I just need to vent a bit...lol..all those RX sub abuse ads

[Dammit Janet]

I am so completely done with seeing them about every 20 minutes a day....even more at night during some shows. I am sick of Nancy Grace and The other talking heads on HLN who really dont know what the hell they are talking about ranting on about

THE NEW GREAT DEVIL....RX DRUG ABUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!


I hear on and on about why on earth should anyone "need" to take anything prescription like a narcotic for something so benign as "arthritis" as they all just snicker.

Let me slug them about 20 times in each knee, beat them in the back, poke them with hot burning coals just when they are about to fall asleep and see how well they do.

Oh and all of us folks who take prescription opiod pain pills can go onto a website that I cant remember and we can get help without ever leaving our homes! I am sure it costs, wont take insurance, and has a wonderful success rate. Yeah right.

I am right ticked off right now because Tony saw that ad last night and looked at me and said..oh look, maybe you should think about going into treatment for your drug addiction. I almost threw something at him. I told him...well only if you go for your addiction to water, spit, sugar, coffee, bread, meat, air, etc.

[MidwestMom]

Janet, I'm right there with you. Although I don't have chronic pain, I have anxiety disorder that gets so bad I can't leave the house. It has been FINE since I started taking clonazapan, which is a controlled substance (it's related to Valium). Sometimes it is medically necessary to take these "Horrible" drugs. I wish I didn't have to take anything at all, but I get bad side effects to any other sort of tranquilizer and I guess I'll just continue being an "addict" who takes .01 mg. of clonazapan a day.

[InsaneCdn]

I'd be more ticked at Tony than at the ads... you at least expect family to understand. I don't need pain meds now - but did as a teen, and only rx-level opiate-based ones made any difference. I didn't end up addicted to them, some do. Our whole family is on controlled scripts (stims) - and there are no workable substitutes for those, either.

Unless people have gone through it and found something that works for them, then IMO they don't have anything to say. What they did may not work for me, but at least it is a valid experience.

[hearts and roses]

Yeah, sister, I'm right there with you!!!

I also have to hear H tell me the same garbage about the meds I take. In particular, I take exception when he tells me I should stop taking my asthma meds. Oh really???? I'd like to see him gasping for air and then not take whatever drug is promised to help! Jerks!!!!!!!!!

[Dammit Janet]

What is it about people wanting to tell anyone who takes any type of medication that they shouldnt take it? I also take thyroid meds and cholesterol meds. He isnt happy about those either. The only ones he does like that I get are the ketoprofen which help him with his tooth aches and occasional joint pain. Yeah Im nice enough to share. That isnt a narcotic just a strong NSAID. He thinks that is a perfectly acceptable rx...lol. I stopped taking it this summer when my stomach started bothering me.

I would understand his concern if I consistently went into the pain clinic and asked them to increase my pain meds every single time but I dont. In fact, I turn them down and when they have tried different ones that are stronger, I have gone back to lower doses of an old reliable one. I have actually just reduced my break through meds. Of course, Tony doesnt think I should take the thyroid meds or the cholesterol meds either. I suppose I should just wait till I have a stroke or heart attack and my thyroid dies and all that goes with that. Sigh.

[Hound dog]

Pain med were developed and researched and made better, because they found that not only did they provide relief to a patient's suffering........by doing so they also enhanced healing. Philosophy about pain meds in recent years infuriates me. Their reasoning is flawed. And to make those who need them short term or long term be made to feel less due to that need or that that need is not real and they have ulterior motives is just plain wrong. Now days more people suffer unduly than ever before.

And addict will be an addict regardless of how they acquire the drug of choice. It seems for all the medical/mental health community preaching that you can't control the motives of another person hasn't sunk through their own heads yet, or the heads of those who regulate such things.

MIL reminded me of this, oddly enough. I watch her for years suffer in an ungodly excruciating amount of pain simply because she was terrified of becoming an addict. She wouldn't even take pain meds post surgery. It took many long involved talks with her that if someone who suffers severe chronic pain becomes "addicted" it doesn't much matter since they need the med to function properly. It's just like my lasix. (very strong water pill) Once I started taking it, well, I can't stop. One could say my body is "addicted" to the med or it's effect. Same with a ton of other meds used for a ton of different reasons.

I'll never forget the look on her face as it changed when the first dose of pain meds kicked in. I think she grew a few years younger, I know she looked it. Muscles relaxed for the first time in ages. Not to mention her quality of life increased.

[firehorsewoman]

I don't understand the current crusade against prescription pain relief either. I truly believe that it will hurt more people than it will save from potential addiction and/or death and that is a tragedy. It makes it harder for those that truly need the pain control to obtain it and then imposes a social stigma to boot. Great. Just what chronic pain sufferers need.

When most of the population is addicted to caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and/or junk food all of which are legal and all except caffeine kill more people than Rx drugs....how can this be a priority? How can this make any sense?

[hearts and roses]

And addict will be an addict regardless of how they acquire the drug of choice. It seems for all the medical/mental health community preaching that you can't control the motives of another person hasn't sunk through their own heads yet, or the heads of those who regulate such things..

That is so true! My sister was given massive pain killers following her recent back surgery...they cut through existing scar tissue that her old Frankenstein dr left in there when he removed her shattered discs and bone! Her son was freaking out on her about becoming addicted...those were HIS drugs of choice, not hers. I happened to arrive just as he was giving her hell for taking them, thank god, and he left. She was so upset because she knows that she would never become addicted to those. People can be very ignorant about such things, especially when they don't feel the pain themselves.

[witzend]

What is it about people wanting to tell anyone who takes any type of medication that they shouldnt take it?

I think that it makes people feel superior. It's not just medications, it's what we eat. It's how we spend our free time. It's what music we listen to. Which church do you go to? Or do you go at all? Dogs or cats or no pets? I think that people have been so belittled that they think that the only way that they can be good is to be better than someone else at something.

As for the time dedicated to it on hyped up programs like Nancy Grace? They bombard you with ads during programs that pretend to be news that tell you that it's an urgent problem that MUST BE DEALT WITH NOW OR WE'LL ALL DIE HORRIBLE DEATHS!

Rehab is the next big thing they're going to make into an "industrial complex". They've got the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, and next it will be the rehab industrial complex. It's like Glenn Beck telling everyone on his program that gold is the only safe commodity, then getting paid to do commercials selling gold at higher than market values.

It's all a crock. Grrr.... OK - who needs the soapbox?

[InsaneCdn]

I find this discussion interesting... partly because, here in Canada, the bigger focus is on finding the doctors who "over-prescribe", i.e. the pill-pushers. They also watch for individuals getting scripts for controlled substances from three or more doctors in one year (people "shopping the system"). Our family has been on a wide range of controlled substances (not pain meds, but similar focus) with zero intollerance from "the system"... but we have regular docs who prescribe this stuff, and the script changes are logical.

Intollerance from other people, though? You wouldn't believe (well ok, maybe you would) the people who are absolutely convinced that nobody in the whole world could possibly need these kinds of meds... if we just ate right, or used X or Y "herbal" instead...