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

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
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.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
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

Well-Known Member
I'd be more ticked at Tony than at the ads... you at least expect family to understand. I don't need pain medications 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 in my opinion 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

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

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

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
What is it about people wanting to tell anyone who takes any type of medication that they shouldnt take it? I also take thyroid medications and cholesterol medications. 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 medications 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 medications. Of course, Tony doesnt think I should take the thyroid medications or the cholesterol medications 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

Nana's are Beautiful
Pain medication 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 medications 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.

mother in law 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 medications 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 medication 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 medication or it's effect. Same with a ton of other medications 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 medications 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.
 
F

firehorsewoman

Guest
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

Mind Reader
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

Well-Known Member
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

Well-Known Member
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 medications, 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 medications... if we just ate right, or used X or Y "herbal" instead...
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
When I recently had that issue with getting my antibiotics covered by insurance, I called my insurance company for help. I found out that I am in a "special watched group". I imagine that is because I get my medications from 3 doctors a month consistently.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
husband is on rx narcotics and has been for years. He actually takes less than rx'd on most days, but there are days the pain dictates more. Every so often, the VA decides theywant to try something else... And we all cringe. He doesn't sleep for a week, then goes back for a shot of toradol (sp?) and they give up.

This time, they refused the shot and added naproxen. Poor guy whimpers in his sleep. I'm about to go with him and pitch a fit.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
Yes, I met a woman a few weeks ago who told me that she knew of specialists at an Residential Treatment Center (RTC) who would give me a new diet and cure my Muscular Dystrophy. If only I'd known...

I find it difficult to not want to smack those people. She was about 87, though, so I nodded my head and said, "Hmmm. How interesting."
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I hear ya Witz.

I have my Mom telling me if I'd just drink cranberry juice by the gallon, and it's not just my mom but any medical/non medical person who has no clue about my kidney disease (um well one of them) telling me the same.....that all my issues will be solved. Well, now, if that were the case I think I'd have done it more than 20 yrs ago thankyouverymuch. But the calcium found in cranberries (aka cranberry juice) my body happens to turn into stones......and no way in hades am I going down that road again. I've been stone free since my early 20's.

Having a cardiologist question why I take Lasix twice a day as if I'm doing so for the fun of it, then arguing with me when I told her my nephrologist scripted them that way for a reason........Well, I just got up and walked out of her office. I mean, c'mon, seriously??? Since that dude didn't want to believe me either and tested me every which way but up, I think perhaps he might know wth he's doing. omg

That one killed me. Now who in their right minds would take one of the strongest water pills for the fun of it?? Cuz you like to run to the john 50 plus times a day?? (I don't, I'm lucky if I go twice WITH the darn things) sheesh!

It really irks me no end because if a person in pain lets that pain build and build because they are trying not to use the medication? Then they finally take it? It not only doesn't work as well, but it takes a much longer time to do so. Can't tell you how many patients have tried to hold out suffering for the horrid fear of addiction.......then gave in......then had to wait an additional hour or more for the medication to finally take effect. When if they'd just asked when they needed it the blood level of the medication wouldn't drop to nothing and would remain steady in the blood stream and they wouldn't suffer like that in between doses. And when they do that, they fuss at the nurse because it's not working fast enough. ugh
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Wow, cranberry juice will reverse renal failure? Then why isn't THAT being rx'd? Duh. Yes, it helps the average person with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)... AVERAGE being the key word there... I love the stuff, but my OB told me - the cocktail only and that in moderation. BLECH! I like straight cranberry juice. (More expensive but worth it, to my taste buds.)

I'm just glad I won't be preggers at Thanksgiving... My Mom makes a to-die-for cranberry-orange relish...

I'm one of those stubborn people, but mine has nothing to do with fear of addiction. Rather, I don't like the possible side effects. For instance the current wisdom for pain during pregnancy is acetominophen, not ibuprofen... When my friend Kristi was preggers with her twins, she was not allowed acetominophen and told to take ibuprofen. Well, I have this carpal tunnel issue and it hurts at night, right? But I don't want to take anything that will hurt BEAN! OB says acetominophen... Up to 1000 mg 3x a day or 1500 right before I go to sleep. EEK!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I want to SCREAM at all the people who think that those of us in chronic pain or with other chronic health issues are taking medications because we are addicted and should just stop taking them. I am on very strong medications. They are not working well but have not been increased in over 3 yrs. It has caused me to be nonfunctioning - the pain, not the medications. I try all sorts of other things in addition to medications, but I won't go off the medications. I don't give a darn who thinks I should - my DOCS think I am doing amazingly well. The new resident at the pain doctor's office told me if his knees sounded like mine he would get a motorized wheelchair and never put weight on them again - ever. The pain doctor just nodded. They couldn't believe I am still toughing it out with-o the synvisc or the replacements. I can't afford either. I haven't seen the stupid ads on tv, but my husband won't ever push me to that. I try to be polite to the first 3 per day. After that I either walk away or tell them how to lose weight, fix their makeup, or some other thing that is none of my business but makes them get away from me as fast as they can. I can be quite creative if you won't leave me alone - and then you wish you had left me alone. husband hates that, but he stopped fussing when he realized how much the comments bothered me and how rude many of them are.

Janet, ignore the idiots. YOU know that your docs have your best interests a heart.

When J was caught shoplifting she had some medications in her purse. I went ahead and said she must have picked them up after I dropped them, mostly because I didn't want to go into why she had rx's for those medications. They were her medications and her rx's, even the pain medications which were rx'd because she had sprained her ankle and twisted her knee the week before. But it is a huge deal to explain that a dr had rx'd those and as it was the store mgr went into how her nephew got addicted because his mom had pain medications blah blah blah. If that store mgr hurt the way my daughter does, she would have gone out to find heroin (trust me, I know her and have for years - when I was in high school she asked for my migraine medications more than a few times and I barely knew her - she would just ask me as I was buying something at the store as she was the cashier!).

I HATE the way pain medications have been so villified. In MANY countries they sell codeine OTC like ibuprofen and here you are treated like an addict if you take it more than occasionally. I think people in the US are unrealistically afraid of pain medications. The fact is that codeine and other opiates for pain have been used for centuries and have far fewer side effects than most medications that we take often, that many people think NOTHING of taking - medications like prozac and various NSAIDS.

Tony is an idiot on the subject of pain medications. My husband pushes me to NOT try to take a lower dose of medications and has at times pushed me to ask for more medications because it bothers him when he sees me crying from pain in my sleep or when he sees me going about doing whatever and I don't realize tears are rolling down my face from the pain. He would FAR prefer I take medications than hurt like that.

He saw what has happened the two times I ran out because either the rx didn't arrive when they mailed it or the medications were stolen from my purse. We don't like ER visits after withdrawal has set in. It is ugly and dangerous for me, given other health issues. Heck, the ER docs didn't even fuss over giving me a shot of medications via IV after they looked up my rx records on the Bureu of Narcotics database. Yes, docs CAN look up how many times you get controlled substances rx's filled. I have NEVER had more than the amt the pain doctor rx'd filled per month and it makes a difference in how they treat you. They put a note in my file at the hospital when I had the cellulitis that I was not drug seeking and did not push for more pain medications and I guess that helped too.

I just hate how my medical business is something many people think is there business. One part of the health issuesi sthat I get big skin sores if I get wet very often. I don't shower, I sponge bathe because showering more than 1-2 times a MONTH means my skin starts to come off. No one knows why, except maybe the vit D thing plays in (even then they don't know why or how), but EVERYONE who sees me makes a comment on how to treat them. One old man even told me to rub kerosene on them. No joke, he was dead serious, said three times a day rub kerosene in and it would heal them. Sorry, no, not trying that.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
You can't get codeine-based medications at all without an rx?
Here they are at least available behind-the-counter... controlled by the pharmacist, and they won't even acknowledge they have them in stock unless they know you, but for the milder versions, no rx necessary.
I would not have survived my teen years without them.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
IC... Uh, no. They're considered controlled substances... What you describe is like many of our cold medications...
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
There are always two sides to every story and while I understand prescription pain medications for chronic pain relief and would never put those people in the category of drug addicts, misuse of prescription drugs is a very serious problem. Just look at Scioto County in Southern Ohio for a classic example.

"The county has seen a 360 percent increase in accidental drug-overdose deaths and has the highest hepatitis C rate in Ohio, a rate that has nearly quadrupled in the past five years, thanks to junkies who are shooting up. If Scioto County is the center of prescription drug abuse in Ohio, then the eye of the hurricane is a stretch of Ohio River Road in Wheelersburg, a tiny burg a 15-minute drive outside the county seat of Portsmouth. On the unassuming retail stretch chock-full of gas stations, restaurants and hotels sits a trio of barely marked pain clinics a few minutes' drive from one another. "

Just google Scioto County and you will see the scope of the problem. There is no hiding the fact that treatment centers are seeing a huge increase in the number of clients who enter for misuse of prescription drugs. It was heartbreaking to hear the stories of people who began taking pain pills for a back ailment or who tried oxy at a party and became hooked and went on to street drugs.

I understand that pain, anxiety, depression medications are lifesavers. I also sit on the other side of this issue and see the tremendous toll it takes on people's lives. At the heart of it are unscupulous pain centers and doctors who prescribe these medications to patients who should not have them. I don't think anyone has an issue with patients who needs these drugs to manage real chronic pain or for a dying patient to ease their pain and suffering.

But sitting where I am, I will not stop talking about the misuse of these drugs and the potential for them to fall into the wrong hands. It's a discussion that is long overdue. Please don't shoot the messenger. Unless you walk in the shoes of a drug addict's family you don't understand the other side.

Nancy
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
Yes, 2 sides to this coin for sure. On one side these drugs to fabulous things for people to help them maintain a normalcy they could not without them. On the other side is the addict that is craving the drugs because it gets them high or makes them feel better than without, but do not need them for medical reasons.

There is certainly an issue with how doctors keep the drugs in the hands of the people that need them and out of the addicts reach. I do not have an answer. But, I hope people smarter than myself come up with something soon!
 
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