Addiction to painkillers.

I didnt realized this was an old thread and when I saw 'Greatnan', I thought there was another lady called Greatnan, shouldn't be allowed!

Reported

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and please let me know.

Paracetamol and codeine is the only painkiller that will ameliorate my migraine headaches. They are not frequent and I have been using it for 40 years, taking a couple, or may be four roughly every month. I have never had the slightest inclination to take more than that. Nor have I noticed any of the 'advantageous' side effects. No painkiller of any kind I have ever taken has me feeling less anxious or happier, or change my mood in any way, so I have not been remotely inclined to use it as a mood changer.to do.

The problem is, while some people have become addicted to these tablets, in some case deliberately taking them for the buzz,the vast majority of users are like me, using them sparingly in limited circumstances for pain that does not respond to anything else and I would be loathe to take to the doctor a minor complaint that I have dealt with without problem for so long.

I have read many articles about medical marijuana and how it can help you in terms of chronic pain, bone injuries, eating disorder/anorexia, anxiety disorders and panic attacks, inflammation, even cancer and a lot more. Like this article about a marijuana strain from www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/sour-urkle/ . Cbd and thc are also new to me and I don't even smoke. If this is true I cant find any solid conclusive evidence that speaks to its efficacy.

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I remember being told that all medicaments are essentially poisons but we take the ones we do because the good affects outweigh the bad effects. The problem is when the balance between the two is equal, or they can do more harm than good.

When I was a Benefit Advisor I visited a lady in constant acute pain. She had three pain killers each stronger than the other, No 2 she took about once a week and gave her a day of mental blankness and fogginess. No 3 she took about once a month and it gave her 24 hours of nausea and diorrihea but when she took that painkiller her pain was so intense that the nausea etc was the better option.

Thank you, Iam64. I can well appreciate how annoying it must be to be told that medication that you simply have to take has risks - we are all agreed that all medication can have some side effects and for many people it is a matter of balancing the pros and cons.

Greatnan - glad you came back after retiring hurt and bewildered. My reading of this thread isn't as an argument, more a stream of information and discussion about the costs and benefits of prescription medication for those of us with chronic pain.
I feel defensive/cross when people tell me the medication I'm on is dangerous, and they have arthritis, but avoid oranges/tomatoes, etc, so they're fine. Chronic health problems, pain management, addiction, substance misuse - all potentially explosive issues to discuss and great to see we can do it.

I am very limited in what I do!
I can't walk more than about 20/30 yards with crutches!
BUT!
I still manage to function, and I hope serve a useful function in the community, by sitting on tribunals.

I have also, recently taken up a new hobby! Archery!

This is all done with minimal painkillers, as frankly, they don't do a lot for OA ad the article thatbags showed!

However! I STILL MAINTAIN a reasonable quality of life! ( and love my cruising)

that bags your pharmacist is obviously more reasonable than the one I saw on Thursday, she started by asking whether the p&c was for me and whether I was on other medication, to which the answer was yes and no, but the questioning went on, what was I taking them for, how often did I take them, when had I last taken them, the list was endless. I tried to give her a quick narrative of the circumstances in which I usually took them but she wasn't really interested just firing questions and barely giving me time to answer them. Yes, I got my pills but the grilling I went through was unacceptable. I will not be going back to that chemist

What annoyed me was, as posters have noted, the biggest danger of addiction is for those who are in constant pain and I know many are in real constant pain and who need to take it continuously but most of them will be getting their pain killers on prescription. And anyway most people just give the pharmacist the answer they want whether it is true or not,

I do feel very fortunate not to have to take regular painkillers. Sorry to those of you who need to

Good, I'll get to my book then.

I can't see any argument - just people stating their views.

Greatnan I don't think anyone is arguing with you - you posted the link, people are commenting on the problems of pain management.

I just want to send out sympathy and good wishes to all of you suffering such long term pain. Someone who doesn't know me recently described me as a 'housewife in poor health' but I don't consider myself to be in poor health at all, and certainly not in the same category as all of you. I am simply getting over a peculiar back problem!

What is a housewife? Not an expression I have heard in many years.

I am not sure what we are arguing about. I have seen the results of addiction to pain killers and simply wished to draw attention to the problem. I don't think that people who don't read the small print on instructions deserve to die! Not everybody has the same level of intelligence or education. I don't know anything more about the woman who died by taking too much Lemsip -perhaps she fell into one of your excepted groups.
I won't post anything further about abuse of prescribed drugs or over the counter drugs as it obviously makes people feel defensive. Perhaps if they had witnessed what I have had to witness they would understand why I feel strongly about it.
(Retires, hurt and bewildered!)

There's no excuse, if you can read, not to know that Lemsip contains paracetamol! It does tell you on the packet! And if you are prescribed a medication like co-codamol, it says on that packet not to take any other medicines containing paracetamol.

There is plenty of information on medicine packets and on the leaflets inside them if people want to take care. It really is their own fault if they don't read the basic stuff!

I am not, of course, talking about someone who cannot read at all (my MiL couldn't), or people who can't read whatever language the packet it written in.

That reminds me of some medicine my dad was prescribed. The instructions were in Portuguese! Between us with Latin, French, Spanish and Italian we managed, as a family, to work it out. Then my mum complained to the pharmacist. This was soon after generic medicines were used rather than trademarked brands.

flickety, you are probably too good to just say no to pharmacists who ask all those questions that they have to ask. I just say no when they ask if I take any other medication. End of problem.

The pharmacist who makes up my repeat prescriptions knows me and would advise me of possible problems if anything I was buying would not 'mix'. He also knows I'm sensible. He asks no questions. It's more likely for me to ask him questions.

I am humbled to hear all those of you who have to live with chronic pain. I have had severe neck pain for over three months now - not too sure how it started. Have been to doctor, chiropractor and for massage and all have helped temporarily but then it comes back. Have taken ibuprofen, paracetamol and cocodamol but none really takes it away. How on earth do you all cope and learn to live with pain. I am turning into a right miseryguts and that is only after three months. No wonder people with chronic pain become depressed and withdraw. So many of you seem to live with it without moaning and I am full of admiration.

May I make it quite clear that I am not saying people should not take painkillers,, merely that everybody should be aware of the risks. There are warnings on the packs you get from the pharmacist, but I don't know how many people read them. I am afraid it simply isn't true that 'everybody' knows they can be addictive and that an overdose can be fatal. One woman died because she didn't realise that Lemsip contained paracetamol and drank several sachets as well as taking the full allowed dosage of tablets.
The dispensing pharmacist has to ask a few questions - usually just if the tablets are for yourself and why you want them. I think that is quite reasonable when an overdose can be fatal -it hardly makes for a police state. In fact, I was disturbed to find that certain smaller pharmacies did not ask the required questions - the same kind of business that sells cigarettes to children.
The doling out of tranquilizers as if they were sweeties is another subject altogether - I hope it is less common now. Most GPs did not have the time to do the type of in-depth exploration of a patient's depression or anxiety.
I am not a great fan of the DM but in this case they are simply reporting the facts.

I think most people who get addicted acidentally have chronic pain, Flickety. When I went into hospital, I was asked how bad the pain was on a 1-10 scale. I said 8 because it wasn't as bad as childbirth, but I think falling off a ladder and fracturing your spine like my husband did would be 10.
5 months later it is probably 1 or 2 most of the time. If I think it's 4 or 5, I'll take a paracetamol at night to let me get to sleep.
One of my granddaughters once took a handful of paracetamol because of cyberbullying. Fortunately she told her dad, and was taken to hospital and had her stomach pumped before there was any liver damage. That's why they question people about paracetamol, which makes me wonder why I have 200 on repeat prescription.

For the last 30 years I have taken paracetamol and codeine when I get migraine. After working my way around the full gamut of alternatives that is the only painkiller combination or singly that worked.

I used to have about four or five migraines a year that knocked me out for three days, I now I have roughly one mild one a month that can generally be managed by taking 2 p&c only. I have never exceeded the recommended dose and although when I used to get my three day blinders I was tempted to take them more frequently than recommended I never did.

However I am beginning to get really fed up with the third degree interrogation I have to go through every time I buy a packet of paracetamol and codeine, which is not that often. I bought some last week and was interrogated by someone in a navy/black uniform who more or less demanded a full medical history a detailed account of every occasion when I ever had dared to take p&c. It was intimidating and unpleasant.

Yes, I know people are addicted to them but the majority of users are not and where is the line to be drawn? There are people who have become addicted to drinking water and have died or seriously damaged their health as a result. Are there to be health warnings above every tap and on every bottle of water. Why not just do what we do with cigarettes and have large print warnings on the back of the packs. saying something like: 'Exceeding the recommended dose can lead to addiction and death' or some such and then leave the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who have happily and safely taken over the counter painkillers occasionally for years to continue to do so.

Do we really want more and more people having to go to their doctor for prescriptions for the most minor ailments. Most mild migraine sufferers like me manage their migraines quite effectively without having to constantly visit the doctor and do not want this to change.

Galen, I have not had a graft yet.
The dissection was quite long, but I was sent home to my son's house and stayed with them for two months, doing nothing.
When I went back to have another CT on 1st July, I was told the dissection has almost closed up, but an aneurysm of 3.5 cm is there instead. Dissections happen on the inside of the aorta, aneurysms on the outside.

They have to check up on me every so often to find out if it has grown. They operate when it gets to 6cm.
I asked how I will know if it happens again, and was told I won't know. It will just happen like the first time, out of the blue, but next time I will have to tell the ambulance people to take me straight to the Freeman, missing out Durham Hospital.
A good website for anyone who knows anyone affected is
www.aorticdissection.co.uk