Are you part of the Opioid Crisis? My family is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

The number of people here who seem to think that addiction has something to do with lack of morality (and "just saying no" to pain control when you are in pain) is astounding.

This isn't a forum for you to tell your story of championship high pain tolerance. If you don't have a propensity for addiction, you are not going to become an addict. So what if you refused morphine? I don't care. It's meaningless. Only 13% of the population is at risk.

I don't want to hear your story of depriving your NINE YEAR OLD of pain control. That's absolutely sick.

There is nothing about morality or lack or morality in addiction. It isn't a matter of saying no. Please go home, Nancy Reagan. And if you want to tell stories about your supreme pain tolerance, start another thread.

You are weird, op.

The reality is that oxy doesn't really alleviate pain more than Motrin. It doesn't.

And the reality is that most people who become addicted to pain meds do so because they are trying to medicate anxiety or some other mental health issue...or they are just prone to addiction (and are likely already big drinkers).

Sorry about your situation. Truly. But in hindsight, don't you wish your loved one had just cowboy'd up and stuck to Motrin? If you say no, then I'm curious why? And based on what you now know, would you let your tween or teen take opioids? If you say yes, then you've got issues.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read all of the responses, but I agree that this can happen to anyone.

I come from a family filled with addictions. Alcoholic grandparents, some alcoholic aunts and uncles, and a few cousins who dealt with both alcohol and drug addictions. They are all clean now, but I know they struggle daily.

A friend's daughter is currently struggling with opioid addiction. She definitely isn't what I originally assumed a heroin addict looked like.

My teens have been prescribed pain medications for various things - from dental surgery to muscle pain. I have been over the top vigilant about the access, consumption, disposal, etc of these medications. It scares me what may happen when I don't have that kind of control. It's so *easy* for a kid to pop a pain pill when they are suffering, and that can lead to a downward spiral.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why anyone would put even 1 opioid pill in their mouth and swallow it, knowing what know, is just beyond me.

All these teens with the sports injuries and the parents are just like “Here! Have some opioids!”

Because surgery hurts. Because chronic back pain hurts. Because chronic pain hurts. Hurts = laying in bed screaming and moaning, unable to work or take care of the house or anything.

There are other ways to deal with chronic pain, including yoga, meditation, PT, and acupuncture, some of which work for some people.

My c- section hurt like a motherclucker, but I didn't rely on anything stronger than Motrin. I won't let my kids take opioids. Motrin, and cowboy up.

Just because you are in pain doesn't mean you need pain meds.

I may be naive and/or obtuse, but I feel the same. I had 3 non medicated child births, and they all were excruciatingly painful but I powered through. I know there are all types of pain, but I feel that most people should be able to deal with pretty intense pain for a few days at least with OTC drugs. Or Rx for 1-2 days and then OTC. Except for perhaps end of life, why should the goal be complete pain removal? Pain is normal and it’s OK for people to suffer thru some of it.

Err, have you ever had major surgery? The one that lasts for hours and leaves you with all kind of holes in your body with multiple tubes sticking out of you when you wake up from anesthesia and wish you were dead because the agony is so bad? I hope you'll never have to find out, but take it from someone who's been there - your 'non medicated child births' are a joke, compared to what some people have to go through, and there is nothing 'normal' about post-operative pain.

Three c-sections. Google it. They cut your lower abdomen open.

My mom had a mastectomy and didn't take the opioids they were pushing on her. Major surgery, drainage tubes, etc. She also walked out of the hospital wearing stockings, heels, dress slacks, etc. in full hair and makeup (and she's not a kardashian).

I'm guessing most, if not all, of the posters on this forum don't need to Google c-sections

In any case, my mother had 2 c-sections & a double mastectomy. She says that while she was certainly in a good deal of pain after those surgeries (particularly the mastectomy), they were by far the least painful of the 6 surgeries she's had in her life.

It's great that you & your mother were able to weather your surgeries so well. You might want to stop using this as proof of your self-diagnosed superiority, however, given that there are many surgeries that are much more complex than most s-sections & mastectomies are & that typically far more difficult recovery periods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you don’t get to dictate what people post about. You invited comments on a topic & people are responding.

This.
To answer OP's question, my family is not part of the opidoid crisis. I don't know anyone who is. This is foreign to me.

[Anonymous]

I think it is fair to say that few loathe heroin as much as the parents of a child who has been addicted to it. I am one of these.

But, opiods certainly have their place in medicine. I truly hope that if I become a severe burn victim, my doctors will have the compassion to put me on dilaudid 24/7.

Likewise, if I get a painful type of cancer. Watching my mother die from cancer in a time when they were very stingy with opiods because of addiction fears--even for cancer patients who were clearly dying--was gut wrenching for a teenager to witness and beyond cruel for my mother to experience.

[Anonymous]

^^Oh, and yes, I have a high pain tolerance. Two natural child births and eschewed going under to have a large cyst aspirated, doing it with Motrin alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You would never know it. The media makes it sound like the Opioid Crisis is just heroin overdoses and doctors writing too many prescriptions.

But the Opioid Crisis is everywhere, is families, including upper class, middle class families, your friends, families like me. Professional, "high level" Ivy league elite, living in nice houses in suburbia.
My husband has been in treatment for three months for addiction to prescription opioids. He lost his job because of it -- a professional position.
This isn't something just happening in flyover country to people with bad teeth.
It's happening on your block, to your neighbors, to your friends.

And it can happen to anyone.

Wah, wah, wah.... you poor baby. You all could hardly give a shit when it was just a problem for people in flyover country. People with bad teeth. People addicted to "Hillbilly Heroin." I find it remarkably hard to give a shit about your poor professional husband now. Suck it up, buttercup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

The number of people here who seem to think that addiction has something to do with lack of morality (and "just saying no" to pain control when you are in pain) is astounding.

This isn't a forum for you to tell your story of championship high pain tolerance. If you don't have a propensity for addiction, you are not going to become an addict. So what if you refused morphine? I don't care. It's meaningless. Only 13% of the population is at risk.

I don't want to hear your story of depriving your NINE YEAR OLD of pain control. That's absolutely sick.

There is nothing about morality or lack or morality in addiction. It isn't a matter of saying no. Please go home, Nancy Reagan. And if you want to tell stories about your supreme pain tolerance, start another thread.

It is not lack of morality. It is weakness. If you are strong, you will recognize your addiction and stop. You will feel like you are dying and it will hurt, but you will stop. If you are weak, you keep taking the drugs, regardless of what it does to your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

The number of people here who seem to think that addiction has something to do with lack of morality (and "just saying no" to pain control when you are in pain) is astounding.

This isn't a forum for you to tell your story of championship high pain tolerance. If you don't have a propensity for addiction, you are not going to become an addict. So what if you refused morphine? I don't care. It's meaningless. Only 13% of the population is at risk.

I don't want to hear your story of depriving your NINE YEAR OLD of pain control. That's absolutely sick.

There is nothing about morality or lack or morality in addiction. It isn't a matter of saying no. Please go home, Nancy Reagan. And if you want to tell stories about your supreme pain tolerance, start another thread.

It is not lack of morality. It is weakness. If you are strong, you will recognize your addiction and stop. You will feel like you are dying and it will hurt, but you will stop. If you are weak, you keep taking the drugs, regardless of what it does to your family.

Don't agree. A few people can go through withdrawal on their own successfully. The reality is that it is so miserable most doing it on their own end up taking an opiate to end to.

However, it is perfectly possible to do at home detox with the support of a family member who can help ease the suffering in various ways and keep the addict from the very strong temptation to just say the hell with this, I'll get me some opiates.

I've done at home detox with a family member. It's tough but entirely doable. Families really need to step up to the plate here to get their loved ones through addiction. They are the first line of defense and I'd rather see money go to educating them--and family doctors--than down the black hole of sketchy pop up rehabs.

Doctors should be trained in medications they can give to family members to help ease the pain of an addict's withdrawal without going down the route of addictive suboxone.

[Anonymous]

My family too. So much easier to say its a opioid addict rather than a heroin addict.

[Anonymous]

I have a preppy, successful professional 30 something brother. Also, he is also a heroin addict and been in and out of rehab the past 20 years. Nobody, has any clue except my family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a preppy, successful professional 30 something brother. Also, he is also a heroin addict and been in and out of rehab the past 20 years. Nobody, has any clue except my family.

Get him into non-suboxone detox and onto a Vivtrol implant. It is actually ossible to use heroin once a week and avoid physical dependence. However, few are so disciplined and today with heroin being cut with fentanyl a heroin is much more dangerous than it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted this the other day, but I think anyone who is interested in the current crisis should read this. Big Pharma is part of the problem. What is Trump going to do about that?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

Thank you for recommending this article. I just finished it and learned so much. Everyone should read this to learn about the roots of the current crisis. It was/is truly nauseating. The Sackler family of Purdue Pharma has blood all over their hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

The number of people here who seem to think that addiction has something to do with lack of morality (and "just saying no" to pain control when you are in pain) is astounding.

This isn't a forum for you to tell your story of championship high pain tolerance. If you don't have a propensity for addiction, you are not going to become an addict. So what if you refused morphine? I don't care. It's meaningless. Only 13% of the population is at risk.

I don't want to hear your story of depriving your NINE YEAR OLD of pain control. That's absolutely sick.

There is nothing about morality or lack or morality in addiction. It isn't a matter of saying no. Please go home, Nancy Reagan. And if you want to tell stories about your supreme pain tolerance, start another thread.

It is not lack of morality. It is weakness. If you are strong, you will recognize your addiction and stop. You will feel like you are dying and it will hurt, but you will stop. If you are weak, you keep taking the drugs, regardless of what it does to your family.

This is a simplistic and naive view of addiction.

[Anonymous]

My best friend got huge supplies of Oxy while dying of cancer. She had addict neighbors coming to "help" who stole it from her.