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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Mother of former heroin addict here.  Completely normal, upper middle class family with lots of parental involvement.  Child went private but preferred public for HS.

Along our awful journey were two of her friends from a highly competitive private.  Different stories.  One worked in a dental office and had all too easy access to painkillers.  Another's mother died and father wasn't up to the task of raising a child alone.

Child's problem ironically was doctors not taking pain seriously.  Refused to refer to PT for over a year. When finally doctor relented and PT therapist recommended a TENS machine, doctor denied prescription.  That would be feeding into psychological problem according to him. (Turned out after scores of doctors child had autoimmune condition known to be painful; previous doctors even recommended against Advil when that actually would have helped.)

As no doctor was taking child seriously, child then took matters upon themselves.  Didn't even drink and was on to heroin. We are dealing here with under-developed frontal cortexes.  For God's sake, doctors need to really, really understand just how dangerous physical teen pain can be.  Be sympathetic.  Shut your mouth about "psychogenic" causes even if you think that is what it is.  Prescribe PT.  Give away TENS machines scripts for free.  And, honestly, would it really hurt to try to figure out if there actually could be a medical cause for the pain instead of dismissing it as unworthy of investigation?

Yes--I totally lay this at the feet of doctors (many, many of them) who were callous and way over-wedded to the idea that teen pain without injury must be psychological.  And they still refused to do a thing for it--like maybe just try to find out what was wrong and try to explain way off blood tests from even before drug use--once they knew about heroin because in the medical world once you do drugs that is your only problem and all medical complaints (and all psychological complaints like anxiety) get attributed to drug use.

We reached a point when there was no one in my child's corner but me.  Fortunately, that proved enough and I now have a successful child who is healthy as possible considering the significant medical issues.[/quote]

PP while I fortunately did not end up on painkillers, I can reallllllly identify with this. I had serious, chronic, unexplained pain as a teenager (...well, and still), and I cannot tell you how many different doctors I went to seeking answers - without fail and with varying degrees of rudeness, they all basically told me it was all in my head and I was being dramatic. They didn't take me seriously, at all. It sucked, and still mkes me really mad to think about [/quote]

Yes--but you are adult whose brain has developed enough to figure out that there are long-term consequences to certain actions that may not make things worse than your current state.

Imagine if you are a teen.  Is anyone surprised that a teen feeling pretty hopeless from unexplained pain for which there seems to be no hope and whom doctors have shut out turns to do it yourself drug therapy off the street?  So easy to forget they know way better than we how to connect with an illegal source.

Being undiagnosed is a special sort of hell I wouldn't wish on my own enemy.  Please keep persisting.  I went through scores of doctors with my child until I found one who diagnosed on the spot.  Not coincidentally, he was the first doctor to spend something more than two minutes on a physical exam.  [/quote]

...what? I specifically said I went through this experience as a teen [/quote]

Sorry--yes I see now that you did write that.  One difference now is that cheap opiates were probably far less available when you were teen so this may not have been a path you'd even have thought about it.  it is way too easy now.  We are in DC and my child who was largely house bound from the undiagnosed illness even found someone who would deliver (usually in the dead of night).

I hope my general point was not lost.  Just to be clear, I do not think doctors should be treating teen pain with opiates routinely and it should be reserved for occasions like post-surgery in a hospital.

But both doctors and parents need to take teen complaints of pain very seriously and treat it urgently through  non-medication approaches and, when called for, prescription strength non-opiate medications.  Blowing it off is an excellent way to the clear the path to opiate use for your child.  If your child's doctor won't take it seriously and aggressively address with all non-opiate solutions at hand, be persistent and find one who will.[/quote]

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