Hi Imrmom,
I live in a town where drug addiction is a HUGE problem and therefore I will ignore the ttone of your message and just answer as honestly as I can from my own experience. I'm 43 years old now and have been on and OFF narcotic pain killers since I started having knee surgeries at the age of 12. Demerol in hospital, released with T 3"s. At age 14 I was prescribed Demerol for at home due to severe monthly migraines. Of course my parents took care of my meds and I only used when needed. By the time I was 18 T3's were a regular part of my life due to the arthritic pain that would keep me awake all night. Sleeping pills were tried and were tooo sedating and I could not get up in the morning and by the way, they are also addictive and abused by many. When bowel disease hit me at 23 years old I was put on Demerol on a daily basis for a 3 yr period. When that didn't work anymore the specialists put me on Leritine( a type of morphine) for the next 3 years. After an extremely long and excruciating 6 years I discovered some herbal remedies that helped dramatically. As my symptoms improved I decreased my pain meds, on my own, with no withdrawals. I would go to my doctor each month and report that I had "x" number of pills left. Finally I requested a milder pain med. I was not well enough to go without pain meds, but I was definitely doing better and did not feel that I needed the strong stuff. A few years later a had a really severe fibro flare that attacked my lower back. It felt like I had a baseball in my spine that was on fire. I couldn't lie down, couldn't sit back on a chair, clothes hurt, EVERYTHING HURT! I paced constantly, and thought I would have a nervous breakdown from the pain. All I wanted to do was break things because I felt like I was going to explode! My doctor put me on long lasting morphine twice a day and regular morphine up to 3 times a day for breakthrough pain. This lasted for 5 months. I don't highly recommend it but as I had 3 little boys at home that needed taking care of I would do it again if needed. When the pain started to ease I took the meds straight to the doctor and told him I didn't need them anymore. Again, no withdrawals. I don't get high from my pain meds, I never have. It's hard to explain, or for others to understand but if you take the right amount of meds for the right amount of pain you don't get high. You actually are clearer because you are not distracted and befuddled from the pain. I have tried the other meds that you talk about, Neurontin,Lyrica, Cymbalta. For my own personal experience I have never been sooooo wrecked in my entire life as on nerontin or lyrica. I barely new my own name. I wasn't even up to the full dose yet and I was stumbling around the house, tripping, bumping into things, slurring. My heart was racing like I had run a marathon. It took weeks for me to come down off of these nasty drugs and I was sooo puzzled about the fact that sooo many doctors think they are better for you than pain meds that I did some research of my own. Well, I was very surprised to find out that many people are addicted and abusing these drugs to just for the high. Some of the stuff I read were from people admitting to buying it illegally just for the high. It's not prescribed for them it's just a great high as far as they are concerned. I hate being high, which is why I could not tolerate being on this crap. At least with my pain meds I can control how much I take. Just enough for the pain to be tolerable so that I can function. I can't function if I'm high. Cymbalta landed me in the ER in a full blown panic attack. Therefore I stopped it "cold turkey" and it was a horrible experience, much worse than any of the pain meds I've given back over the years. The bottom line is people can and do get addicted to all kinds of substances. If you are careful and use it only as needed you lessen your chances of developing a problem. If your stupid and abuse it, use it for the wrong reasons, etc. then you are GUARANTEED to develop a full blown addiction. Doesn't matter what the substance. Look at extremely obese people who eat to satisfy every emotion. Addiction is primarily a psychologichal problem where people use a substance to deal with life. Learn life skills and move on.

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

Very nasty thing to say .Does everyone here deserve to have fibro and suffer ? Is it Karma we have fibro ? I dont think so

I have Fibro and MCTD I have no idea what my future holds perhaps I may need opiods ,I have no idea ,I live one day at a time.
I will probably end up dying from complications from MCTD .

I would never ,ever wish either disease on my worst enemy. Or wish bad Karma on anyone ...

Thanks for your honesty carwrite I didnt mean to imply anyone was an addict,I also cant belive anyone would want to take any of the drugs just to get high.Ive luckily not had any side effects.

rayfoof I really have no idea what you are talking about,?????????
You giving advice to someone ??? Did I mention your name in my post ??? Savella dont even know what that is ?? I was talking in general terms I havent read your posts except here but Ill go look for them now

Woah! I don't think you quite understand how addiction works.

Have you ever thought that MAYBE some people need pain meds so they can do more of the normal things they may not be able to do? Needing pain meds is no different than needing insulin if you're diabetic or treating blood pressure with medications. Lyrica doesn't work for everyone, neither does Savella or any of those other drugs. For every article you pull up that says pain pills don't work I can find you some that say they do. It depends on who's funding the research and who's agenda you want to buy into.

It's great that you are fine without pain medications. It's great you are happy your doctors won't prescribe them to you. However, once size does not fit all and its extremely judgmental for you to determine who needs what based on your experiences alone. Not everyone with a script is an addict. I personally would never take Lyrica because of my personal reasons, however if it helps someone then by all means I want to make sure they have access to that drug! You can't go off of Lyrica or Cymbalta or Savella "cold turkey" either, in fact when I went off of Cymbalta it was pure hell. I wish I had never gone on it. Talk about dependence. I have never experienced a withdrawal from anything like Cymbalta!

When you say something like "please don't encourage anyone who is in pain to find a doctor to prescribe addicting drugs" you are basically telling people who are in pain that their pain isn't real. That's no better of an attitude than the attitudes of the doctors who claim FM isn't real. One of the best things about DS is that we can suggest to others different treatments and discuss what works for each of us individually. I would hope that we would be able to do this without judgment but I guess we'll never truly be free of that.

I'm in a remission and I've done it without Lyrica or pain pills - but you will not find me judging people who aren't making the same life style choices I am, especially since not everyone CAN make those choices. I exercise, eat vegan, and take a ton of vitamins and go to physical therapy. This works for me, but that doesn't mean it will work for you or for anyone else. It took lots of time for me to get to this remission and I still have to work on maintaining it. You will not find me judging people because I'm not in their shoes, plus I am fortunate enough to only have fibro and PTSD to deal with. There was a time I needed pain meds to get through the day and my heart goes out to those who need them like I did because I know how much pain they're in and I hope that their doctors understand their needs.

Melacholycat I am in their shoes I have Fibro for 20 years MCTD
20 years ago doctors didnt belive in fibro at all you suffered period !!!!! I got used to alot of pain. The docs basically thought we were deprseed or crazy moms.
I did you the word addict without thinking the word to me means someone with a pill dependance but yah it also conjours up street coke addicts and that is certainly not what I meant .

You dont think Ive had the stress and pressure for the last 20 years,people not understanding using me as a leaning posr cause Im short and embarrassing myself cause I yelp out in pain avoiding hugs ,cause it hurts and I dont want to have to explain myself.

oh pain is real and Im not telling anyone they dont have it . Nor am I judging anyone

Did you read all my posts or just the first one? Its you all who are judging ,sentence me to hang then or to get Karma as someone else has suggested

Imrmom~

This post is disturbing many here including yourself. I hope you can learn as much as we have that there is a difference between dependency and addiction!

The words of choice are what are disturbing everyone. I can see that.
Many here have tried to help explain all of this. I think at this point we should either let this all go and start over fresh or I'm sure this post will be reported to be closed.

As you know, stress of any form caused all of us more pain or tosses many of us into flares we don't want or need.

Lets just let it all go before someone hurts physically from it all.

i agree with wonderbaby lets let this go our bodies don't need this stress.

wow this is deep. I am a newbie and just reading alone in severe pain while taking Lyrica and Nucynta.. I am a 49 yr Black female who had a active life both physically and spiritually and was dg with fibro last Oct. Now I am sometimes crippled fibro fog and downright hurting. This is all new 2 me..I read any and everything you guys post and Thank U!. I love the many views on things. And yes i worry about addiction and dependency issues..but I can Live without my meds and Thank God I have health insurance right now.I pray for you..and u pray for me.

Real easy answer: Addicts take pain meds to get high. People in pain take it to relieve pain and do not "get" high.

It IS really easy I agree Fybrochik...

ALSO... You WILL learn trust me....IN TIME dont know how long- it may take awhile like it did me- to TRUELY understnad with NO judgement on others treatment plans and this isnt meant to be mean or offensive- but you just need to learn...

NO judgements ... what works for one doesnt work for another! If one eats horse shit three times a day and it WORKED ... I would eat it and I bet 95 percent of suffers...would EAT IT TOO... now people ( not singling you out) may think yuk gross how could ANYONE ?? BUT IF IT WORKS FOR SOMEONE then who the frickk cares!? You can understand others... like you say... thats great! Just one piece of real advice - people need to do what they have to do to live and get by. No one pays anyone elses bills ( ok now THIS IS directed at docs that dont help their suffering patients) NO one else... has to take care of their children and do what they have to do to live.
Doesnt matter if its pain meds or not. I have taken them - gone off them - taken them - and now seeing what it is like with out again...so I CAN give advice on BOTH sides of the matter- I have done both for years!
DO WHAT works ... and let people be and dont judge (again not directed at anyone - its a blanket statement) and let people do what they need to do to LIVE.

Personally ... I believe its against a person constitutional rights- to be arrested for pot - and opioid meds - what you do to YOUR own body is your OWN right - NO BODY elses business. Period. BTW I dont drink, do drugs, or smoke cigs- nothing - I dont do any drugsso Im not bias that way- but I believe if you want to - what ever damage it does to YOU- than so be it.

You asked a question and touched apon a very touchy subject and I bet you know now what the heck happens when this comes up LOL but now you know and its OK. I think one reason is because so many people are denied the narcotics that they NEED to function - even if they are "addictive" to some people - but THEY ruin that opportunity for others! You just dont know the correct terminology thats all. Thats easy... google.... tolerance/addiction - like others have said - two different things.

Anyway ... sorry for the hi jack. OH and you said


* "please dont encourage anyone who is in pain to find a doctor to prescribe addicting drugs ,Oh and by the way depedance is the same as addiction .Try going off your drugs cold turkey and see what happens you will soon find out you are addicted. "

Yes someone SHOULD encourage and HELP someone find a doc that will RX... WHATEVER they need to survive. PAIN IS the worst and docs USUALLY SUCK big time in this dept.

RE-mission is that like re-load, I liked the suggestion that you duck. Me too, me too I'm offended, no particular reason but just like the image. I won't point out what the State of Florida and so many have said, anyone that for any reason injests or injects or by any other means gets something into his or her body long enough for that body to accept that whatever as usual, be it air, water, insulin, apples, eggs, is by definition addicted to the whatever . Bod's used to "it" bod thinks less of it'self without 'it' voila' addected, but State of Florida goes on to say Addicted is not necessarily and Addict. smoke that
fA

Had to come back to this tho seriously thought of keeping my mouth shut.

So you honestly believe this can be done minus pain meds or weed or something to control the pain? Gee I got some swamp land for your jugemental self when we are done here.

I am an addict - Meth 24 years using 12 years clean. Got clean before I got the dx of this lovely disease. When it came time to start dispensing pain meds the neuro pulled no punches "It's gonna hurt and hurt like hell" He gave me the choice of what to use for pain. Now had I seriously been looking to get high I would have started with the morphine that was offered but I started with the vicodin because yeah I do have addiction issues,
Because my body reacts different to meds tho and my tolerance for narcotics is high the vicodin was short lived as was the neurontin so in the end the morphine had to happen. It didnt even cut the pain as much as it should have tho and the doctor suggested I go buy a bag of weed and see how that helped. He was right it helped tremendously.

I went thru 6 years of being on pain meds - vicodin to morphine and everything in between. Due to money issues and where I was living I had to come off of them (sometimes quickly) time and time again. No Thanks meaning if I had had a choice I wouldnt have opted for any of it. Was I addicted? Yes I was how could you not be after being left on them for so long . Did I choose to be? HELL NO. Last year I decided that the morphine wasn't cutting it and tossed all pain meds besides the weed. I have done not so bad but not gonna lie without the weed the morphine would have to happen.

I am on my way out of this life and know that here in a very short time morphine is going to have to come back into play. Not thrilled about it but it is what it is. I hope one day you don't hurt so bad that you have to eat your words but I doubt that happens. I am betting we all have enough people in our lives that sit in judgement of us I wonder why you felt the need to be added to that list.

BTW whether you are addicted or not if you HAVE to come off a narcotic that you have been on for any length of time quickly you are gonna suffer big time and if an addict can be brought down off of a narcotic slowly (the proper way) they should have no more issues with withdrawl than a non addict

Love & Peace
Raven

Hit send too soon. If you seriously don't think Lyrica has nasty withdrawls if one is forced to stop taking it without being weaned off of it. Think again

Imrmom,

I also find your post offensive. I believe it is in the wording of it. I understand you curiosity and the want for an open discussion, but I think that you did not choose our words wisely.

That being said, Even though I do not take "addicting" drugs or opiate pain meds, I will put in my two cents about your questions:
1.) I do not know anyone who has gone into remission, But I do not understand the question about Rehab. Are you asking about Rehab for pain meds or Rehab for something else?

I do not claim to be an expert on anything, but this is my understanding of our insane illness.
-If a person was to go into a remission.....(one that was truly a remission of the illness and not a management of pain).....then that person would simply be weaned off of their meds.

-While it is true that some of the members here take the same meds that a pleasure seeking drug user uses, the effect on the brain of the two groups of people are different. (I will try to explain as simply as I can)
----a person who is on pain meds for a temporary situation (surgery, back problems etc), MAY take those meds and become addicted to to the high they provide. There is a physical, measurable change in the pain receptors and the endorphine receptors in the brain, that requires the high. This person's normal natural brain chemicals that are released to combat pain, as small as a bee sting to a hammer on the hand, stop working because the meds take over.
---- A person who is on pain meds for a lifetime illness, MAY also become addicted but it is not for a high. The brain recognizes the consistency of the pain and the presence of the meds, BUT since the brain recognizes the physical pain, the endorphines do not stop working.
--------This is not to say that the ill person does not become addicted, but that the withdrawal is often less severe and that the brain does not cease to recognize pain and react.

2.) You are assuming that ALL people who are prescribed pain meds have had to go to many doctors to find these pain meds, implying that they behave like pleasure drug seekers. While this is true in a very small percentage of pain relief seekers, this is NOT the case with the vast majority.
-----The vast majority of the members of this group have tried every drug on the market, from vitamin supplements, Lyrica, Diet, Exercise, Lifestyle changes, and opiates. They try anything that their doctor prescribes in an effort to find relief.
------The vast majority of this group do not seek out back alley doctors.

3.) Addiction and dependence are two different things, as others have explained here. Also I think that I answered this above; the difference between the two is in how the brain processes it all.

And Finally, my two-cents on the post:
I believe that every person's pain is their own, and No one has the right to judge another. A bee sting may put one over the edge, while another person can slice a finger while working, wrap it in duct tape and go on working. Each person feels their own pain.

I believe that it is possible that you did not intend to be judgmental or condescending, but your words came off this way.

May I please suggest that you choose your words better in the future, if you do not intend to come off as offensive