Just how prevalent is this oxy addiction thing among our young adults in top privates?

Anonymous
We know two people addicted. One has been clean for over 3 years got his life back and has resumed law school, has a fiance and doing well. It is a inspiring story.

The other is doing OK stills struggles (in 3rd rehab) but committed to getting well and putting this behind him. That is the key in recovery, WANTING to do it for themselves not for the parents, family, society,etc....

Addiction is a disease, not a choice. I cannot get over some of the comments here, so uneducated on the subject.

Purdue Pharmaceutical and the family who makes billions off of preying upon peoples vulnerability (when in pain) and furthermore those predisposed to addiction should in perfect world not be allowed to exist. It is sickening.

It is a problem that is getting worse by the hour. It used to be "certain states" now its every state and virtually every county struggling with how to deal with an epidemic that is by most accounts impossible to get a hold of. So scary.

Why do the other countries not have this degree of addiction? Not even close in fact. We are a substance obsessed country is all I can guess and of course that with the access and disposable income of the group most affected I suppose is a lethal trifecta.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. So much sympathy now that the victims are white.

Drug addicts are drug addicts.


I have zero sympathy. Taking drugs is a conscious choice just as drinking us.


Seriously? Are you really that thick headed to not understand that addiction is a DISEASE? Just like cancer, Alzheimer's,asthma, arthritis...you have zero sympathy for those who suffer from those illnesses as well? Part of the problem in this conversation is the extreme ignorance, it is frightening. GO EDUCATE YOURSELF.


I am not PP, but if you never take an opiate I guarantee you won't become addicted. It was a choice at some point.


Wow you are really part of the problem. Sad. And let me guess you have never know anyone who is an addict or suffers from addiction of any kind, right? Ok, uh huh. Good luck to you.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think some people are predisposed to addiction while others aren't.

I had pain meds after 4 c-sections and was given an extra scrip for longer than usual each time. The pain meds didn't help at all. By the 4th section, I didn't even bother taking them since all they seemed to do was constipate me. I have friends on the other hand who went bananas after taking them post-delivery---stalking their doctors in an effort to get more. Those same friends are heavy drinkers and I believe they have more addictive personalities.

Since pain meds did literally nothing for me, I'm really curious how they provide any sort of high. I've had all of them before, and zippo. I was prescribed them for other issues and procedures in the past, and I always stopped taking them after 48 hours since they brought no relief.


I agree.


My experience is similar except the painkillers helped - but I felt no high just relief from pain.


Same here. I had morphine after surgery and while it killed the pain, it also made me nauseous and I was happy to be off it once the pain lessened a bit. All I noticed from Percocet was pain relief and constipation. I'm also someone who didn't really enjoy pot though. It made me annoyingly talkative the one time I tried it. I'm honestly kind of grateful I'm not attracted to it.

I do like to drink though, and was a pretty heavy drinker in my 20s and 30s. Now in my 40s the hangovers aren't worth it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:We know two people addicted. One has been clean for over 3 years got his life back and has resumed law school, has a fiance and doing well. It is a inspiring story.

The other is doing OK stills struggles (in 3rd rehab) but committed to getting well and putting this behind him. That is the key in recovery, WANTING to do it for themselves not for the parents, family, society,etc....

Addiction is a disease, not a choice. I cannot get over some of the comments here, so uneducated on the subject.

Purdue Pharmaceutical and the family who makes billions off of preying upon peoples vulnerability (when in pain) and furthermore those predisposed to addiction should in perfect world not be allowed to exist. It is sickening.

It is a problem that is getting worse by the hour. It used to be "certain states" now its every state and virtually every county struggling with how to deal with an epidemic that is by most accounts impossible to get a hold of. So scary.

Why do the other countries not have this degree of addiction? Not even close in fact. We are a substance obsessed country is all I can guess and of course that with the access and disposable income of the group most affected I suppose is a lethal trifecta.


Perhaps our profit-driven, multiplayer healthcare system is part of the problem. Doctors and hospitals benefit from happy patients, so they offer strong painkillers which end up getting people hooked. Once they're hooked, they go to different places to get pills. Is Canada having the same issue?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My relative was a sweet person with two young children who became addicted to heroin. It is a slippery slope. First alcohol and pot, then oxy, and lastly heroin. Died between treatment facilities. Our culture loves to be high on something. All drugs including alcohol and pot are just an escape from reality. But once you start down that road sometimes there is no going back. You physically and mentally get addicted. The people selling the stuff are all about making money off a culture that wants to be drunk or high. The alcohol and beverage industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the drug cartels, the pot growers- even the rehab industry are making money off humans that want to get drunk or high and at some point can't stop getting drunk or high. Addiction can happen to anyone because that is how humans brains respond to drugs and alcohol. I feel most empathy for people with chronic pain because there are few long term solutions. Humans are so messed up. Sometimes I will be watching tv or listening to the radio and there will be an advertisement for beer or vodka and a few minutes later there will be one for a rehab facility. Drugs and Alcohol are a zillion dollar industry that don't mind that the product they are selling kills people.


And yet many parents don't realize the example they set with their evening cocktail or wine and weekend trips to the beer farm. Your kids are watching. They quickly realize that adults use alcohol to relax or have fun.


Yes... substance abuse is substance abuse is substance abuse. Except... having a cocktail or wine at night isn't abuse. The tough reality is that many are able to enjoy alcohol and some drugs casually without developing dependencies and while others have different brain chemistry and struggle with addiction for life. It's certainly not fair. The scary thing about heroin/opiates (and meth while we're at it), much more than even cocaine, which felt like the wealthy party drug of choice among my generation, is how instantly and quickly it sucks people in. It's important to talk about with our kids and families. Saying that trying any drugs or alcohol as a teenager is equally bad is wrong and misleading. Yes, it's illegal and yes I get that you want your kid to just say no. But not being willing to acknowledge and have open discourse about how much more severe the immediate consequences of recreational pain killer use or trying heroin even one is a huge miss. People need to understand that in the world we live in now, these options and opportunities will most likely come up for your child sooner than you can imagine. It doesn't matter what high school, public or private. Have the conversation. Now.


Most people I know don't stop at one drink. Most have an evening ritual that starts at 6 and ends when they crash in bed. I know so many functional alcoholics. And even if you think that's debatable, the reality is that kids who grow up thinking that all adults drink every night are more likely to have issues down the road. Studies show that.

Parents should be teaching their kids how quickly you can die from drugs. All it takes is one bad hit. And they should explain how addictive it is.

Instead, we have parents smoking pot and drinking every night. It's really not shocking to see so many kids struggling with addiction.


Don't disagree with you on the functional alcoholic point. At all.

But I think that is different than what was written above about having "evening cocktail or wine or trip to the beer farm". Not sure what a. Err farm is... but I think there is something valuable in modeling positive, healthy consumption habits for your kids. We have ice cream as a special treat, but not a gallon every day. And I think the ability to not differentiate between a glass of wine with dinner, a visit to a brewery on a weekend and becoming addicted to heroin or dying after one use are very very different things. Painting them all with the same brush doesn't give our kids enough credit and also oversimplifies a very complex situation.

I would personally start growing weed in my backyard and handing it to my child by the first full if it meant they would be satiated and not think about trying heroin.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm really surprised by these stories of people getting 100 Percocet from a doc. I know it happens, but I've had chronic pain for years and it is an extremely arduous process to obtain any opiod. I've been to probably 15different neurologist and pain docs and over half of them will not prescribe opiods for people with chronic illness.

Ha! I don't believe you.


Well, it's true. Several practices even have signs in the lobby stating that they won't even discuss opiod or long term opiod use. Even Johns Hopkins has a similar policy, though I don't think they advertise it. I guess that's why nobody was in the waiting room last time I went! Lol
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am hearing of an uptick in this sort of thing. I think the best thing one can do is to actually be present in their kids lives. We live ina society where both parents are just too busy. I think it is better if one parent stays home when the kids are teens. This is the most crucial time. Working when the kids are little is fine if you have good help. They need you so much more as teens. If someone cannot be home then drive them to school and know all their friends and keep tabs on what they are doing. Be interested in their lives.


FWIW the multiple families that I know at our "big 3" with kids who have issues like this *all* have SAHMs. The families are nice, and it wasn't an issue of not having a parent around. Having a career does not preclude a parent from having a good relationship with a child. The parents who keep tabs on their kids are the ones who simply aren't naive about their own kids.


What about church and a strong religious background? Op, in all of the upper middle class families I know who have been affected by this (several, including 2 deaths) , that is a component of family life that was missing.
Anonymous
I had two spine surgeries in Jail an. And was taken off the pain pump after 24:hours. Otherwise, pain pills were given out on a strict timeline. I was given a prescription for pain upon release from hospital but never had prescription filled. It is a choice.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We know two people addicted. One has been clean for over 3 years got his life back and has resumed law school, has a fiance and doing well. It is a inspiring story.

The other is doing OK stills struggles (in 3rd rehab) but committed to getting well and putting this behind him. That is the key in recovery, WANTING to do it for themselves not for the parents, family, society,etc....

Addiction is a disease, not a choice. I cannot get over some of the comments here, so uneducated on the subject.

Purdue Pharmaceutical and the family who makes billions off of preying upon peoples vulnerability (when in pain) and furthermore those predisposed to addiction should in perfect world not be allowed to exist. It is sickening.

It is a problem that is getting worse by the hour. It used to be "certain states" now its every state and virtually every county struggling with how to deal with an epidemic that is by most accounts impossible to get a hold of. So scary.

Why do the other countries not have this degree of addiction? Not even close in fact. We are a substance obsessed country is all I can guess and of course that with the access and disposable income of the group most affected I suppose is a lethal trifecta.


Perhaps our profit-driven, multiplayer healthcare system is part of the problem. Doctors and hospitals benefit from happy patients, so they offer strong painkillers which end up getting people hooked. Once they're hooked, they go to different places to get pills. Is Canada having the same issue?


Never mind. Apparently they are. https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/investigations/a-killer-high-how-canada-got-addicted-tofentanyl/article29570025/?ref=https://www.theglobeandmail.com&service=mobile
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I had two spine surgeries in Jail an. And was taken off the pain pump after 24:hours. Otherwise, pain pills were given out on a strict timeline. I was given a prescription for pain upon release from hospital but never had prescription filled. It is a choice.


What is a choice? Having surgery? Feeling pain? Going to a hospital that strictly regulates pain control? Filling prescriptions? Being a person who understands that different people have different experiences?
Anonymous
I would appreciate hearing on this thread about any positive experiences with treatment. Where do the folks with resources send addicted teens for help?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. So much sympathy now that the victims are white.

Drug addicts are drug addicts.


I have zero sympathy. Taking drugs is a conscious choice just as drinking us.


Seriously? Are you really that thick headed to not understand that addiction is a DISEASE? Just like cancer, Alzheimer's,asthma, arthritis...you have zero sympathy for those who suffer from those illnesses as well? Part of the problem in this conversation is the extreme ignorance, it is frightening. GO EDUCATE YOURSELF.


I am not PP, but if you never take an opiate I guarantee you won't become addicted. It was a choice at some point.


Wow you are really part of the problem. Sad. And let me guess you have never know anyone who is an addict or suffers from addiction of any kind, right? Ok, uh huh. Good luck to you.


NP. I have a family member who fit the picture of a young man from a well-to-do, "perfect" family who recently died of this. He struggled with addiction, in and out of rehab for years before overdosing about 2 years ago at the age of 26.

Yes, it BECAME a disease but it did not START as a disease. I think it's people like YOU who are part of the problem, as you refuse to recognize that, at some point, virtually all of these people made a decision to take or keep taking these drugs.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am hearing of an uptick in this sort of thing. I think the best thing one can do is to actually be present in their kids lives. We live ina society where both parents are just too busy. I think it is better if one parent stays home when the kids are teens. This is the most crucial time. Working when the kids are little is fine if you have good help. They need you so much more as teens. If someone cannot be home then drive them to school and know all their friends and keep tabs on what they are doing. Be interested in their lives.


FWIW the multiple families that I know at our "big 3" with kids who have issues like this *all* have SAHMs. The families are nice, and it wasn't an issue of not having a parent around. Having a career does not preclude a parent from having a good relationship with a child. The parents who keep tabs on their kids are the ones who simply aren't naive about their own kids.


What about church and a strong religious background? Op, in all of the upper middle class families I know who have been affected by this (several, including 2 deaths) , that is a component of family life that was missing.


Nope, church doesn't seem to insulate the kids from harm. Two of the families are regular Catholic church-goes. One of the boys was an acolyte.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

NP. I have a family member who fit the picture of a young man from a well-to-do, "perfect" family who recently died of this. He struggled with addiction, in and out of rehab for years before overdosing about 2 years ago at the age of 26.

Yes, it BECAME a disease but it did not START as a disease. I think it's people like YOU who are part of the problem, as you refuse to recognize that, at some point, virtually all of these people made a decision to take or keep taking these drugs.


They're not mutually exclusive, you know. I don't think that very many people decide to become addicts when they decide to take a pain pill, any more than you decide to get in a car crash when you decide to get in a car. I
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am hearing of an uptick in this sort of thing. I think the best thing one can do is to actually be present in their kids lives. We live ina society where both parents are just too busy. I think it is better if one parent stays home when the kids are teens. This is the most crucial time. Working when the kids are little is fine if you have good help. They need you so much more as teens. If someone cannot be home then drive them to school and know all their friends and keep tabs on what they are doing. Be interested in their lives.


FWIW the multiple families that I know at our "big 3" with kids who have issues like this *all* have SAHMs. The families are nice, and it wasn't an issue of not having a parent around. Having a career does not preclude a parent from having a good relationship with a child. The parents who keep tabs on their kids are the ones who simply aren't naive about their own kids.


What about church and a strong religious background? Op, in all of the upper middle class families I know who have been affected by this (several, including 2 deaths) , that is a component of family life that was missing.


Nope, church doesn't seem to insulate the kids from harm. Two of the families are regular Catholic church-goes. One of the boys was an acolyte. [/quote

Now PP will have to look for a different reason for why it's the parents' fault...
post reply Forum Index » Off-Topic
Message Quick Reply
Go to: