't judge anyone else's pain. As a person who lives with horrible, debilitating chronic pain every day and has exhausted every option pain wise at this point except narcotics, I have to tell you that it sucks, but I won't take them. The addiction in my family runs too damned deep. I know that if I started, I wouldn't likely stop, and this is from a person who doesn't drink a drop, and who has never been drunk in her life.
there are so many people that are hiding the fact that they are prescription pill junkies. But whether you're taking meth or coke or something the doctor writes down on a neat little white pad...if you can't live without it, if you NEED it to get through the day, you're addicted.
There are those who try to discuss away the line between addiction and dependence. But if you read the book The Antidepressant Solution, the author (who specializes in getting people off of prescription antidepressants like Paxil that they can't quit) points out that it's semantics. Addiction is classified as drug seeking behavior, and if the addict doesn't get the drug, they have withdrawal symptoms.
Dependence is when a person is prescribed something for a legitimate medical reason and when having to discontinue, has withdrawal symptoms requiring tapering of the medicine instead of going 'cold turkey'.
I had to withdraw slowly from antiseizure meds they gave me for nerve pain about a month ago. I didn' tpost about it, but it was absolute hell. I have rarely felt that sick in my life. I had it all, the shakes, nausea, feeling out of control or like I was going crazy...I had cut back pretty quickly because they wanted me to discontinue it quickly (bad reactions to it) and still, it was horrible. I couldn't keep anything down. I just shook and shook. HELL.
My point in posting this, is that people who are either addicted or dependent, whichever term you want to use, need close supervision to wean off of these medications. The fact with antidepressants like Paxil and Zoloft is that the pharm. companies KNOW that upwards of 60% of patients on them suffer withdrawal upon tapering the drugs. Interestingly, Prozac doesn't do that because the body processes it more slowly...but Effexor, Wellbutrin, all of those faster acting SSRI's and drugs that effect your dopamine levels too...have these effects. And I think a lot of people taking Vicodin and Xanax are also on those too.
I'm down from six prescriptions to two. I discontinued the antidepressant after I discontinued the anti-seizure med, and I'm really starting to feel connected to my life again. I didn't realize how long I'd felt so numb.
Now the only thing I take is an asthma drug and something for spasticity in my legs (not a pain killer) and tylenol. And I live in pain. But I would rather live with the pain than live as an addict.
Last time I had one of my particularly bad migraines, during which I was literally beating my head against the wall and curled up into a ball on the floor, howling, the doctor wanted to write me a script for Vicodin.
I wouldn't even leave his office with it. It's a very, very dangerous drug, and I think there is a huge problem esp. in the US with people abusing it and Xanax. HUGE problem.
I hope I haven't offended anyone with my post, I'm not calling anyone who is addicted 'bad'. Just urging them to get help. cause these pills are nothing to screw around with, believe it. My heart has broken, watching people I love die every day a little more because of them.
essie
fluer,
has the doc tried Depakote, topamax, lamictil, Immitrex, and a host of other things for your mirgraines? There is a lot of off label treatment for migraines. I use immitrex(sp). I use the nasal spray. Works like a charm.
Thanks Wednesday: after the Neurontin, she gave me Topamax, and i couldn't keep it down. One dose and that was it. I have so many pain causing problems besides just the migraines too. I literally fight every day to get through the pain. Sometimes, I think that it'd be easier just to die it gets that bad but I don't want to die, I love my life. So I just have to try every possible thing I can to distract myself from it.
I also am wary of the narcotics not only because of the addiction that runs through my family at ever generation but, I have a child in the house. what kind of mother could I be to her if I was zoned out on Vicodin all day long? I couldn't.
I choose to live with the pain rather than check out. I know others can't live like that and again, I am not judging anyone at all. I just wanted to give my perspective.
It's ironic about the Neurontin, it was actually prescribed to me for neuropathic pain not the migraines, but the six months I took it (at literally 1/4th the normal dose no less) I didn't have a single freaking migraine. A week into my taper, I had one and they're back with their old frequency since. My kidneys couldn' thandle the neurontin, I was swelling up like a balloon among other problems it gave me.
My neurologist (the newest one) joins the chorus of doctors who tell me that of all the people they have seen in their practice, they have never seen a body so incredibly reactive to medications. I have an allergy list a mile long; most of them required steroids and/or epi to stop the reactions. So it's not in my head.
I'm so screwed up! LOL well, maybe physically. But emotionally...I'm better than I've ever been. and I'll take the physical pain over the emotional pain, any day of the week.
I think this is a very important thread. I hope people will keep posting how they have seen people they love effected by Vicodin, and other such drugs. I do believe that 'self medicating' has a lot to do it...the one relative who I talked about mixing the xanax with buspar (which you're NEVER supposed to mix any bupuprion containing drug with Xanax! I'm not a pharmacist but I know too damned much about these drugs!) has been told by doctors that they think she's schizophrenic. She won't leave her house anymore. If her husband wasn't supporting her I don't know what she'd do. It kills me to watch it, but she won't get help. I have to keep her away from my child. Whether the drug addiction came first or the mental illnes, I don't know. I just know it hurts so much to see it. She's dead, right before my eyes.
essie
