Intellectually or professionally, I knew everything there was to know about the pain medication I was taking - that was simply part of my job. I knew it was addictive because we routinely refused the medication to people that we suspected were abusing it. I had even help catch a "counter-jumper" who tried to steal medication from our store. But when I finally found relief in it for the constant, unending pain I had lived for almost two years following a boating accident, it literally gave me a new lease on life. Every time I woke up in the morning without pain, it was just like being reborn - I almost wanted to celebrate just feeling normal again. Don't let anybody tell you taking pain medication doesn't feel good, it feels fantastic. And that's precisely the problem, because you trick yourself into thinking it will always be that way - just fantastic. But three and a half years later, and now using over ten times the dosage I had started with, not a day went by when I didn't wish I was dead. In forty-two months, a complete role-reversal had taken place. I had gone from having mastery over my pain, to becoming a slave to my pain medication. My medication had become my master. And there was nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing I wouldn't do for it. I lied, stole, shorted people on their medications, shoplifted, raided the medicine cabinets of my friends and family - it just creates a mindset so far removed from who you really are that you literally become someone else. And even when you have a clear enough head to realize you can't keep doing this, once withdrawal begins to creep in, you're back at it. It's the first thing you think about when you get up, and it's the last thing you think about before falling asleep. The worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life was becoming addicted to pain medication. The second worst thing was going through withdrawal from it. Just imagine the worst case of the flu you've ever had and multiple it times fifty. But tough as it is, you get over that. But I will never entirely get over what my addiction turned me into, because the truth is, I became an evil person." Bernard L. - a former pharmacist, currently in treatment for the second time (April 2007)
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Whatever It Takes - Wherever It Takes You Addicts from elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada have been known to break limbs, smash their teeth, or mutilate themselves in other ways in order to get prescriptions for their painkiller of choice. Such is the power of painkiller love and the stranglehold it puts on those that become addicted to them. It's not only becoming one of the most widespread forms of addiction, it's also becoming the number one reason for pharmacy robberies. Make no mistake, addiction to painkillers is one hell of a severe addiction to acquire and many people become addicted by no real fault of their own. Not Your "Run-Of-The-Mill" Junkie Oxycodone is an opioid class drug and when we talk about "abusers" of the opioid drugs, and as stated before, we're not usually talking about the typical people we stereotype as "addicts." On the contrary, people who become addicted to these types of drugs are often mainstream type citizens in the extreme - often leaders in their field of work and within their community. And as you will see, in many cases, the original intent for taking the drug in the first place was not to "party," it was to relieve legitimate physical pain. Pain In Perspective Being in physical pain profoundly affects our mental attitude. It's hard to think about pain when you're not actually experiencing it, but think back to when you've had a splitting headache, a mind numbing hangover, a bad toothache, or some other form of pain that just flattened you out. While you were experiencing that pain, you probably had a terrible attitude, you were probably impatient, negative, gloomy - in general you were mentally equipped to do nothing but moan and feel sorry for yourself. But then after a while, the pain goes away and so does that gloomy attitude. Suddenly the world looks nice again and everything seems possible again. Suddenly the preoccupation you had with how bad you felt is gone and you're able to function as normal again. However, suppose the pain was chronic and it was always there and never went away? Think about that toothache again and multiply the pain times a hundred. And imagine it wasn't a "phase," imagine that living with that level of pain had become your life. Imagine living life like that! So is it any wonder that when people like this find a pill they can take to lift that enormous burden of pain and feel pain-free and "normal," they might want to continue to feel that way? Well for many, this is how their journey into the nightmare of pain-killer addiction begins. They just want to feel physically better than they do, and when constant unending pain is relieved, it is an addictive experience to say the least. The Battle Over Pain Pills - Doctors & The DEA In the U.S., the battle over pain pills involves two sides and two diametrically opposed views on opium-based prescription drugs. The Drug Enforcement Administration and Justice Department see a real threat by the diversion of opium-based prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Dilaudid and others, to addicts and abusers. As a result, they have carried out investigations, made arrests and proceeded with prosecutions of hundreds of doctors on drug dealing charges. The contention is that these doctors have knowingly and willfully misused their authority to write prescriptions for narcotic painkillers. On the other side, both the doctors dispensing pain medications and their patients who receive them call the DEA’s approach and tactics as among other things, "heavy-handed, aggressive and completely ignorant of reality." They contend that despite the fact that they share the DEA's concern about drug diversions, and despite trying to cooperate with the DEA to develop proper and standardized protocols for dispensing pain medication, the DEA has remained completely closed-minded. As a result, many doctors have become so "gun-shy" about prescribing pain medication, they either under-prescribe or don't prescribe at all, with the legitimate sufferer of chronic pain being the ultimate loser. As one physician put it, “Many doctors won’t prescribe for pain now. And believe me, that’s not where we, as a society, want to be." A Paradox While pain is the number ailment that brings people to a doctor's office, it is the least understood condition of them all. There's no "litmus test" for pain, no meter or counter upon which it can measured - in short, it's an incredibly subjective and relative phenomenon. About the only "tool" the doctor has at their disposal to measure the pain is the patient's own words and inherently, that will involve honesty on the part of the patient and trust on the part of the physician. As a result of doctors intentionally abusing their authority, doctors who extend too much trust, and patients who intentionally mislead their doctors, several physicians and patients have been sentenced to prison for periods of up to twenty-five years. For more information about this topic, we suggest you visit The Pain Relief Network, a network of pain patients, family members of people in pain, physicians, attorneys, and activists that are working for reform in this area. They have an excellent site. Just click here: The Pain Relief Network
It's Not All About Pain (at least not physical pain) Oxycontin is also an increasingly popular party drug as well. Use is on a dramatic rise, particularly among teens. A national survey found an 80% jump in use among people over 12 years old in 2000, and the following year, there was a 140% increase. The absolute numbers are still small when compared to alcohol and other substances, but these surveys still tend to be helpful if for nothing else, to validate what your gut feeling is. What it tells us is that not only does a drug like Oxycontin improve how you feel physically, judging by the increasing number of kids taking it, it undoubtedly improves the way some kids feel mentally and psychologically. And that's what it's really all about because kids that love their reality don't tend to like to tamper with it. | 1 | 2 | 3 |Previous Pages<<< >>>Next Page (5)
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