Last edited Fri Mar 11, 2022, 06:41 PM - Edit history (7)
I am legally disabled and a chronic pain patient. Three of the six medications used to treat my condition cause dependency, one of them is an (admittedly much weaker than OxyContin) opioid.
There was no cure for my diagnosis. Pain is effectively the disease, and prescription painkillers are part of controlling the symptoms. I have been blessed to have a long line of professors begin and carry on my care at the university level, and then another local expert who handles it today.
I felt very safe with those professionals, and they were honest with me about the addiction factor. Their stance, which is true in my own case, is that dependency is needing to take the *same* properly prescribed amount daily or else you'll suffer withdrawals. This is true of many non-painkilling medications. People with legitimate chronic pain have long shown in medicine to rarely experience any sort of euphoria or "high" from their medications, just pain relief.
Addiction is different in that the patient is predisposed to craving more of the opioid or other habit-forming substance than is prescribed, and they take it beyond their physician's allowances. That's the key line one crosses to cease being dependent and instead become an addict. They, unlike those who are dependent and for reasons more complex than I can adequately explain, have something in them which is more receptive to getting high off of medications most with chronic pain do not. This is to no fault of their own, it's the brain chemistry or the genes, but I get to responsibility below.
Do I doubt that Purdue sold OxyContin like no tomorrow? Nope, not for a minute. I've spent a lot of years in doctors' offices and seen the pharmaceutical reps arrive to talk with doctors, wheeling a luggage case of documents and (probably) samples behind them.
However, I also know that what happens with me and dependency versus addiction is also partly my responsibility. It's my job to ensure that I take only what is prescribed. If I find that things have taken a wrong turn, it's my job to get help from my physician. If I fail to do that and I develop an all out addiction, part of the fault would (again, my opinion only) rest with me.
All I can say in conclusion is that opioids have saved me from committing suicide in my teens, and I am now 37 and still here. I've taken an opioid for that entire stretch of years and am in good health, never having felt the need to take more than was instructed. It's a bad pain day today, but it would be a whole lot worse if not for the help of these treatments. I hope this isn't used as further justification to witch hunt pain management medications and make things harder for patients with chronic, legitimate needs.
EDITS: I had some further thoughts and expanded with more information concerning those.
= new reply since forum marked as read