Comments on: Why Do People In Chronic Pain Have To Feel Ashamed And Gulity For Taking Narcotics?

By: DynodiKk

DynodiKk — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:39:54 +0000

Well, without writing a book here;
I certainly would not feel ashamed about it. That’s ridiculous. I was discriminated against, kicked, beat’in and stomped on and they can all still take a flying ****. I prevailed!
And not being able to get out of bed? Try weaning off 200mg’s of Methadone like I did. Just to prove I was no pill-popping nut addict. A real addict cannot wean off Methadone (one of the worse withdrawals, I still say Oxycontins take the cake) and have them in their hand. Like some goddamn corrupt, vindicative, spiteful and hateful counselor tried to make me look like. Just because he was a prick. All in Lakeland Florida. Lakeland Counseling. And I had no doctor getting it off me safely. I did it totally myself. Weaned. A doctor told me cold turkey. That’s safe? I woulda been dead with a self administered single shot gun blast to the head. This nut told me (Lakeland Counselor) “Oh Heroin you will wish you were dead, but it won’t kill you. Alcohol will!” (So will Benzo’s schmuck!) I would love to bang him up three times a day for three weeks with morphine and that let him talk his smack. He would kill himself if he went through what I did. He needs to take a crash course in pharmaceuticals. And he drinks Diet Coke. Caffiene is a psycho-active drug. Meaning; MInd altering. An Addict?
I couldn’t get out of bed for four months, couldn’t walk and was in hell. In other words I understand. Just to shoot this guy down in flames. ANd he crashed and burned.
Pain Managment people should be started out on MS-Contins.Than Diluadids than hydro.But What’s after Hydro? Oxycodone? Than what? Fentanyl? And what do you do when that doesn’t work. Go on Methadone or shoot yourself? Some people can stay on the same dose for months, others burn it up quick. If you have a desk job, sure a person can brag they never went higher than 40mg’s a day of Hydro. Or a person with one bad disc can brag they didn’t like pain-killers because of how they made them feel (Short lived) when all they have to do is sit on a davenport and counsel real crack addicts and alcoholics collecting 20 bucks a head.
Try unloading trucks and see if that will stay true? IT ALL EVENTUALLY IS GOING TO BE INCREASED! Unless your a retired guy in a wheel chair that only has to lift a coffee cup and the morning newspaper.
I have three bulging disc’s and a bad rotor cuff and degenerative spine disease. I had to really work for a living. I had no choice but to be on it. And my resources for pain management are burned up. Because of some dumb *** doctor that everyone on Yahoo inists that you listen to. “Listen to your doctor”; Yea, finding a good one is like finding a good Cop. Read a book I say. Did you touch a nerve? Got me rolling!
I sure as hell am not going on a drug like Fentanyl that is 30 times stronger than Heroin (They won’t tell you that) and I am not gonna be 60 and on 500 mg’s of Methadone a day. I HAVE real pain, I am not maintaining an addiction.
My quality of life sucks but it sure beats Break-thru the medical term for; (WITHDRAWAL) any day of the week. All in time my body will be making endorphins again. My opinion; Pain management is a Catch 22. We are all just legal junkies. We were just the fortunate one’s on the other side of the fence. When we Break-thru (WITHDRAW) , we don’t have to run out the door to a methadone clinic and look like a scourge of society.
Our withdrawal meds are right in the dresser.We are legit, we get it from a real doctor. He might not know dick, but we get it from a real doctor. Give him the test; “Is Valium more addicting than Xanex? ” If he replies Valium, go elsewhere.
Heroin addicts go threw absolute hell, it is beyond cravings. Opiates are a physical requirement for your body. Your body makes this stuff. THat’s like saying your having an addiction to your blood. You need endorphins to block everyday pain. You start putting them artificially in your brain, your pituitary gland does not make them anymore. Guess what? Your in pain. It is NOT IN YOUR HEAD!
I invite any real doctor to taste full blown opiate physical withdrawal for 15 minutes. Just once. Society’s problem?????? HA HA HA HA HA. THey just realized it can make a hell of a lot of money. Put it in the peoples hands and tax the phuck out of it. It’s Law Enforcements money MAKER! And the States for addicts when your pain doctor can’t give you anymore meds because you require too much. ANd your always going to need more in real pain. I don’t care what it is. And I think Doc’s get a kickback on that referral too. They would than be handing it out like candy to people if they knew what it was like. Trust me. This stuff is not cocaine, not alcohol. It is the real thing. We all need to learn something from the Mexicans. They say the food is better there too. Me, I prefer Taco Bell. But I am a dumb American. I still live here.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:57:18 +0000

There is, unfortunately, a stigma associated with people who take medications for pain. Some of it is due to media bias and inflammatory reports about the few physicians who make a living out of prescribing without regard to the condition. Part of the problem is from the medical community itself. Some physicians prescribe short acting pain medications too much and for too long without referring the patient for appropriate care. Other physicians have a bias against analgesic pain medications.
As far as your needs, you need to decide if you feel comfortable taking a slightly stronger, but longer acting and more effective medication for your pain. The other issue is if the pain management specialist can find methods to help control your pain without using a significant amount of opiate analgesic.
Chas has a very good understanding of the issues related to being a patient in chronic pain. He has seen the good and the bad, and now has a control plan which seems to work for him. He is usually happy to discuss these issues with people.
Many others have had much more volatile problems with their pain control issues, and they can give more excited answers on YA.
Before I started working with chronic pain patients, I was a chronic pain patient myself. I was on methadone and fentanyl for over 5 years for a pain condition resulting from injuries which I got while deployed in the Army. Once I found a more balanced method for controlling my own pain, I withdrew myself from the narcotics, as I didn’t have as great a need. Like DynodiKk I did this on my own, at home. However, I had done research and had appropriate naturopathic, and physical support plans to help with the symptoms. As you can expect, as with all methadone patients the withdrawals, without changing to another drug, lasted over 15 days for the significant parts and over 21 days for the lesser parts. I did not personally ever have any problems with a psychological craving, but the physical issues were still there.
I have since made a point of making sure, since I specialized in pain management, that my patients were given every alternative to narcotics, in addition to narcotics when necessary. I also have psychologist and psychiatrist in my practice who help monitor and assist patients with the emotional side of pain, as well as monitoring for addiction issues.
Don’t be ashamed. See the pain management physician. But always go informed. Keep track of your pain in a journal. Be ready to discuss not only how much and where it hurts, but also what makes it better, when it hurts more and less, what other symptoms you see, what parts of your life it is affecting. The physician needs this information to develop a pain plan which will work for you.
Incidentally, I have personally, and professionally, never used the term break-through to refer to withdrawal symptoms. Usually, this term is used to denote pain which exceeds your pain control, and may need supplementation. Often when a patient is on a long acting controlled level of medication, certain activities or times of their life will cause the pain to break-through the pain control…at these times it is helpful for the patient to have a medication or other plan to supplement the normal analgesic level.
All patients with chronic pain have some level of physical dependency on their opiate pain medication. If you have been on the hydrocodone in the Vicodin for an extended period you already have some level of physiologic dependence. Most patients who have chronic pain, and are given appropriate levels of opiate medications, to decrease pain without the need for excessive euphoria, do not develop significant psychologic addiction. There will always be some who do, but if they are in severe pain, dependence, and addiction are not a significant issue.
I would not give a patient who was dependent on the insulin to control their blood sugar a problem, though I would expect them to try to follow my directions. This is the same issue with pain patients and narcotics. The patient may be dependent, but as long as they follow directions, and discuss their need for medication changes, instead of taking extra, or going to additional physicians for more medications, I will work to keep their pain controlled. You have a medical condition, and you deserve treatment.
One point, don’t let people tell you which medications to take for your specific condition, or the order they think is appropriate, based on their experiences. Each patient has their own needs from a physical, psychological, spiritual, and often financial perspective. All of these issues may affect the choice of medication. While for one patient MS-Contin may be a great choice, or Kadian, for another Duragesic Patches, or Dolophine might be better.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about going to a pain management specialist, I have been boith a patient and a provider.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:35:09 +0000

I,
I have to agree with Chas on this one. I’ve been in chronic pain for years now and finding the right doctor is and can be difficult. I think the quality of my life is much better on my meds…I’ve been through hell and back trying new ones…switching on and off things. I too have tried other methods other then just medication. I still do them as in pain management and physical therapy. I’ve also suffered the mental pain of seeing a doctor and them saying “there’s nothing wrong with you. OMG! Or been turned away at the ER because they didn’t want to help me through another bout of ungodly inhumane pain. Boy it can really be terrible the way society can make you feel. I suppose it’s a personal individual thing here for me medications have actually saved my life. I’ve thought about eating a gun myself…but I’ll take getting up each day and doing the best I can with my children and I’m trying to liver my life to the fullest. Yes, I too have days when I can hardly walk as the pain is so severe…but those have calmed down some. I don’t know..I just ignore people now who think people like us take it for fun or something. That was never my “thing”. I just wanted to try and live as much of a normal life as possible. My medications allow me to do this…therefore I choose to take it.
Eileen

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:42:02 +0000

I dont think you should be ashamed for your dependency. The problem really isn’t yours, it societies. Part of it is that we too readily hand out pain medication, and often it gets abused. this gives a bad name to those who use it for legitimate reasons. there is a difference between dependency and addiction. the former is a need for pain medication to live a normal painfree life. the latter is a need for pain medication to get a high. If you take it to relieve pain (that is after all its purpose) then there nothing to be ashamed of.

By: Chas

Chas — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:10:11 +0000

I’ve never felt ashamed or guilty about taking pain medications as directed,,and I take a lot of them,,,,exactly as instructed by my doctor. There was a time I was ashamed and felt guilty, but that was because there was a time that I abused them and self-medicated. The people that talk about how bad pain meds are and ‘you will get addicted’ have never been in chronic pain or they wouldn’y show how ignorant they are by saying it.
YES you get addicted,,,big deal!! It’s just part of treating chronic pain. The same doctor that gives me the narcotics to treat my pain can get me off them safely when he feels they are no longer needed.
In my case that won’t ever happen unless they discover how to fix damaged spines.
And the answer to the last part of your question,,,is YES the benifit outweighs the risk. I wouldn’t be sitting here able to type this if it wasn’t for pain medications.
Maybe you need to change the people you are around. I’ve been on several pain meds, every day, for several years, and I’ve never had anybody get upset or really say much once I explain I have a spine injury and am disabled due to it. If they would I just would tell them I was disabled by a drunk driver,,not someone on hydrocodone,,,booze,,,and it’s legal and far more scary to me than drugs.
The bottom line is a lot of people can’t understand chronic pain until they have been through it,,every day,,all the time,,it never lets up. I know I didn’t. The pain meds don’t make the pain go away,,it just helps control it so I can live a half way normal life.
Good luck
Here is an article you may enjoyhttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chronic…
And here is a site that may help youhttp://www.spine-health.com/
EDIT: People always talk about how you have to go up on your dosage every few months. That is far from the truth. I’ve been on the same dosage of hydrocodone for almost 7 years. I have oxycodone and morphine sulfate that I take on an ‘as needed’ basis. And I only take them as needed. So not everybody that has pain meds has to keep going up and up in their dosage until they shoot themselves.
That’s the difference in abusing pain meds and using pain meds.
And yes an addict can get off methadone by themselves,,, I did,, and I am not any different than anyone else. I went through withdrawls a few times from heroin, methadone and pain meds, and that’s what keeps me from ever abusing pain meds again.
PS: You have got an answer from the best source you will find,, US_DR_JD. He has been on both sides of pain management and understands the issue far better than anyone I’ve ever known. I know every time I have seen one of his answers it is the best answer by far.