First off I never have a remission. How I would love to be pain free for one day!!!! I take pain meds and my doc said yes i would be dependent on them. Dependence and addiction are two very different things. If you are an addict you seek out ways to get more drugs. I am on a pain contract with my pain doc and can take no more than what he prescribes and if someone else wants to prescribe then I have to say no I am on a contract and can only take what he prescribes. Now if I have a surgery it would be different and I am allowed to take pain meds then. I work very closely with my pain doc, and as long as I stick to my contract he will help me with the pain anyway he can.

Remission....heard of it....never experienced it yet myself.

And I agree with Seattlesue...there are two different kinds of people who used pain meds. Those who are addicts...usually self proclaimed addicts. And those who suffer in chronic pain.

I'll be honest here, I took offense to how you wrote out your questions to this board. I for one do not take pain meds. But I'm sure your tone was not meant to be accusing of those who do.

If you fear that your life was in danger calling your cousin stoned, then I hope that you can make better choices for yourself in the future.

But I know plenty of people here who manage their day with pain meds. And I know plenty of people with out Fibro who manage their days with pain meds. They are used for pain. And those who do take pain meds usually become tolerant to the products, so an increased dose needs to be prescribed. Thus the large bottles of meds and pharmacies fill these daily. It's not a rare occurrence. I used to work for a mail order pharmacy and I've seen some large orders in the past. To get an order for 680 pills was nothing.

I don't blame you for being curious. But people do live in pain. Regardless of the source of it. Fibro is not yet understood. And my opinion on Lyrica / Neurontin are that they are just agents that help with neuropathy like pain. But they are not preventing other complications of fibro like Myofacial pain, TMJ, Bowel Spasms, migraines..are just a few I can think of right now. If one suffers only from nerve pain then yes, Lyrica is the golden ticket, if they can tolerate the product. But that is why many who do suffer from the chronic pain of Fibro fail on Lyrica...because there is other sources of the pain. All generated by Fibro or it's compounded factors.

And like Seattlesue mentioned, many of us do work with pain doctors. I for one don't. But for those who do, are put on pain contracts. And I fully understand why.

I hope that some of these explanations answer your questions and curiosity. And I apologize if you take offense to my answers. This is a touchy subject with me as I've dealt with so many who suffer in pain and it has broken my heart many of times over. I don't know if I could walk a mile in their shoes...but I do know how to walk beside them.

I agree with both previous posters, I do take pain meds but would never tell anyone else what to do. I also am under "contract" with my pain management doc. I cannot take anything other than what she has prescribed. If another doc wants to prescribe meds to me I have to gett them ok'd with pain management doc before I even get them filled. And my pain management doc told me people with chronic pain are highly unlikely to become addicted because they use the pain pills to control pain. And before you say go off of them, I have been an entire weekend wothout my pain meds. I accidently left the bottle in my desk drawer at work on a Friday. I suffered no withdrwal symptoms and had a realtively good weekend. I just used over the counter pain meds. While they weren't quite as effective, they did help. (And I got a tattoo that weekend, so was definitely in pain from the fibro as well as the tattoo)

you might want to watch the way you word your posts because this was worded very rudely and insensitively for those of us who do take pain meds

Imrmom, your post seems a little hostile to me. You appear to be very angry at your cousin for her choice on the treatment she and her dr. are using to help her to live a somewhat productive life.
I have to ask you..what are you going to do when lyrica no longer works for you or it is taken off the market?? Will you go to rehab? Remission, what a wonderful word, I too would love to know what it feels like to be pain free. Please do not judge so harshly, we all are doing our best to live life the best we know how and if taking pain pills allows some to function that is our goal.

I am on pain meds and this is just my 2 cents.

If me taking my pain meds enables me to do ssomthing that i normaally would not be able to do ...Then I can think of it as a dpendancy.



if taking the pills makes me sit on the couch and zone out feeling all spacy and doing less that what I can alredy do - that to me is addiction.

Withdrawls are withdrawls reguardless if its narcotics, caffine or sugar.

And what is this "remission "thing that you speak of ???!!!!

Just my opinion.

1. when i have remissions which i used too, i don't anymore but when i used to i would have my docter wean me off. you can always ask your docter to do this and they usually are more than happy to do so. If you don't need your pain meds anymore then you shoudn't be taking then so the docters understand this and they don't want to perscribe this if they are not needed.

2. i made many apointments with primary docters in the beginning untill i found on that was willing to work with me. now i have had the same primary doc for 4 years and i only see another docter if its absoulutly needed if he is out of town. Im currantly trying to find a good pain managment docor but he is aware of where i'm going and why because he dose the refferals this dose not set off any red flags. Now if you are going to alot of differant doctors and ER's in the cours of a week or a month with claimes of tootchaches and throwing out your back in hopes to get pain pills thats in consiserd to be "drug seeking behavoir" there is a differeance.
Some chornic pain paintence along with non chronic paitence do become addicted to their medications. That dosn't mean all of them do. Just like not all chronic pain paitence become addicted to their meds just because they have to take them to manage thier pain. I encourage you to look up the differance between "addicton and tolerance in chronic pain non cancer paitence" on the web theres alot of good info that may help you distiguace between the two.
3. I'm not anwering this one I'm offended by the way that its worded.

Do your reasearch dependence is NOT the same as addiction. I'm leaving it at that.

I'm not going to sugar coat it - others have been nice enough - I find your post extremely offensive and condemning of people's choices even though you say that's not what you mean.

If you're taking Lyrica and you ever have to go off of it, you'll eat your words. Lyrica withdrawal is hell on earth - Cymbalta is the same. I was on Tramadol for a couple of years and even withdrawing from that was weeks of pain, insomnia, and other uncomfortable symptoms. That's physical dependence. Addiction is using a substance to "treat" emotional/spiritual pain. If you pick up any of the 12-step books they'll give you a very clear picture of what addiction IS, and what it ISN'T.

Those who use pain medication responsibly are able to live a fuller, more functional life - maybe even something close to "normal." That is the antithesis of addiction - where over time the addict becomes less and less functional and the substance becomes the priority, while the addict's life goes straight to hell. Increased ability to function is one of the hallmarks knowledgeable physicians look for to ensure that their patient is not addicted.

I don't advocate for ANY particular treatment but I don't think any options should be left off the table when treating chronic pain. What works well for one doesn't work at all for another. Limiting the choice of treatments, in my opinion, amounts to medical malpractice. You can't say "first do no harm," and in the next breath tell a person in severe pain that you "can't do anything for them." Doctors that aren't willing to fully explore all available treatments options should find another profession.

Oh and FYI - the blanket statements about pain meds not working are crap. There are many different kinds of pain, and different meds work on different types of pain. I don't know anyone with fibromyalgia who has only one type, and that's part of the reason many of us are on a "cocktail" combination of meds, supplements, and diet and lifestyle changes to manage our pain.

Diebetics are dependent on their insulin thats not addiction. depressed people are dependent on their anti depressants, dosn't mean their addicted, they will withdrawl if they stop because their body has gotten used to them. yeesh!

Imrmom...might wanna step down from that soap box and duck that 8 ball headed your way.

If you are vitamin deficient, then you take a supplement. If you have a headache, take Tylenol. If you are diabetic, take your insulin. If you are in chronic pain, take *pauses* PAIN KILLERS.

Don't look down your nose at people who are simply trying to lead a normal life. Just because you can tolerate your pain levels (they are different for everyone), doesn't mean everyone should jump on your bandwagon.

Hooray, you don't take medications with addictive properties. Go you. Unfortunately, it's a side effect that goes with being pain free/in less pain. If aspirin gave you withdrawals, would you get all snooty about that too?

Let's get this straight...people who either put themselves in rehab, and those who are forced to go by some other means....is because they have a PROBLEM with narcotics/alcohol/or whatever else. They have an emotional dependency that far exceeds the physical withdrawals. They take the medications for the sole purpose to get high, or to forget.

We, however, take them because each morning is a CHORE to simply get out of bed. I have to use both hands to pick up my coffee cup. It's not a matter of just sucking it up and get moving. Perhaps you should go preach your little rant to cancer patients and see how many bed pans get thrown at you.

How dare you compare me to some street thug popping pills.

Karma has an interesting way of helping people "see". Perhaps you will develop a need for those bad bad pills.

One last thing....those who don't abuse the pain medications can typically wean themselves off of them gradually, without the need of being under lock and key.

Thank you SugrAddict1973 (irony in your name btw LOL). Good point.

prednisone is condidered to be addicive but you take that. Why is it ok for you to take something that others abuse to ease your symtoms but not us?
lyrica also has a potential for abuse, if you have a history of drug or alchol abuse they wont give it to you. they will give you gabapetin instead because 4% of people put on lyrica get a "high" felling from it and it DOSE get abused so even though that number is small they still are careful despensing it.
And you say its ok for people to take lyrica and not pain killers? dosn't make alot of sense. Do your research.
Peacen2u and Sugaraddict coudln't have said it better

Pain meds are prescribed for pain and that is what we use them for. I wish that I didn't have to take anything. I never took any medications before I came down with Fibro and I was 46 years old ! I might not even today if things were different.

I take my pain meds, so I can take care of my family, work full time and live a full life like we all want to do.

Wow I did not think my question was offensive .I have fibromyalgia people 20 some years. I luckily have had remissions months not years . I have loved them. I wish you all could have them

I take Prednisone when I have a flare 20mg wean down 5mg a day ,then off .I think you are totally wrong about prednisone being addictive if you go on it for a long time and go right off you can die I know that you go into adrenal failure.

.Prednisone will save my life hopefully if my disease attacks my organs so you cannot compare a life saving medication with pain killers. My new disease pain makes my my fibro look like baby pain all my muscles in my body get inflamed. but the prednisone takes the pain away,so I feel lucky that way.
I also have raynauds so my toes can rot off

I asked the questions out of curiosity.I have no idea what all the symptoms of fibro are and I have run into doctors that dont even believe it exists.Ive run into all the people who think Fibro suffers just have it all in their head, so im quite aware of what you go through.

I am still not convinced enough to take painkillers myself .I dont think I should be wished bad Karma to get bad enough to be on them. THats really nasty to say to a fellow pain sufferer

I dont think I was nasty to you.At least I didnt wish pain on you.I have all the sympathy in the world for pain sufferers so if it works for you great !!

By the posts Id say personality has something to do with your dealing with fibro
I dont know how bad I suffer compared to some of you Some of you may have worse symptoms than me .I am also lucky my kids are all grown up so I have life easier ,dont have to deal with all that now ,I used to though and yes it was hard sometimes,

No it dosn't have something to do with me dealing with fibro, its you posting a public post saying that i'm trying to talk people who are not on pain meds into "taking addictive substances" and that is NOT what i said. I said if her pain is not managed i hope she finds relife and to maybe see about a pain managment specilaists. i was offering help and advice, drawing from my own experience and what has helped me.
I didn't tell her to take any pain medication, she wanted to take sevella and her doc wouldn't give it to her so i asked her to let me know when she found a new doc that would let her try that how it works out for her.
Asking if when we go in remission if we have to go to rehab is ridluouse. We get enough of this from our friends and family thinking we are junkies we don't need it from our own support group.