That is sad. I know for me, I was a walking zombie more or less. I don’t know what the answer is to the drug problems we have in America is. I do however wish there were more drug rehab places for those without insurance and can’t pay for rehab. If my ex-mother in law didn’t pay for my rehab, I don’t know where I…

Sorry, I didn’t mean to use blanketed statements. You are correct, people react differently to drugs. Some drugs labeled non-addictive can be very addicting to some, and drugs deemed highly addictive could be non-addictive to some. For most, they don’t set out to be addicts to whatever drug, it just happens and unless…

My sister’s the same way. Flexeril might as well be Tylenol for all it impacts my focus and cognition, but hydrocodone puts me OUT. My sister is the exact opposite.

For me, no they did not help with the pain. I’m not even sure what happened, it’s not like you get a noticeable high from them like you do narcotics, I just ended up taking more and more. The rehab place I went to didn’t even know how to treat me, I think I was on some anti-anxiety meds and something else. The first…

It really is an odd drug, I opted for them over narcotics because it was suppose to be non-addictive. It didn’t even help with the pain, and for me at least, I got severely addicted to them, I was given a 100 of them with refills and by the time I went to rehab, I was getting them refilled every two to three weeks and…

Interesting fact: immodium (loperamide) is actually an opiate, one that’s been engineered to cause one specific side effect (constipation) minus the high.

Best of luck to you as well!

I truly hate that this is the top comment here. There are many conditions, including mine, for which opioids are the only thing that touches the chronic pain. I don’t get ‘high’ from my meds - I get the gift of being more-or-less able to live a normal life! I would LOVE to not have to take opioids, but I am young,…

Yup, I couldn’t work if it wasn’t for the hightly demonised oxycondone that I’m on (amongst other things).

Yeah. I get that it is so very easy to write a prescription and be done with it, and opiates are over-prescribed as a result, but that being said, it’s not as simple as “just don’t take them.” When you have a chronic condition like RA, or in my case, I sustained serious burns that required multiple skin grafts, they…

When my father was in his last days, his oncologist refused to up his pain medication because, he said, “he might become addicted”.

OK, time to clear up the rampant opiate misinformation. One, fentanyl is nothing to fuck around with. It is active in microgram doses...that’s a millionth of a gram, folks. There are fentanyl derivatives that can be lethal in quantities you can barely even see. The “buzz” is also inferior to other opiates, thus the…

In my experience, the “high” you speak of gets soaked up by high level pain. I occasionally take narcotics for a chronic pain condition, and it makes things tolerable, not delightful.

I see a doctor who specializes in pain medicine who gave me the extended release. It’s better than getting short bursts of Percocet for rheumatoid flares because it manages the pain in a steady way without the high of a sudden boost in narcotics.

And you’re thankful that it’s there and you wouldn’t take more and you’re on top of every element and you accept that the pain won’t be gone but it might be manageable.

These weren’t severe injuries: a broken collarbone and a separated shoulder. I didn’t even like the effect of taking the whole dose: it made me dizzy and felt like I couldn’t think straight. Hanging out in a group where people tend to get injured a lot, my experience is that that’s more the norm than the exception —…

I appreciate your concern, but blanket statements about opioid usage are not helpful. I had a knee replacement 3 years ago. They gave me oxycontin for a few weeks to help with pain and vicodin after that. During that time I was able to do my physical therapy and get better so I wouldn’t need the meds. My ortho…

People experiencing chronic debilitating pain because doctors refuse to prescribe pain meds is also a problem. My husband has been taking Vicodin for 15 years....since he fell off a roof and broke his back. And it’s getting harder and harder for him to get anything to treat his pain. He probably goes through 30 pills…

You believe that people with chronic pain should just suck it up? Well I really hope you never have to deal with it. Opiates are sometimes the only thing that helps. Many people die every day from car accidents. Should we do away with all cars??

Same. The high from prescription pain pills is delightful, and there’s relatively little “hangover” (certainly not like there is with booze). I recently had abdominal surgery, and my doc gave me a scrip for #20 5/325 Percoset. At first I thought it was stingy of her and I sulked a little, but really I’m thankful. When…