topic Re: question about addiction in Community Chat

question about addiction

georgia1923 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:01:19 GMT

Somewhere on a thread here, I read something about being addicted to painkillers. Can someone please explain the difference between addiction to painkillers and addiction to other types of pills?

I have a neighbor who is in her mid-fifties. She goes to a pain clinic run by a reputable anesthesiologist. Anyway, she is on painkillers.. I don't know if it's oxy or hydro whatever. She never appears to be loopy, her speech is never slurred but she takes these pills every day. She has for years.

On the other hand, I take thyroid pills. If I stop taking them, I guess my body will tell me? I have no idea what would happen since my thyroid was removed years ago, so I have to take the pills.

Would I be in the same position as she is? Am I addicted to my thyroid pills the same way she is addicted to the pills she takes? I realize she would go into withdrawal if she stoppped taking her pills and if I stopped taking my thyroid pills, wouldn't my body go into some type of withdrawal too?

Re: question about addiction

MyGirlsMom — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:12:21 GMT

Call your Doctor the first thing tomorrow morning and ask him or her any questions or concerns you have.

Re: question about addiction

esmeraldagooch — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:15:05 GMT

I have never used them, but know many who have and have been addicted. Some are cross addicted so I see them at AA and they tell their stories. I believe they start out taking them for the pain, but then have to take more and more to get the same affect. Then they either can't get the pills in the quality they want from the doctor so they steal or buy them, some change to hard drugs to fill in.

I don't think you have to do that with Thyroid medication.

Re: question about addiction

cherry — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:15:29 GMT

You need thyroid to make your body work like it's supposed to.

Re: question about addiction

cherry — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:18:09 GMT

This links tells you what will happen if you stop taking your meds

https://www.verywell.com/what-happens-when-you-dont-take-your-thyroid-meds-3233274

Re: question about addiction

Moonchilde — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:29:38 GMT

There is physical addiction and there is psychological addiction. A person could have one or the other, or both.

Generally, a medication that someone needs to take in order to maintain basic health - thyroid medication, heart medication, diabetes medication - is not connected to the concept of "addiction." If you stopped taking any of those, there would be serious consequences including death. "Addiction" doesn't figure in there.

Sleeping pills, anti-anxiety and pain medications are not generally fatal if stopped. They have an affect on the body that causes physical withdrawal symptoms that, while they may be very uncomfortable, are seldom fatal if you stop taking the medication. For *some* people, often those with an addictive personality or genetic predisposition, an original dose loses its "effectiveness" and the person starts to take more - but that's NOT a given or inevitable conclusion. Those with severe pain issues should be monitored by a physician, as with your neighbor; she's doing it the right way.

Psychological addiction? You *believe* you need something, and if you don't have it something bad will happen, but that may not be true. It's become a psychological crutch. One *could* be psychologically addicted to aspirin or antacids or cough drops - or a teddy bear.

Re: question about addiction

toria — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:35:32 GMT

In her later years, due to a varity of problems like severe arthritis and other pain issues, my mother took vicodin every day. It was under the car of a doctor. In the beginning she only took them occasionally but at her death, and she was almost 87, she was up to like 6 or 8 pills a day. She never was loopy, or had slurred speech and took them in a way that was consistent with the perscription. Was she addicted? I don't know. I'd say she was dependent on them and would have suffered if she did not have them. She tried other pain killes but for whatever reason they did not work for her. She also had injections in her back and knees to stop the chronic pain. If a person is not taking the pain killers consistent with a perscription, or mixes them with some thing else then its a problem.

Re: question about addiction

Noel7 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:40:51 GMT

I was given Oxy in the ER for a heart problem six months ago. While in the hospital, I sustained a very painful injury to my shoulder, so they continued the Oxy.

I have Lupus. Pain deprives many people of sleep, which is dangerous for me. The only way I could sleep for a couple of months was with pain killers. Luckily, I was diagnosed years ago as a non-addictive personality, and when the pain became manageable, I stopped the pills.

Not everyone becomes addicted, and I don't think it was due to my "personality," but rather my genetic makeup.

Re: question about addiction

sweetee2 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:41:13 GMT

There has been many times I have forgotten to take my thyroid medication with no side effects. Pain medication is a totally different ball of wax as they say. It would be both physical and mental side effects, even to the point of death. You don't want to try this without medical help.

Re: question about addiction

happycat — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:42:50 GMT

It has always interested me how some people get addicted to pain pills and some do not. I have a friend whose husband is addicted. He says he isn't, but when she has had surgery, or got an rx for pain meds, she says she has to hide them to keep him from taking them.

I have had to have several surgeries, and I have yet to meet a pain pill that I didn't make me sick as a dog or keep me up all night with insomnia.

Maybe its our body chemistry that makes us react differently to them?

Re: question about addiction

Moonchilde — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:42:59 GMT

@toria wrote:
In her later years, due to a varity of problems like severe arthritis and other pain issues, my mother took vicodin every day. It was under the car of a doctor. In the beginning she only took them occasionally but at her death, and she was almost 87, she was up to like 6 or 8 pills a day. She never was loopy, or had slurred speech and took them in a way that was consistent with the perscription. Was she addicted? I don't know. I'd say she was dependent on them and would have suffered if she did not have them. She tried other pain killes but for whatever reason they did not work for her. She also had injections in her back and knees to stop the chronic pain. If a person is not taking the pain killers consistent with a perscription, or mixes them with some thing else then its a problem.

My mother, who was 95 when she died, had been taking Vicodin for years for severe degenerative arthritis. She took probably 6 a day for 15 years. She never increased her dose - she knew she shouldn't, and she didn't. I have Rxs for anti-anxiety medications and for Vicodin. I have never changed, varied or increased what I've been prescribed, ever, over 40 years for one, 10 for the other. I take them when I need them and have no "tolerance" to them or need for an increased dose. I take them very intermittently - once or twice a week or once or twice a month, it varies. Not addicted.

Re: question about addiction

Moonchilde — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:46:45 GMT

@happycat wrote:
It has always interested me how some people get addicted to pain pills and some do not. I have a friend whose husband is addicted. He says he isn't, but when she has had surgery, or got an rx for pain meds, she says she has to hide them to keep him from taking them.
I have had to have several surgeries, and I have yet to meet a pain pill that I didn't make me sick as a dog or keep me up all night with insomnia.
Maybe its our body chemistry that makes us react differently to them?

That's the largest part of it, @happycat. Every "body" is different in its reactions. It's one of the first things a diabetic learns.

Re: question about addiction

Noel7 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:53:59 GMT

@happycat wrote:
It has always interested me how some people get addicted to pain pills and some do not. I have a friend whose husband is addicted. He says he isn't, but when she has had surgery, or got an rx for pain meds, she says she has to hide them to keep him from taking them.
I have had to have several surgeries, and I have yet to meet a pain pill that I didn't make me sick as a dog or keep me up all night with insomnia.
Maybe its our body chemistry that makes us react differently to them?

*****************

I definitely agree with you @happycat

They hand out pain pills like candy to lupus patients. I never found one I could tolerate until Oxycodone.

Re: question about addiction

Zhills — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:59:59 GMT

I've wondered about this fact myself. I have taken Vicodin and Lorcet after surgery and my auto accident and they only kill the pain. I never "felt good or high" on them.

However, when I was in the ER recently they gave me Morphine and I was loopy...I knew I was loopy...can't imagine anyone wanting to feel like that!

I always have pain pills left over because I don't like to take them and as soon as Tylenol will work, pain pills are gone.

I wouldn't call thyroid meds any more addicting than insulin for a diabetic. It is just necessary to help an organ function properly.

Re: question about addiction

Kachina624 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:56:17 GMT

I had a friend who recently moved back to her home state after going through a difficult divorce. I knew she had a problem with prescribed painkillers but had no idea what the extent was. Saturday of last week she was found dead on the floor in her home apparently of an accidental (?) overdose at age 62. Her friends and family are devastated. She was healthy, vibrant, fun, and full of life, and then she wasn't. I'll miss her so much.

Opioid drug abuse is a huge problem in this country.

Re: question about addiction

hckynut — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 02:58:06 GMT

@georgia1923

Are you in the same position as your neighbor? No. I take several prescription meds because I choose to live out my years being independent and enjoying life each day, and as long as I can.

I was on a blood thinner for 7 years. Why? Because I chose to avoid a 3rd round of PE(lung blood clots), which most do not get a chance a 2nd time. They clot, they die. Was I adficted? No, I chose more years of life.

More to my thinner story, but many hear have heard it several times already. Are you concerned about your neighbor/yourself, or both?

hckynut(john)

Re: question about addiction

spent2much — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 03:07:10 GMT

I've been on pain medication for 9 or 10 years due to a lower back problem. There is a difference between addiction and physical dependence (to control pain). They don't make me "high." They just take the edge off my pain and I am so thankful I finally found a pain doctor who treats me.

Re: question about addiction

libbyannE — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 03:11:30 GMT

Ask your doctor or pharmacist.

Re: question about addiction

house_cat — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 03:16:21 GMT

If a drug is prescribed to you and it is keeping you healthy, then you're not addicted to it, you're dependent on it.

If a drug is prescribed to you and it is no longer serving its healing purpose, and you need more and more of it to get the same effects, that's addiciton.

I'm certainly not a doctor, but that's the way I understand it.

Re: question about addiction

Katcat1 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 03:24:11 GMT

The only way you can get addicted to pills are the ones that have narcotics in them. Not everyone will get addicted. Today there are pain clinics that administer your pain pills and monitor how many you take and also prescribe only a certain amount of pill(s) per day. I really don't know what other pills you can get addicted to. It is best to talk to your doctor.