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Originally Posted by themawt71
definitely true.
i gotta friend who is now fucked on the pills from various surgery's and his step pop is in the same situation. just gotta be careful i guess.
good ol pitchfork...
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Yeah, careful indeed. In fact I believe there should be age limits and/or educational courses to accompany the long term prescribing of addictive medications. Maybe it sounds silly, but I truly believe that a lot of people get into situations like this without knowingly doing anything "wrong." There's a pretty common misconception even among some doctors that taking opioid based medications "as prescribed" and "for their prescribed use" can somehow protect people from addiction, but nothing could be further from the truth, and I actually would like doctors to start giving people a realistic description of what can and will happen to their bodies if they take the medications for any period longer than a couple of days (e.g. dependency, tolerance, mood and judgement impairments, etc.)
I myself have an ongoing prescription for pain medications that I was given after a car accident and several surgeries, and I have never taken more than the prescribed amount. I have insisted on taking the lowest dose possible and still, I have to be ever-vigilant about monitoring my pain levels realistically, because life is hard, euphoria feels nice, and I could decide at any moment to double up on my dose because of a pain "flare up" or a really bad day.
It can happen to anyone, and I don't think most people have the knowledge or maturity going in to understand what's at stake if they pursue that euphoria. Just taking the almost ridiculously low dose I do take makes my body dependent on the medications, so I've been working with a doctor to find other, safer, ways to help my pain issues.
In fact, I think one of the only reasons I'm able to self-monitor as I do is because in my first couple years of college, I did just about every drug under the sun, so I know what it feels like to go through the nasty end of this. And I value my life enough that I'm not willing to put it in jeopardy (again). But the only reason I see things that way is because I've kind of already been there.
Many people who find themselves with scripts for morphine, methadone, dilaudid, even Percocet and vicodin don't understand what they're getting into, and that's why I'd rather see these drugs prescribed in concert with multifaceted informational/educational workshops that are required for taking the medication for any period longer than 5 days.
It's just not worth it. I'm actually starting physical therapy again... even started taking yoga... just to see if that helps with my pain, and will allow me to stop taking this shit.
I think about this a lot, to be honest. It breaks my heart to think that opioids were involved in Prince's death. I've lost several friends to drugs, and it's just crushing. I didn't know Prince, but I don't want anyone to go through that kind of suffering.